U.S.A. = Use Some Acronyms

LEARNING and then RETAINING information in courses is essential to gaining useful facts and then succeeding on exams. Why do the methods we use work and how do they get planted in our brains and in our MEMORY?

One method I really found useful for my classes to learn information and memorize it so I could do well on tests, was creating ACRONYMS for things I had to learn and then memorize.

There are several steps in the process of information retention:
1. Memory aids
2. Background knowledge
3. Interest
4. Intention
5. Distribute practice
6. Associate
7. Organize
8. Select
9. Visualize
10. Rehearse
All these combined make up the 'formula' for keeping information in your head for good.

There are also seven essential ways to remember what we learn:
1. Select it (selective about your information)
2. Write it (note-taking, or index cards)
3. Recite it (study groups, reading aloud, taping yourself)
4. Relate it (new information relating to what you already know)
5. Imagine it (mentally visualize your information)
6. Practice it (review material in most helpful way)
7. Anticipate it (anticipating what you'll read or study)

I used ACRONYMS to memorize useful information in my classes. If I make up words to associate key terms in my courses, it is easier to memorize those terms and then learn them in my head. For example, I applied the acronym 'MNEMONIC DEVICE.'
Other mnemonic devices include: acronym sentences, rhymes, link system, method of Loci, and finally visualization.

I created acronyms for my Human Sexuality and my Psychology courses:



AND


This method helps me out a lot because I am a kinesthetic and visual learner. I gain my information through memorization and repetition by associating terms with silly phrases or sentences.
I recommend this method to anyone who wants to gain information and use the learned information in the future or for an exam.

All I had to do was USE study guides to organize my materials and notes in a good format so that I then later could attribute words to the terms in my courses. I thought this was a greatly helpful way to learn new information in organized ways so that I could memorize these details later in my future for my classes.

Save Time and Memorize Things Faster!

I personally hate when it is time to study and I have to really memorize a bunch of terms the test is going to be about. It's very time consuming and theres really no way to get around doing it if you want to get a good grade. A great way to learn informatoin faster is to studying and USE RHYMES

Using rhymes is a great way for me to study epescially because I am a visual and kinesthetic learner. I write down the terms and then create silly rhyes for them so it is easier to memorize the definitions. This always seems to be helpful for me even if the rhyme is stupidly absurd. I learn the material in an easy and faster way, and it pays off on tests. My PSC 121 class is based on a lot of terms that I need to memorize, about 25 in each chapter, and it pays off on the tests.

I would post examples of my rhymes on the blog to show you how I use this strategy but most my rhymes are usually too weird to post (I'm not like a sicko or anything....dont worry) but if you try this startegy for your next quiz or test you will understand what I mean and it will work for you!

Acronyms.

Have you ever used Acronyms?

Have you ever used Acronyms? They are a great way to remember things! If you haven’t tried it, you really should, because it works wonders!

How do you use it?

It is easy! Just make a list of the terms you need to remember, then underline or circle the first letter of each word. Try to arrange these into a word or something you will remember! This is easiest for memorizing things that there are many of and are only one word.

How did I use it?

I used this method in my CFS 388 and my Rel 120 class. This is a great method for me because I am a visual and aural learner. I put the terms in an order that makes the most sense, then I read them out loud until I fully memorized them. This is helpful for the visual aspect because I can picture the terms and the underlined letters in the future. It is also helpful because I read them out loud so this helps the aural aspect. I couldn’t figure out an actual word to fit with the letters I had underlined, so I made one up, but I certainly won’t forget it!

I'm a Poet and I Didn't Even Know it.

The brain is a powerful thing guys and today we will be discussing how to maximize on one of my favorite aspects of the brain.....MEMORY.
It's amazing how much information we can absorb but today we will be practicing a method that will help you absorb the information but also be able to recall it.

I used RHYMES to help me remember.
RHYMES:
Think about how you hear a commercial that has a rhyme or jingle and it just gets stuck in your head. That is what we are going for this week when using the Rhymes strategy.

For my ETS 145 class, there are a lot of terms that we need to know. They seem to be piling on top of one another and I feel overwhelmed. I am a kinesthetic learner so writing down rhymes really works for me. The process itself was really simple. All I had to do was make a little chart with the information I needed to know on one side and then on the other side I would put my rhyme. Simple enough, right?
Suddenly, words like Producerly texts made sense. My rhymes proved be more on the ridiculous side. I feel that it actually helps me remember them better if they are absurd.

