HOW TO STUDY
The following information is provided to help students deal with some of the little problems they may be facing in school. Read them, try to put some of these ideas into practice, it will greatly increase your grades and attitude toward school, family, friends and work.
HOW TO HANDLE
GROWNUPS
1. You can ignore them
2. You can quarrel with them
3. You can use their help, their wisdom, and their interest in you to help you succeed. That is the smartest thing that you could do.
1. Do your assignments responsibly. Don’t drag in like a lazy duck without getting your homework done.
2. Pay attention in class as if you are grownup. Every class has a few shy kids in it who are in the baby stage and think it’s cute to cut up.
3. Be friends with teachers. Let them know that you value their knowledge. Oh yes, and don’t be afraid to stop by their desk after class and ask them how you can do better in your studies.
4. Let your teacher and principal and president know that you value your school and that you want to help make it a better school. It takes a lot of administrative ability and ‘know how’ to run your school. Let them know you appreciate what they do.
TRY PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
WITH THE GROWNUPS IN YOUR LIFE!
HOW TO LISTEN
You have to learn to
listen and then listen to learn.
1. Sit in an attitude of listening. The body affects the mind. If your body slouches your mind slouches: Look interested: look directly at the teacher. And remember an uninteresting person may have just the information you need the most.
2. Listen with a purpose. Connect what you hear with what you already know. And think: How can I best use this information.
3. While at the supper table with your family tell three important things you heard in school that day.
4. Try to guess what the teacher is going to say next. Did you guess right? Did the teacher surprise you or did you surprise the teacher? Following this suggestion will keep your mind as alert as a bird dog on a hunt.
5. If your mind begins to wander or daydream try this: write down what you were thinking about and say to yourself “I better think about that later right now I need to listen to what is being said.”
6. When you ask questions listen to the answers. Your mind won’t drowse or go to sleep if you ask questions.
7. Pick out the best listener in your life and write a page in your notebook entitled “Why Joe or Sue is the best listener I know”.
WHAT KIND OF LISTENER ARE YOU? ARE YOU LEARNING TO LISTEN OR LISTENING TO LEARN?
HOW TO TAKE GOOD NOTES
You can’t take down everything. You have to
pick and choose. Use your judgment and
organize your thoughts this will enable you to take them faster; which leaves
you with more listening and thinking time. A good notebook simplifies study and
makes for better grades. We do forget things quickly. According to psychologist
we forget 50% or ½ of what we hear right after we hear it. You need to take
good notes even though the teacher may not ask you to.
There are two kinds of notes: Class Notes and Homework Notes
CLASS NOTES:
1. Read your lesson before you go to class. Then you know what’s in your book so you won’t waste time taking this information down.
2. Have your equipment when you come to class. Have your notebook open, clean paper, and your pencil sharpened before class begins.
3. Don’t try to write down everything that is said. You have to pick and choose. Pick out the main ideas and discard the trivial.
4. Put down notes in your own words ; not in the teachers. Put question marks in the margin of your paper by things you don’t understand. After class, ask the teacher about it.
5. Copy correctly and accurately all formulas and rules that the teacher puts on the board. Abbreviate your notes.
6. Develop a personal shorthand of your own. For example, use a ‘’t’’ or an ‘’&’’ for ‘’and’’. Abbreviate your notes.
7. Skip a line or two in case you need to add a note later on. Paper is cheap. Don’t crowd your words.
8. Be sure your notes are readable.
9. Put a star “«” or a note “Imp.” By the things the teacher stresses.
10. Include in your notes little memos to yourself.
11. Look at your notes after each class and be sure they are well organized. Do this while the class is still fresh in your mind. If you missed something ask a friend.
HOW TO MAKE NOTES ON YOUR HOMEWORK
1. Buy a pack of 3 x 5 inch cards for your homework notes. Get a box to keep them in. This information will be valuable to you on writing themes, reports, and speeches. Alphabetize these according to subjects because a permanent and lasting source of information for you.
2. When you read a newspaper or magazine, have a note card and pen nearby. When you listen to a televised report, newscast, or discussion – have your cards and pen nearby
3. Keep all your notes organized so you can find what you need quickly. Once you get in the habit of taking good notes you’ll find good idea’s everywhere. Your reports will be more interesting and colorful. All because you are a taker of good notes.
