Exam Prep

I have always had trouble with my preparation with large exams and essays due in my most difficult classes. In order to improve my test preparation skills, I decided to use the 20 Minutes Test Prep method for two of my most challenging classes: Human Sexuality and Hebrew. In Human Sexuality, I have a midterm coming up so I decided to use the 20 Minute Test Prep in order to manage my time better and reviewed multiple chapters two to three times a week. I started my review two weeks prior to the exam and left the final two days before the exam before the final review.

In my Hebrew class, I have a large accumulative exam coming up in vocabulary and grammar and I also used my 20 Minute Test Prep. This is by far my most difficult class. I designed a study schedule for my Hebrew exam in which I separated the chapters and made note cards. I made 10 practice mock test questions that were related to the Hebrew grammar from chapters 4, 6, and 7. I also made an answer sheet with details reasons of why the correct answer was correct.

One major flaw in my study habits has always been anticipating proper test questions. Through the completion of the 20 Minute Test Prep, I learned how to predict test questions better by thinking like the professor, reading my syllabus, and understanding the notes he or she took on Blackboard. I understand that Human Sexuality and Hebrew are both fact-based. This really helped too.

Overall, I felt like the 20 Minute Test Prep has been my best form of studying. I was able to focus more on my subject and concentrate on particular chapters rather than being overwhelmed with the entire upcoming exams. In the future, I would like to usea post-exam review to further my study habits and gain a better understanding of exam material that has already been covered.

Want to know a great way to study for a test? Anticipate test questions!

Sometimes I only study with some review materials that my proffesor gives me. I convince myself that everything I need to know is right there in a review sheet and if I know that i'll ace the test. Then when the test comes around, I recognize information and know that I have learned it, but I don't know the answer because it wasn't on the review sheet. Does this sound familiar to you? If so, I think I have a solution that can help. It is anticipating test questions.

Anticipating test questions is exactly what it sounds like. You should use all class materials (notes from class, syllabus, previous tests or quizzes, and other materials given to you ) to make test questions. These questions should be what you think the teacher will be asking you. After creating these questions it is now time to find an answer to them, and then this should turn into a very helpful study guide. It is also good before the test to show the teacher your "anticipated questions" and see what he or she thinks. If you cover all you material and do this correctly, theres a chance you can see many of the same questions on the real test that you see on your study guide! Imagine walking into an exam and seeing questions that you wrote for yourself before hand and already know the answer too. How awesome would that be?

I personally am going to use this strategy for my midterm in economics. As i previously mentioned, I am going to use previous quizzes, the syllabus, notes from lecture, and even home works to create my test questions. In regards to LAME, i am considered a reading/writing learner, so this strategy is definitely good for me. The materials I review to make my questions is how I am recommended to learn, reading handouts and notes. I hope everyone tries this strategy, as I predict that it will be an extremely effective way to prepare for tests.

20 Minutes Help More Than You Would Think.

What up Internet world?
Welcome back. This weeks discussion topic is EXAM PREPARATION. Exam preparation is required for success in any class. Without being prepared, you will most likely do poorly on tests. In college, most classes don't have that many tests so you doing poorly on one could drastically affect your grade. Preparing for the test with an efficient strategy will greatly improve your test taking skills and luckily for you, I'm have the perfect strategy for you to try.

You might recall learning this all the way back in chapter 2 but today I will be talking about The 2o Minute Test Prep.
When/What to Do:
- After each class spend 20 minutes reviewing the material you learned that day. Try making a study guide. I recommend flashcards for us kinesthetic learners but there are a great number of different study aids you could use (outlines, study sheets, summaries etc.)
- At the end of the week spend 10 minutes reviewing everything you learned that entire week.
- After reviewing, try making 5-10 possible test questions. This will help you prepare yourself so you aren't surprised by what is asked of you on the test.
- Attempt to answer the questions as best you can.
- When the exam gets closer, maybe one or two weeks before hand, start developing a topic outline. Review one topic at a time.