I also used this strategy in my MAT 121 class. This might not work for most math classes but because stats has so many definitions and terms in it, this strategy proved to work well.
I took some of the terms I needed to remember like mean, binomial, distribution and I associated them with rhymes that I thought could stick in my brain and I would be able to make the connection when it came time for it.
Think about how you learned the alphabet. You learned it in a song that made it simpler to remember. If you can apply that to your class work, remembering things becomes a whole lot easier. I recommend this strategy for people who are creative because they rhymes should be fun too.

Having trouble memorizing hard to learn information? Use acronym sentences!

This easy to use strategy is a great tool to help you in any class that you need to memorize information in.

How you use it:

When you have information that you need to memorize, first list out all of the words you need to memorize (and the order if there is a specific order).

Then highlight the first letter of each word you have.

Next create a sentence to help you recollect the words by using the letters highlighted.

*remember the more unusual the sentence the easier it will be to remember*

How I used it:

I used this strategy in my HTW 318 and WGS 203 classes. For HTW I had to memorize the stages of addiction. I first listed out all of my words: expiriment, misuse, abuse, dependency. I highlighted the first letter of each of the words to help me look at them better. I then thought about a sentence that would help me recall these words in this order during the exam. I cam up with the sentence Everyone Must Always Dance . Now during the exam when a question is asked about the stages of addiction I will have this sentence prepared and be able to recall my words.

I did this as well for my WGS 203 class. The words I were trying to memorize were poverty, population, advances, decline. This time there was no specific order. I again highlighted the first letter and created my sentence. I came up with Dance At Peoples Place. Although this is a weird sentence it will stick with me and help me remember these phrases.

Who this works for:

This is a great strategy for visual and kinesthetic learners. I am a kinesthetic learner so this tool helps me visualize and do something with my material. Making acronym sentence can only help one in memorizing hard to learn information and it is a fun and easy memorization strategy!

For A Good Start---Use T.A.R.T.

For this week's tech assignment, I chose to use the T.A.R.T. technique to assess my reading challenges. This method compiles four stages to tackle any reading assignment.
Number 1: Terms:
Tells us to read the terms and definitions and then create abbreviations for the terms you expect your teacher to test you about later on an exam.
Number 2: Attend:
We now attend our lectures and reread the lecture notes after taking them.
Number 3: Read:
Now, actually read the chapter for clarification about the lecture as a whole.
Number 4: Test:
Finally, create test questions that you anticipate to be on the exams and answer the questions to the best of your ability.

I chose to apply this strategy to two classes in which I readily use my textbook:
Human Sexuality and Religion

T
For Human Sexuality, I was assigned a full chapter to read for a week. I went to the beginning of the chapter and reviewed each of the terms found in the front of the chapter, so that way I would know what exactly to look for and what I would expect to see. The most major terms I saw, I jotted down and tried to memorize before I began to take on the reading.

A
Human Sexuality only meets once a week, so I attended my lecture and listened very attentively, taking rigorous notes for the entire three hour length of the class. The next day after I got home from lecture and sleep, I immediately reviewed my notes, and even typed them up onto my laptop before going for the textbook reading notes.

R
Finally, I challenged the thing I avoided the most: reading the actual textbook chapter. I panned through the entire thing, reading every section in the chapter and jotting down what I thought would be important and relevant to my exam.

T
I then, to conclude this process, created test questions directly from my lecture and textbook notes. These were questions that I anticipated my teacher to ask on the exam. I then answered them with help from the textbook, online, peers, and even my teacher.

I similarly applied these four steps to my Religion 101 class.
I read the terms in BOLD in the entire chapter before reading the full assignment as a whole.
Then, I attended my class (which wasn't really a lecture) and took very detailed notes about my class presentations and teacher's power points. Then, right after class, I went back to my dorm and read all my detailed notes from class.
The next day, I began to read the textbook for class. I skimmed through quickly and jotted down major, key importances in each chapter.
Lastly, I created large essay test questions for my final exam for each religion and specific terms and facts about each religion.

The challenging part of this assignment for me was actually doing the reading. I am a Kinesthetic learner, and I much prefer a hands-on explanation, rather than something that I have to visually process, focus on, and remember.
It is also very hard for me to create all these notes accumulatively in an organized manner; I did my best, shown in the images all the way above.


The T.A.R.T. method worked well for me once I actually memorized and well understood the steps. It was tedious at first to make sure I was doing the right thing on schedule every time I started to read a new assignment...
Eventually though, I found this method very helpful and I will hopefully use it many times in the future.

Be Smart, Use TART!!!

