Study Methods

It’s not news that poor study habits lead to bad grades for most of us. But some people study for hours and fail. Others do every bit of homework and then still flunk the test.

Chances are, you aren't studying the right way. In order to pass a test, you need to memorize facts and/or concepts.

Think of learning like a closet full of hangers. If you're familiar with something, you have a hanger in your closet. You probably know something about sharks, so you have a hanger for sharks. Then, when new information on sharks comes along in school, on t.v., or while talking, you can add that data to your hanger. This subject will be relatively easy to study because you're somewhat familiar with it.

But say it's the quantum spins of electrons. Most of us don't know much about this. Worse, we don't care and may wish we didn't have to know about it. We don't have a hanger for this information. That little part of our closet is empty. In order to GET a hanger, we have to follow these steps to learning something new.

Games and Activities
How you study really isn't as important as the fact that you study. If it helps you, play games! The whole goal is just to keep repeating the information until it's in your head

Matching Cards

MyQuiz (make as quiz as you read)

Mnemonics
You may know several mnemonics ("nee-mon-ics") already: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally reminds us of the order of operations in math (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction) more»