Learning and Study Skills

1. For Mr. Kimball’s Chemistry, Physical Science Classes and Math Classes Learning and Study Skills

2. Organizing Your Study • Prioritize your time. (My Weekly Schedule) • Read chapter, annotating key words and phrases. • Outline main points using section headings and summary. • Familiarize yourself with pictures and tables (along with captions). • Study Power Points thoroughly-print out for notes and to use for lecture quizzes. • Work through example problems and do practice and further practiced problems. • Do homework. • Learn concepts well enough so that if I ask a similar question on a test in a different way, you can still get the answer. Don’t just memorize steps.

3. Reading the Textbook-Another Way 1. Preview the chapter by locating 5 diagrams or figures that catch your interest along with page # and caption and paraphrase each diagram and figure. 2. Choose at least 10 unfamiliar terms. Write definitions in your own words and provide a short example from personal experience or imagination to which that term may apply. 3. Write 5 questions that you predict will be on the test and write answer using what you read in the text. Alternate Methods Click Here

4. Learning Skills • Take responsibility for your education. • Haveconfidence in what you know and can do. • Do not procrastinate study. • Learn to listen and read precisely. • Make and use practice tests to prepare for tests. • Persistence. Never give up. • Learn to recognize and utilize patterns. • Learn to draw pictures and diagrams to aid in communication and understanding. • Learn to think sequentially or in steps. • Doneat work. • Learn to study and work in groups. • Try something new. • Get help if you need it. Habits of the Mind Barriers to College Education

5. Take Responsibility! Your education is what you make of it. You make the world you live in. What type of world do you want? Whatever the answer, only you can make it. Set goals of what you want to know and go and find it. Don’t blame others for things that happen in your life because it is your life of your making. Make it the best!

6. X Confidence • Learn to have confidence in yourself and what you know. • If you make a mistake, admit it, learn from it, correct it and move on. • Realize that if you miss one small part of a problem there is still part of the problem you still understand. • Come to class mentally prepared.

7. You can do anything!!!

8. Prcrastination“shortcuts are longcuts. . . longcuts are shortcuts” • If the pulley assembly is available pull both ropes and see which is easiest. Both gallon jugs have the same water in them. One is easier to raise than the other. • This is because, due to the pulley system, you pull more rope with one than the other. The force needed to lift the jugs is distributed over a longer distance that you pull the rope.

9. The same is true with studying. • If you distribute your efforts and study over more time, the learning will be easier and more thorough. • If you try to do too much in too little of time, studying and learning will become as heavy as the jug that was hard to lift. You will burn out, overload, and probably not succeed in the class.

10. Make up your mind now to study ahead of time. It is like waiting too long to pull the ripcord when parachuting. Waiting two weeks may be too late: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8vEcC0IxKA&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBZzX8OWrc • Or waiting until you are halfway across a stream to learn to swim.

11. Set aside time every day to study. Read the chapter carefully. Take and review your notes. Practice the problems in the chapter. Try the homework. Try to figure out as much as you can yourself. • Don’t rely on the help of others too much or you will grow weak and unable to solve problems yourself. • Start now preparing for the final.

12. Or hit the ground!!! Don’t drown!!! Just Do It !!!!!!

13. Precise Listening and ReadingMaking Mountains out of Molehills • Learn to listen to exactly what is being said and read exactly what is written. • Students often read into things that which is just are not there. • Most concepts are simple but are made difficult by plugged communication filters or inability to listen or read with precision. • Cornell Note Taking Format (Click Here)

14. Making Moutains out of Mole Hills • Do not read into what is written or said by the instructor things that just aren’t there. • Listen and read with precision! What is real. What you think is real! What you think the problem is! Real Problem

15. Listen/read exactly and hit the mark of understanding!!!

16. Practice • Nothing can be mastered without practice • Do all examples in each chapter and practice going through the given solution procedures. • Try problems with the answers at the end of the chapter or book and see if you get the right answer. • Practice 5-10 problems covering every concept until you have mastered the concept or technique.

17. Practice Tests • Find a list of problems that cover the material of the test and that have answers. • Work the problems like you are taking a test without looking up the answers. • Grade and correct your test and look up how to find the answers. • Repeat the test doing the only the ones you missed. • Repeat the process until you have correctly worked all of the problems

18. PersistenceThe wind beneath your wings. • A successful person is one that gets up one more time than they fall down. • Complete the class as much as possible if you think you may have to repeat it. The more you learn now the better you will do second time around. • "Become a Possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities—always see them, for they're always there." ~ Norman Vincent Peale

19. Patterns • Look for and memorize patterns. • Find a problem and solve it. • Then put in new numbers and see how the answer is affected. • Try changing one small part of the problem or rearrange the problem with new numbers until you understand all perspectives and aspects of the problem.

20. Look for patterns that repeat over and over again….

21. Pictures • Pictures and diagrams help us understand and communicate with ourselves and others. • You do not need to be an artist. • Visual and Audio communication is more effective than audio communication alone. • Write out all numbers and formulas and it will be easier to put the numbers in the correct place in the formulas. • Use Graphic Organizers. Click

22. Sequential Thinking • Learn to organize your study and thinking into sequential steps. • Read one sentence at a time until you understand it. Then, and only then, go on to the next sentence. • Break problems down into steps and look at and do only one step at a time.

23. Think in steps, like a staircase • Look for the first step • Link each step to the next using the question as a guide to end on Answer to Question First Step (generally not a conversion factor)

24. Neat Work • Write out all steps neatly with units attached to all numbers. • Neat and orderly work reflects an organized and intelligent mind. • Neat work makes checking your work easier. • Again shortcuts are longcuts and longcuts are shortcuts.

25. Groups • Most work in the real world is done in groups. • When you can explain a concept or teach another how to do a problem you are approaching understanding. • Two heads are always better than one. • Help your friend and he or she will help you. • Click here for example form.

26. Try Something NEW!! • You never learn anything until you try something new. • Don’t try something foolish. • Look for traits in others or their activities that you admire and try them on yourself.

27. Getting Help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfPrW9olbM&NR=1 • Get help if you need it. • The best source is the instructor. Attend study sessions. Arrange to meet with the instructor during office hours. • Work with others. Two heads are better than one. • Do not rely too much on others. If you do you, will grow weak and not learn how to solve problems yourself.