For this week, I am going to talk about my experience using TART. Because tart is well suited for lecture classes I used TART in my ECN 203 and PSC 121 classes. Both class are very definition based, and the course closely follows the textbook so this reading strategy has been extremely helpful.

For the first T - Terms, I reviewed all the key terms listed for the chapter before lecture, because they are going to be important and frequently used. For the second letter A - Attend, I would attend lecture. Because I was comfortable with the terms used often in lecture, class was much better for me. for the third letter R - Read, I completed the assigned reading. Because I already became familiar with the terms and learned about the material in lecture, the reading in the chapter also became easier. I didn't find myself re-reading things because I didn't understand it. And for the last T - Test, I made test questions, which is a great way to study for the tests.

In regards to Vars, I am a Reading / Writing learner. Reading the terms before lecture definitely helped me to learn the material. Same with reading the textbook Creating test questions helped me stdy for the test becasue I was writing the test questions and answers and then re-reading them while studying.

READING!!

TART

This week for the reading stratgey I put all of the strategies we have learned together in TART. This is a great strategy
for term heavy classes like my HTW 318 and WGS 203 classes. It's is also great
for kinethetic learners like me because it allows you go get active while taking
and studying your notes. This is also a great strategy for visual learners.

All that you need to do for this is T, go over your terms before class from the
textbook and pull out terms you find important. In both of these two classes I
pulled out the bold words in the chapter for this week and wrote them out. Next
I did A which was simply attending class. In class took careful notes and
highlighted the words I read about before. Next was R which was reading after
class. This is where I used my plug in note strategy and re read my notes while
typing them into the computer. The next step is T which is test and what I did
to review for the tests I had in these classes was make test questions and study
guides. These were great to use because it gave me an idea of questions that
might be on the test.

When studying for a class it is hard to determine which terms are more important than others and sometimes hard to memorize them. TART helps with this because it sets the words aside to start with and then lets you pay attention and listen for them in class. If there was a term that I had not read in the textbook ahead of time, when I heard it in class it would not be of importance to me. With TART I know which terms are highlighted in the textbook as well.

This strategy can really work in any class. In a math class you can do this with
equations or a science or history class with key words.

I think this is a great method to help you take notes and review and study
before tests.

Ready, Go, Done is the New Ready, Set, Go.

Welcome Back everyone. I hope you all had a great Spring Break.
Well the break is over and now we are back to the grind. The grind of homework assiangments and books we have to read.
WELL I AM HERE TO HELP...with the reading part.
That's right, this week's topic is READING strategies.

READY, GO, DONE.
The emphasis on this strategy is on creating study aids that merge material covered in class with the assigned readings. This really helps if you are in a lecture dependent class. People who are Multi-modal (specialize in more than one type of learning) will find this strategy very helpful.

Here is How i Did it.
My Religion 206 class has a lot of readings to complete and my Human Sexuality class is heavily lecture-focused. I used this strategy because I am multi modular and wanted to break down my reading in a way that would be easy for me. I followed these steps:

Ready- First I surveyed the chapter by reading the introduction, objectives, summary, list of terms and all of the headings/subheadings in my human sexuality class.
For my Religion class, the book I had to read is more of a book than a text book so I had to do it a little differently. I read the titles of the sections I had to read and quickly scanned the pages for italics
- This shouldn't take to long. It is helpful because you are making yourself familiar with the material you have to read before you have to read it.

Go- Now, I read the chapter. As I did, I tried to relate what I was reading with whatever the professors had been talking about or what I he/she will be talking about in the near future. USE THE SYLLABUS to see what your future classes will be talking about because I did and it helped alot. Then I highlighted sections I thought to be important.

Done- I created a study guide of the things I read so I could easily remember the things I had gone over. I used my highlighted sections to narrow down what I had to put on my study guide. I made a few questions about the sections I read. There wasn't too much reading due so my study guide was somewhat simple.

I thought this really helped get the information I needed in a way that worked for me. It may work for you too so try it out!!

TART!

TART!

How Do You Use It?

First I read the Terms and definitions that I find in the chapter. I set aside the terms I think are important and will be useful in the future. Then I Attend class and take notes as usual, but I pay particular attention to the words I set aside. Then I read my notes from class to make sure I fully understand what we went over. Next I Read the chapter to expand the knowledge I already have. I find this to be helpful because I need some previous knowledge, then it becomes easier to associate new thoughts with topics I already understand. The final step is creating Test questions. I made questions I thought may be on the next exam and answered them so that I can continue studying them.