4. If you don’t get a 3 x 5 file box and cards you might use a large notebook.
5. Be sure to look over your notes after you have finished to make sure they are correct.
HOW TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK
The learning that will make your mind grow the most is your homework you do by yourself every night. If you miss your home work, it will show:
James Conant recommends 15 hours of homework per week, 3 hours per night. If you want your weekends free!
Try these: 1-2-3’s of Homework:
1. Have a regular place of study, where you won’t be distracted. And study at the same time, same place, and every night. This conditions your mind to study when you get there. You could study at the kitchen table if you do not have a room of your own.
2. Get your tools ready. Textbook, notebook, sharpened pencil, pen, paper, and erasers.
3. See that you have good light. Eye stain brings on nervous tension and fatigue.
4. Let fresh air in. It’s a free study aid.
5. Have a personal bookshelf.
6. Have a bulletin board.
7. Make a study schedule. Maybe you already study regularly at home, but you just need to organize it. Usually the best time to begin study is 45 minutes after supper. Discipline your mind to study when you are supposed to.
8. Have a comfortable chair—sit straight.
9. Have enough table space to lay your things out.
10. Take a break, STRETCH, and RELAX, and don’t hesitate about getting back to work.
11. Turn off radio and TV ---------------------------------------------------CONCENTRATE!
12. Practice reciting to yourself just the way you will in class the next day. Imagine yourself answering the teacher.
13. Most Important: Study your hardest subject last. Then you will go to sleep with it on your mind. Your subconscious can do wonders for you. It’s like a computer. It contains about 90% of all your thinking power: USE IT!
14. When your homework is done reward yourself---- and also take a shower and get things ready for an unhurried start to school----------------TOMORROW IS A BRAND NEW DAY.
HOW TO SPEAK BETTER
You use about 30,000 words each day. People judge you by the words you choose, and how your voice sounds. The knowledge of words has more to do with success than any other factor.
.
TRY THESE SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO SPEAK BETTER
1. Listen to a tape recording of your voice. Does it sound funny? Cultivate the listenable Voice.
2. Have enough words. Use the dictionary; always look up words you do not know.
3. Pronounce you words correctly.
4. Speak clearly. Do you mumble? Do you say “gimme” in stead of” give me”? Is your speech sharp, clean, and bright?
5. Get interested in the origins of words. Find out where words got their start.
6. Use old words in the new and fresh ways.
7. Spice up your talk with illustration. Try to talk so your listeners can draw a mental picture of it.
8. Look at the people to whom you are talking. They will pay more attention to what you are saying.
9. Be interested in what you are talking about.
10. Figure out what you want you listeners to do.
11. Keep your talk to the point.
If you will use these eleven suggestions, you will find that your speech will become more distinct, more beneficial, and more acceptable.
HOW TO GET BETTER MARKS ON EXAMS
How do you get ready for examinations? You need to be full of facts for exams; but not crammed facts-----------they’ll just vanish like fog. Do your thinking and learning day by day. Think of a test as an opportunity rather than a trap.
HOW
TO DO BETTER ON EXAMS:
è 1. Start into your studying in time to get ready. Study each day, listen to the teacher, take good notes, do your homework. Put hard facts on a card and stick them in your pocket. Then while you are waiting on your bus to come or before class starts, look at these cards. This is called overlearning. And it works: There is no substitute for any type of repetition.
è 2. Answer the questions at the end of each chapter in a book. This is a little test in itself.
è Think back over what the teacher stressed in class. That’s a clue to what is important.
è Study for review with classmates who are serious about learning. But just before the test, review by yourself because nobody knows your strengths and weaknesses better than yourself.
è Get a good night’s sleep. Go to bed with the hardest problem on your mind. Your subconscious mind will work on that hard problem while you are sleeping.
è 6.Take a cold shower and get yourself all waked up. You can’t afford to be fuzzy. You need to be alert.
è Eat a good breakfast: this is especially important an exam mornings. You need the energy you get from breakfast to get you through the exam.
è Be sure to take everything you need to the exam room . Sharp pencils, pen, clean paper.