MY EXPERIENCE:
This week I used the 20 minute test prep in my REL 206 class. The class is heavier on the readings and the actual class is more just review of the readings we did. If you have a class like this you should be coming up with questions as you do the readings. This should help you fully comprehend the material you are going to be tested on.
I had to read about 60 pages out of one of my books this week and as I did, I took notes on what I was reading because I am a kinesthetic learner. The process helped me understand what I was reading better because not only was I reading it but I transferred the ideas in my own words on to the paper. Putting ideas from a textbook into your own words really helps you to understand the material better. Just make sure your translation is right!!! After reading and taking notes I decided to come up with a few questions I might have to answer on the test I have coming up.
This proved to be difficult at first because I thought it was hard to have to come with a question without already knowing the answer to it. After a few easy questions I started thinking outside the box.
DON'T MAKE THE QUESTIONS YOU ASK YOURSELF TO HARD.--I want you to challenge yourself not stump yourself.
My test next Tuesday should be a piece of cake thanks to this strategy. I feel prepared and you will too if you apply it to your classes.

What Will Be On My Next Exam???

What Will Be On My Next Exam???

It seems like it may be hard to know what will be on the next exam, but I will discuss some ways to work towards a better grade and further understand what may be asked and how to prepare for it.

Math 222 in my opinion is my hardest class this semester. I struggle to understand the problems. I can comprehend the problems when I am shown how to do them but I find it to be difficult when the question is in a different format, to determine what the question is asking. During the faculty interview, my teacher recommended that I look at all the practice questions and be sure that I can determine what all of them are asking, even if I don’t complete the problems. These questions are usually muti-step and asking many different questions, so it takes a long amount of time to even work through one problem.

What Do You Do?

Its easy! Make practice questions that you think will be on the exam!

Use your syllabus to determine the types of questions that will be asked. Make sure to go over information that YOU DO NOT know how to do, rather than building confidence with the ones you already have figured out. If you interviewed this faculty member, you should also have a far better idea of what should be asked and the amount of preparation and types of things that will be given on an examination. If you have had any quizzes, those would be great questions to work through and know how to do. If there is a study guide, certainly know all of the information on it, but know HOW to do them, not just what each problem is.

How has this helped me?

I have not actually had an exam since I started using this method, but so far, it seems to be helping. I am learning how to approach all types of problems in all different formats. I have learned plenty more information and spent more time studying than I have yet this semester. I am finding that doing simple problems on occasion can really help to gain knowledge that will certainly be needed throughout the course. This will certainly benefit me on the next exam.

Below is a problem that is similar to the example problems shown in class. It is easy to substitute numbers for other numbers in example problems and see if it has the same result or a similar one with different numbers. As long as I have this format figured out, I should be able to do any problem given to me. The problems are so lengthy that I will only show one example.

The Exclusive on Exam Prep

Exclusive: Anticipating Test Questions

Its that time of the year again, midterms! Half a semesters knowledge crammed into one test. So, how do you go about studying all of it? I know during midterm and final time I am overwhelmed with the amount of material I have to go over and never know where to begin or how to do it. That is why this weeks topic of Anticipating Test Questions for Exam Prep is perfect.

Mat 122 is a course that does not have just one midterm exam but 4 mini midterms. You learn about 2 chapters and get tested on the material. This was the perfect time to test out the exam prep because I had an exam coming up.

The following are ways to anticipate questions your professor might ask you on the exam:

1. Syllabus

2. Professor's questions

3. Study aids

4. Your questions

5. Previous exams

I am a Kinesthetic learner so I thought the professors questions would be a great way for me to visualize and work out the questions. Mat 122 is a class with a lot of notes

so every time the professor asked a question or showed an example I would fully write it down and highlight it as an example so I would make sure to go back to it. When I sat down to study, I wrote out all of the examples on one sheet and made myself a study aid with all of the professors questions and equations for this unit. I then was able to easily go through the examples and memorize the equations. Study aids and professors questions can work in courses like math, history, science, and even for papers to write down key words the professor uses and organize them in your paper outline. Both of these strategies are great for kinesthetic, visual and audio learners.

