Welcome to the Fall Semester

This is the first week of classes at my institution and we just finished a one-week Freshman Experience Program.  Here are some tips from my class for new and returning students:

• Develop positive study habits from Day One!  Review your notes after each class and then start to learn them.  Go to the Library to study instead of back to your room or apartment.
• Make sure you have the supplies you need.
• Buy the books you need.  If you cannot afford them, ask your professor for help.
• Carefully read the syllabus for each class.  Note the attendance policy, how your work will be evaluated, what is the workload and how is it spread out over the semester.
• Put all major exams, papers and assignments on a monthly calendar so that you can see the entire semester and when things are due.
• Find out what help is available if you need it - Supplemental Instruction, Peer Tutoring, etc.

The semester moves very quickly so it is important to start right away with positive, productive habits!  Enjoy!
*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at wordassociation.com, barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Maximizing Your Learning Efforts, Part 6 of 6

We have explored several components that go into successful learning:

• Seeing the overall organization
• Having a productive, positive attitude
• Using a variety of techniques and strategies
• Working with the material multiple times
• Spreading the learning over an extended period of time

In this last post of the series I want to reinforce two specific strategies:


1. Recitation - restating the information in your own words from memory.  This is an extremely powerful strategy.  In essence you are doing what you will be asked to do on an exam or on the job when your need the information.  Every time you recall the information you are strengthening that connection and making it easier to do so the next time. Plus, this is extremely easy and does not require extra materials.  After you review your lecture notes or a textbook reading, simply look away and recall what you have read.  If you cannot successfully do so, review or reread and try again.  To extend this strategy you can explain or teach the information to someone else.


2. Review the information as soon as possible after you receive it.  This particularly applies to lecture notes.  As soon as possible after class go over your notes and make them as clear as possible, make any corrections necessary and identify any questions or confusions.  The more time that passes before doing this the more you will forget and you will have to restart the learning process from the beginning.


Keep all of this information in mind as your semester begins and put them into action right away - during the first week of classes.  Enjoy the semester!
*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (of Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at wordassociation.com, barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Maximizing Your Learning Efforts, Part 5 of 6

There is one last piece to the learning puzzle and that is to space your learning out over time.  You can use a variety of strategies and repetition, but they need to be over an extended period of time - not just overnight before the exam.  This is because the information needs time to become well entrenched in your memory.
Some ways to do this are:

• Review your lecture notes as soon as possible after class while they are fresh in your mind.  Make any corrections or clarifications needed.  Be sure they are neat, clear and well organized.  If necessary, rewrite them.
• Get on a study schedule.  Go to the library after each class or, if you return to your room or home, get into the habit of going straight to your desk  and studying the day's information.
• Start to study about a week before an exam.  Divide the information into logical sections and do an in-depth review of each section (one per day) and review all the material every day.
• Take advantage of any learning opportunity - professor-led review sessions, Supplemental Instruction, tutoring, study groups, etc.  These are added sources of review with the benefit of interacting with the information in different ways.
• Be sure you are reading any assignments as the semester progresses.  Don't save them until right before the exam.
• Make study cards for vocabulary or important information and use them when you have a few empty minutes during the day.
• Review hard-to-learn or crucial information right before you go to sleep at night.

Variety, repetition and this last part, spacing your learning out over time, are all important and depend on each other to be successful!


The last blog in this series will pull out two strategies that are crucial to your learning success!
*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of  College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at wordassociation.com, barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Maximizing Your Learning Efforts, Part 4 of 6

It is hard to separate the various aspects that go into successful learning because they all work together, but in this blog post we are going to concentrate on repetition.   It seems pretty obvious that you have to go over something many times before you learn it. We seem to accept this in other areas of life (practicing a new golf swing, catching the baseball, cheerleading or dance movements) but often expect ourselves to learn information the first time we are exposed to it. 

One key is to combine the previous post – variety – with repetition.  Do different things with the information when you are studying.  It will not work to reread your notes multiple times.  You may memorize them in those exact words and in that exact order, but you will not understand or be able to work with the information when presented in a different format.

The next blog will be the final piece – spacing your learning out over time. 

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at wordassociation.com, barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.   Click on the upper right link.