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.

Maximizing Your Learning Efforts, Part 3 of 6

One thing I have noticed about many freshmen students is that they do not know exactly what to do when they are studying beyond rereading.  Many students on academic probation will tell me that they plan to"study more" or "study harder," but they don't know any concrete activities to implement.  The following study strategies involve concrete, hands-on activities that will help you retain and understand the material:

• Rewrite your notes.  I know this sounds boring, but it is very effective.  While you are doing this you can reorganize them, add more information and identify anything you do not understand.
• Turn your lecture notes and textbook material into a study guide.  Again, you are reorganizing and rethinking the information.  Types of study guides include study cards, outlines, questions and answers, concept maps, review charts, time lines and Venn Diagrams.
• When reading your textbooks take margin notes (annotation) and/or separate notes.
• Add sound such as reading your notes out loud or singing them to a beat.
• Form a study group and take turns explaining the information to each other.
• Use recitation - restating the information in our own words from memory.  This is a very important strategy as you are practicing what you will be expected to do on the exam.  If you try to do this and cannot, that means you do no know the information well enough.

All of these strategies involve concrete, hands-on interaction with the information.  The strategies are not limited to this list.  Be creative!
The next blog will discuss repetition and why it is also important to learning.
*****
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.

 

Maximize Your Learning Efforts, Part 2 of 6

One extremely important part of successful learning is your attitude - about the amount of effort and time required and about the material in general.

• When you sit down to study be sure you are mentally planning to learn as opposed to thinking about how soon your can be done.  The same idea goes for reading your assignments - be sure you intend to understand and remember as opposed to counting down the pages!
• If you are taking a class you are not interested in, don't constantly bemoan the fact of how much you do not like it or the professor.  Instead, focus on your goal and see the class as one step closer to reaching it.
• When you are struggling to learn a particular topic (and everyone struggles at some time during their academic career) be sure you see yourself as succeeding and talk to yourself about how your will persevere and succeed.  Of course, your learning actions have to match this positive attitude!
• When taking an exam, don't immediately think about how you will fail.  Focus on how well you prepared, what your know and how you will succeed.
• In general, see yourself as an educated, successful learner and then match your habits to that image.

Our mental self-talk is very powerful and can shape who we are, how we persevere and succeed.  Be positive and focus on what is working and your successes!
Next week Part 3 will look at the importance of using a variety of strategies and what some of those strategies are.
*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Maximize Your Learning Efforts - Part 1 or 6

Have you ever felt that you really "studied hard" but did not seem to know the information on the exam?  There are study strategies that are very effective and some that are a waste of your time.  For the next six weeks we will look at how to be the most effective when your are studying and learning.


Part 1 - See the Big Picture


Before you get to the details, you need to understand the overall organization of the material you are trying to learn and understand.  Some ways to do that are:
Textbooks

• Look at the Table of Contents to see what all will be covered and how it will be addressed.
• Look at a sample chapter to see how the author indicates the main and sub points and what extra help they provide.
• If the professor jumps around in the book, take a look at the unassigned chapters prior to what you are to read.  They may have some background knowledge you need.
• Before starting an assignment, look through the entire chapter to see what it is about and how the material is organized.

Lectures

• Read the syllabus to see the overview of the entire course.
• Read any assignments before class.
• Listen to signal words such as THREE points, FIVE causes, on the other hand, but, etc.
• Strive to understand how the current information fits with the previous lecture and professor's overall organization of the course.
• Make sure you can identify the main and sub points in your notes.  Highlight, underline, indent or use what ever strategy you chose, but make your notes clear.

Exams

• Quickly look through the entire exam to see the types of questions and the weight of each.  Don't spend too much time on a questions that is only worth a few points at the expense of a major question.

Next week we will consider the importance of your attitude 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 amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.