Developing Study Skills

Study skills are CRUCIAL! Good study skills help you remember important items, make good grades, and increase knowledge. Studying IS NOT just looking over your notes five minutes before a test; however, taking as little as fifteen minutes the night before to read, look at notes, or study flash cards could be the difference between a D- and a B+.

SQ3R method for effective reading SQ3R is a reading strategy formed from its letters: Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review! SQ3R will help you build a framework to understand your reading assignment.

SURVEY Before you read, Survey the chapter: the title, headings, and subheadings captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps review questions or teacher-made study guides introductory and concluding paragraphs summary

QUESTION Question while you are surveying: Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions Read questions at the end of the chapters or after each subheading Ask yourself, "What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject when it was assigned?" Ask yourself, "What do I already know about this subject?"

READ When you begin to Read: Look for answers to the questions you first raised Answer questions at the beginning or end of chapters or study guides Reread captions under pictures, graphs, etc. Note all the underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases Study graphic aids Reduce your speed for difficult passages Stop and reread parts which are not clear Read only a section at a time and recite after each section

RECITE Recite after you've read a section: Ask yourself questions about what you have just read, or summarize, in your own words, what you read Take notes from the text but write the information in your own words Underline or highlight important points you've just read Reciting: The more senses you use the more likely you are to remember what you read Triple strength learning: Seeing, saying, hearing Quadruple strength learning: Seeing , saying , hearing, writing!!!

REVIEW Review: an ongoing process Page through the text and/or your notebook to re-acquaint yourself with the important points. Cover the right hand column of your text/note-book and orally ask yourself the questions in the left hand margins. Orally recite or write the answers from memory. Develop mnemonic devices for material which need to be memorized. Make flash cards for those questions which give you difficulty.

Are you truly reading? In depth reading is used to gain deeper meaning and comprehension of a text. We are not just reading the words with our eyes, we are thinking about the text we are reading.

Skimming Skimming is what most high school students do when they are supposed to be reading. Skimming is when you quickly look over the words and process an idea of what the passage is about. Skimming is useful when you are doing something such as looking for the general summary of a newspaper article.

Scanning Scanning is looking over a passage for specific information. Scanning is useful when you are looking for dates, key terms, names, or other specific information. When might you use scanning is this class?

Mnemonic Devices A mnemonic device is not the newest iPhone on the market! It is a method for remembering a list of useful information. Creating a short word or sentence could help you remember a long list of items.

PEMDAS Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Mnemonic device for the order of operations in math Parentheses Exponents Multiplication Division Addition Subtraction

My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nachos This mnemonic device helps you remember the planets in our solar system. Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

Do you know any mnemonic devices?

TOWER and COP These are two mnemonic devices we use when writing.

Fact vs. Opinion This can be confusing at times. Opinions are not necessarily true. They often contain the words “feel, think, believe, always, or never.” Facts are not always true either. It was once a fact that the world was flat. It was once a fact that draining a person’s bad blood would cure them of a disease. It helps if you remember that a fact is something that can be proven or disproven by measuring, weighing, or investigating in some way.

Note-taking If you have noticed, I have made important terms bold, underlined, or italicized. It is not always imperative that you write everything in your notes (unless I tell you to.) When studying your notes before a test, highlighting terms will help plant them in your memory.

Graphs

Practice Go back through your notes and skim the information in two minutes. Scan the information for important terms. Highlight those terms.