High School Study Tips: FAQ
How should I study for a high school test?
As a high school teacher, what's so great about studying is that studying first starts in the classroom. You want to make sure that when you're in class you've been an engaged and active learner. Sometimes the best high school student is the person who's asking questions, taking notes, and making sure that they understand the material long before the test. Another great study tip is to rewrite your notes. Sometimes, once you've written them in class, if you go back home and you rewrite them again, it refreshes your memory and you're able to expand on the knowledge that you've had in class. Another great study tip is to go back and reference your textbook. A lot of times the teacher, when they've given you notes in class, has only given you just a basic outline, but the textbook can give you great definitions. Textbooks can give you an insight and in depth knowledge about the material. So, always prepare in advance by making sure you understood the material the first time you heard it.
When should I start studying for a high school test?
Are you studying just to pass the test or are you studying so that you can become a smarter person? Studying the night before the test only taps into your iconic and your short-term memory. By taking that information and reviewing it over and over and over, you can put it into long-term memory. You want to be able to access your information for a lifetime. So by studying it the night before, a couple of hours before, you might be able to study the test but is that all you are really trying to do?
What's the secret to managing my study time?
The secret to managing your study time is that there is no secret. Like anything else, good management starts by having a plan--managing and organizing. So if I want to manage or I want to study or I want to do anything, I have to start early and start with a plan. If I have no plan, then whatever happens, happens. But I always want to have a good plan. Some of the keys are: Study when you're not sleepy; start early in the morning; review often; talk it out with a friend; have a study partner; create questions that you may think; anticipate questions on a test or anticipate things. There's a lot of great ways to organize your time and mange your time, but like anything else, you want to become a lifelong learner. However you've been successful in the past, repeat it. Things that haven't worked in the past, don't do them again.
How can I concentrate better while I'm studying?
That is such a hard thing for students to do, concentration, reading; so many things are a muscle that has to be exercised. If I'm just blank without sitting with a blank stare and I'm just listening, it usually doesn't work. A lot of times, you need to tap into what your learning modality is. If you're a visual learner, perhaps you're kinesthetic and you need to move. Some people need to write things down. If you're an auditory learner, perhaps you might need to hum a song or put it to music, make it visual. So whatever you need to do in order to learn the information. Don't just sit there and think you're going to blankly take it in. You've got to engage all your five senses. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? I don't care, how does it smell or taste when you're learning? So whatever the environment is, use all your senses to engage yourself, so that you're not just kind of blankly sitting there staring. You won't learn it.
What's the secret to a productive study session?
A productive study session: simple as that, you learn something, you move from point A to point B. So, I don't want a study session to just be a free for all where I'm just looking at things. But sometimes we tend to think that even if you're just reviewing things or you're in the right environment, that it wasn't productive. If you just looked over things, a productive study session may just be I just rewrote my notes. I think if I was going to categorize it, though, a productive study session should be planned, it should be short, it should have a focus or a goal. So my goal for this study session is to have learned A, B or C. You want to check for understanding, you want to have some accountability: did I learn it? And then you want to have a plan for what are you going to do if you didn't learn it? What are we going to do differently? So a productive study session has a start time, an end time, a goal, a method of checking for understanding, and a method of reteaching if it hasn't been learned.
How can I memorize high school test material more effectively?
Believe it or not, today very few teachers want students to do straight memorization. We want you to learn things in context. There's method to the madness as they say, or there's a reason. Old-school memorization of basic rote material is okay in some areas, but you want to be able to add it to something else. If it's vocabulary, perhaps I want to put that vocabulary in a story, where I can show I really understand the meaning of the word. I don't want to memorize basic terms; I want to be able to use them in sentences, or use them as they relate to a particular genre of literature. Or, perhaps that's a terminology that goes with something in math. I want to add it to something else. Usually the old-school memorization is out. I'll learn it better if I can add it to something else; that will help me memorize it or learn it in its context.