How Did I Use It?

I used this strategy in my Human Sexuality class and my Religion 120 class. I made a list of the terms that were bold in my Human Sexuality book, then I simply went to class and listened for them. I read over the concepts in the book that expanded on what I heard in my lecture. I made some exam prep questions that I thought would be helpful for the terms I learned. I also used this method in my Religion 120 class, although there were not as many definitions there. I used this method for both and have found that it covers all areas of learning, for example I am an aural learner and a visual learning and I found this method to be very effective.

By the time that the class was over, I was able to define all of the terms I found previously and did so, to help with future studying. I don’t know if defining the words was necessarily a requirement for this method, but I found it to be helpful and a good visual way to study in the future. I found when we used the

Plug In Notes last week, that tying things out really helps me since I am a visual learning. Since I found this to be helpful, I typed up this weeks notes as well.

Plug it in, plug it i

BEFORE


AFTER






NOTE TAKING
A daunting task indeed. The professor flied through the class lecture and you're stuck there, chasing to catch up on what your teacher is saying as quickly as you can.
HOW DO WE KEEP UP? HOW DO WE TAKE EFFECTIVE NOTES ON TIME?

I'm going to teach you a step by step method to ace the horrors to taking notes.
This strategy is called Plug-In-Notes!

Firstly, we're going to assume you're taking notes on your laptop. Be it, PC or Mac, you can go into Microsoft Word and format your page for a "Notebook" layout. This presentation represents a real, paper notebook. You can now add pictures, audio recordings, or visual graphs, in this nice format of a note-taking page.

Next, TAKE YOUR NOTES. Be as aware as possible to take down specific notes and important key terms your teacher announces. For example, in my Human Sexuality Study Guide I made for this Plug-In-Notes strategy, I took note of the key terms and specific concepts my teacher announced in his lecture.

After Class, you're going to group together certain topics that are alike and create a graphic organizer.
This is so you're notes are in a nice, visual, clear format so you can easily review them at a later point in time.

Being a visual learner, this strategy really helped me visualize all my notes I took from class. This is not done yet though; the most important and beneficial part comes next.

Lastly, we're going to create a series of 5 to 10 questions that we answer in our lecture notes. This is similar to the Jeopardy Note-Taking strategy. This time, we have plugged in notes and created questions that we can anticipate our teacher will ask on an exam. They are logically based off of class notes, common sense, and the class syllabi.

This strategy really helped me out for my Human Sexuality class. The lecture is very fast-paced and, while there are powerpoint presentations, they usually just include pictures; the teacher talks to tell us about the content on the visual slides. In class, I would take notes as quickly as I could, but making a study guide in an orderly manner like I did above using the PLUG-IN-NOTES strategy really helped me to see everything spread out in an organized manner. My before and after pictures really show how different my original notes and my Plug-In notes are.

I recommend this strategy to any student who has trouble anticipating test questions and organizing their notes in a nice, clear, visual manner so they can later review them after class.

PLUG IN NOTES!

Hello all, recently I have tried a new strategy when it comes to note taking, and it using plug in notes. Usually, when I take notes, I take them and never look at them until studying for the test. And sometimes when I look back at them i can't even read or understand them! Say good bye to this when you use plug in notes.

Plug in notes is a document on microsoft word that basically looks like your notebook. It has many features where you can create many different shapes and other things if you need to, not just writing words, because we all know note-taking is not strictly word based.

After a day of taking notes, you can take your notes and put them neatly on the computer. This not only allows you to review your notes after each day but also makes it easier to study them! This is extremely helpful for studying for tests and succeeding on them!

In regards to Vars, I am a reading/writing learner, so obviously reading my notes and writing them again in a different format is a great way for me to learn. I hope plug in notes can work for you too!

Plug-In-Notes!

Plug-In-Notes

Do you have a tendency to have sloppy notes? Do you have put them away after class and never look at them again?

I do the same thing! Try Plug in Notes, they really can help!

How do I use Plug In Notes?

I, for the first time, tried using Plug In Notes. I opened my Microsoft Word on my computer and went into the “Notebook” option. In this section there are many options for how you would like to do your own notes to make them easier for you to read! This is such an easy option. It keeps your notes very easy to read and printable. Since I am a aural and visual learner this has really helped me to see my ntoes clearly without the annoying sloppyness of my notebook. I did not like typing my notes previously because it made it harder to draw pictures and do all of the things I can do while writing. BUT DON’T WORRY! There is a drawing option so that it is easy to draw any type of diagram or picture to make your notes perfect for your own use. There is also an option to record to the lecture for the aural learners, which I hope to use in the future. At the bottom of this document, one should write a few questions on a chart that you think may be on the exam, and then answer them in another column.