To make a study aid, which can be a study sheet, graphic organizer, outline, flash cards or any other aid that you think may help you, all you need is your notes from class and place to organize them all. You should go through your notes and write on your study aid the information that is most important or that is hard-to-remember.

There is not a significant amount of limitation to these strategies. In class you should be attentive and focusing on what the professor says anyways so writing down all of the questions they say should not be a burden. Making a study aid will only help you better organize your notes and the material that will be on the test so it is easier to focus on what to study.

This is a method that is great for everyone and could help anyone ace those exams!

Part of My Study Aid

Problem Solving for Joshua

For this week's assignment, we are tasked to strategize on how to better many our academic problems. In order to address such an issue, I brainstormed what exactly my specific problems are. I listed how I always procrastinate, get overwhelmed with activities, and never can find a good place to do my work. I therefore, looked to the Ranking Priorities strategy for my College Learning Strategies course. I chose my Hebrew class to start. I normally do not struggle in Hebrew, yet I was sick last week and missed several classes. This put me far behind in my workload. I decided to list out the four assignments that I had due that week in Hebrew. I then ranked each one based on its importance. The picture atop shows how I listed each task as either:
A-Most important
B-Important
C-Least important
I had two for the A category, so I listed each as one and two. One being the more important, two being the lesser.
This really helped me to visually map out all of the assignments I had for my Hebrew class. This way, I also did not get overwhelmed by seeing all the tasks I had to finish immediately. I thus did each task in sequential order based on the importances of each; indicated by the legend of the corresponding letters.

Now that I had planned all that I had to do, I had to figure out the best, most convenient place to actually conduct my work. I turned to page 69 of my CLS textbook to analyze my optional study environments. The checklist really helped me to realize that the library is, by far, the best place for me to do my homework. It is quiet, nearby all my classes, and has all the necessary resources I could ever need to do my homework. I can now easily go to the library, and know which specific assignments are a priority to finish first.

Struggling with what to do next? Rank your priorities!

Hello All, for this week of problem solving I used the Ranking Priorities strategy. This is a strategy I have been using myself for quite some time, and it just so happens to be a problem solving strategy from the book! Personally I believe this strategy can be used in multiple ways. You can rank your priorities for one day or one week, or you could rank your priorities for one class or all classes! I personally like to know what I have to do for the whole week so I set up my priorities list for 2 separate classes that included my whole weeks work. I used this strategy on my economics class as well as my sociology class. The reason I used the great strategy on these classes is so I could see my whole weeks work. In my economics class I have a homework due as well as reading and a quiz. In my sociology class I had multiple readings to do and also a homework to hand in. When ranking my priorities for my economics class, because my homework is due on monday I ranked that as my highest priority because it counts for points due soonest. Reading the chapter for lecture Monday was my next priority because my quiz is not until Wednesday, so studying for my Wednesday quiz was third on the list. As you can see, it was helpful for me to use ranking priorities strategy so I could see what made sense to do first.

In sociology, I have readings for Monday and Wednesday, as well as a homework assignment due Wednesday. In my ranking priorities list I ranked the reading for monday first, so I could be prepared for class. I then put the homework assignment second because it is worth points, and the reading for Wednesday followed up the rear. Once again I ranked my priorities in an orderly fashion.

When ranking my priorities you can see that I took due dates and point totals into my consideration. I find this the best way to rank your priorities because it ranks them in a way that is best for your grade. By due dates and points! I highly recommend this strategy for anyone. Your thoughts are clear and organized, and you know exactly what you need to do for your class to succeed. Ranking Priorities is a great strategy that should be used by all!