THE
BEST WAY TO TACKLE THE TEST ITSELF
1. Read the whole test before you start.
2. Be clear, crystal clear, about directions. Many students do poorly because they don’t read or understand the directions on the test.
3. Answer the easy questions first, this will give you a feeling of accomplishment or success. Find out if you will be penalized for guessing at some of the answers.
4. Don’t use all the time writing about what you do know because you may have no time left to write about the others that you know less about.
5. Write so the teacher can read it. It does not take anymore time to write clearly.
6. Put your whole mind on what you are doing. Don’t daydream or doodle; but CONCENTRATE instead!
7. Above all, DON’T CHEAT!! You really never know what you can do as long as others are giving you the answers.
8. Don’t panic. Millions have stood exams and stood them well.
9. Relax and take a deep breath just before you go in to take an exam.
HOW TO READ MORE
Some of your subjects in school are more important than others. Reading is the most important of all. Two things are vital to reading:
1. Don’t let your eyes hop like a toad frog from word to word. First, learn to read whole phrases at a time, then whole sentences, and last, learn to read whole paragraphs at a time.
2. Try zigzagging down the page in sweeps from one side of the page to the other with about six movements to the page.
3. Try zipping your eyes right down the middle of the page. This may not make sense to you at first but if your eyes go along each line from left to right, you have to bring your eyes from the end of one line back to the beginning of the next. Soon your eyes will move down the middle and pull in the words from the sides. It’s like being able to look straight ahead but still being able to see things on the sides.
4. Do not frame words with your mouth. That slows you down. Let the words flow from your eyes straight to your brain. With out detouring by your mouth or your ear.
5. Stop after you read a section and see how much you remembered. It will improve with practice. ***However, after you have learned to double your reading speed, you still will want to read some things slowly. Your reading assignments in your textbooks should be read slowly. You could read fast articles in a newspaper.
HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU READ?
The students who win scholarships are those that read a lot. You will be behind the times if you do not begin reading now. Here are some tips some what to read:
1. Basic to all human knowledge are these three: The Bible, William Shakespeare’s writings, and Mythology. By reading these three you can understand and appreciate the others. Plays, art, literary works are all based on these three.
2. Read classic writings like: Pilgrim’s Progress; Huckleberry Finn, Alice in Wonderland, The Tales of Hans Christian Anderson.
3. Read old books as well as current best sellers.
4. Read daily newspapers and magazines. Remember a newspaper is the history of the world for a day.
5. What should you do if you do not like to read? Maybe you are not interested in books but certainly you are interested in something. For instance, if you would like to be a farmer read: Growth of the Soil or some of Robert Frost’s poems on farming.
6. Pick out the best half dozen people in history that you admire and read their autobiographies.
REMEMBER: THOSE WHO DO NOT READ HAVE LITTLE ADVANTAGE OVER THOSE WHO DO READ!
HOW TO WRITE CLEARLY
How are you at writing? This is a world of words. In this word world you won’t get far unless you can express your ideas clearly.
1-2-3’s OF WRITING MORE CLEARLY:
1. Decide first who you are writing for. A note to your little brother and a theme for a teacher will be written differently.
2. Choose a subject which interests you. You are interesting if the number of topics you are “alive on” is greater than the number you are “dead on.” You are “dead on” one’s you don’t know or care about.
3. Cut your subject down to size.
4. Outline your paper. What points do you want to make?
5. Try a different approach.
6. Punctuate correctly. Punctuation rules were not dreamed up to annoy you. Never make sentences over 17 words.
7. Be sure that each sentence says something. A Time sentence goes from nowhere to somewhere and sits down when it gets there.
8. Get your facts straight. Every man has the right to his own opinion, but no man has the right to be wrong in his facts.
9. Use expressive words.
10. Use anecdotes and illustrations. They warm up cold facts. Don’t write about mankind, write about a man. Personalize your writing. Put human interests in you stories.
11. Catch the reader’s interest quickly.
12. Write simply. Write to express, not to impress. Simple words keep fog out of your writing.
13. Give yourself plenty of time.
14. Finally, rewrite. First write to make it clear, and then rewrite it to make it clearer.
YOU CAN WRITE WELL----------------------------------START NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
STUDY HARD!!!!