How has this helped me?

I tried this method in Human Sexuality. I can’t handle having messy notes! I have terrible handwriting. I wont read my sloppy notes or I will waste my time re-writing them. I have also found that it is easier and faster to type these notes, rather than hand-writing them. It is also easy to click anywhere on the page, especially after writing the notes from the slides, and add details that are spoken in class. Since I am an aural and visual learner, it is important for me to see my notes and charts clearly. I also found that there is an option in the program to record the professor speaking. I usually just read my notes out loud, but this method will be wonderful to use in the future. It is also great to be able to go back and draw charts. I drew a chart while using this document, it is a little sloppy because the mouse is hard to move, but it certainly does the trick and I found it to be very helpful. This program makes it easier to go back and review my notes after class. I review my notes in order to make review questions for myself to answer in a chart. It really helps me when I look over the notes afterward to get a better understanding and if any of the questions I have predicted are on the exam, I am certain I will get it right!

Plug-In Your Computer, Cause We're Taking Notes.

It's that time of the week again, and this week we will be discussing NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES!!
WOOOHOOO!
You are probably wondering why I am so excited. Well it's because I am a Kinesthetic learner and taking notes is my most efficient way to suck in information. So join me on this blog journey as I let you in on a great note taking strategy....Plug-In Notes.
Plug in notes are easy to do guys, you just have put some time into it.
HOW TO:
-First things first, we are using a computer for this one. If you dont take notes in your computer, try writing your notes and then typing them afterward.
- Open up Microsoft Word and select the Notebook Layout.- you may want to explore around this layout a little before class so you know what you are doing when it comes time to take notes.
- this layout makes note taking easy and this layout offers great things that you could add to your notes like audio posts, charts and smart graphics.

- WHILE IN CLASS- take notes like usual however, try to utilize the tools given in the notebook layout.
- in this part of the note taking, format is not important, just take notes.

AFTER CLASS- Reread your notes.
- Now comes the "Plug-in" part.....
-Pick out information that is grouped together in one way or another and make a Graphic organizer.
-Graphic organizers are really great for the visual learners out there because they are normally neat and appealing to the eyes.
Hold on guys, we are not done yet.
LET"S MAKE SOME TEST QUESTIONS...
- making test questions really helps, as we saw last week, because it helps you prepare yourself on what you could be tested on and at the same time you are reviewing information.
- So, after you "Plug-In", come up with 5-10 questions.

MY EXPERIENCE:
I used the plug-in technique for my MAT 121 class. The class has a lot of information so being able to take notes and then make those notes even better really helped with my understanding of the material.
Taking notes went normally during class and afterward I went back up to my dorm room and opened up the notes I took. I reread them and I made a graphic organizer (see below) to help me remember some of the rules of probability my teacher was giving us.
Then, at the very end of it all, I came up with 5 questions that would prepare me for the test.

Note Taking Necessities

The Power of Plug-In-Notes

This week we learned the important strategy of note taking skills. Note taking strategies are so important because without good notes you do not have the information needed to do well in the class. Before learning this strategy I took all of my notes by hand and would write everything on the board. After class I would put my notebook away and not look at the class notes until studying for the test.

After reading through all the note taking suggestions I knew that Plug-In-Notes were the perfect thing for me. I am a kinesthetic learner so in class I like to take notes in a notebook so while I write them I learn them, so I decided that after class re-writing them on the Microsoft Word notebook view would be a good way to review and make my notes neater. This tool can also work for visual learners or audio learners because looking at the notes typed out neatly is good for a visual learner or there is a tool to record your professor for the audio learners.

All you do to access the Plug-In-Notes is open up a new Microsoft page and go to the bottom left corner and click on the notebook tab. This will open up a window with a page that looks like a notebook and you can take notes and draw diagrams in different tabs for different classes.

This method does not have any negative aspects because it will help everyone have neater, more organized notes, and for people like me it helps reinforce reviewing the notes after class.

This method can work for any class that you have to take notes in. It works

great for note heavy classes like my HTW 318 and WGS 203 classes. It can also work for History, Math, Science and many more classes.

In WGS and HTW we sit there and copy notes off of the board. Like I said earlier I still continued to write these notes down in my notebook during class but after I sat down and copied them onto the Plug-In-Notes page.

I would recommend this tool to anyone who wants more organized notes and enforcement to review.