Study Skills Resources
Below is an index by topic. Each topic has several links that will open to a new web page.
Being a Successful College Student
Communication & Public Speaking
Concentration
Differences between College & High School
ESL
Foreign Languages
Grammar
Information Processing
Learning Styles
There are multiple ways of looking at learning and teaching styles. The reliability and validity varies from tool to tool. The following links may provide the opportunity to think about how you learn effectively. We only share these to raise your consciousness to the roll of learning styles. These are not represented as diagnostic psychological tools.
Math
Memory
Motivation
Note Taking
Online Learners
Reading
Science
Self-Assessment Tools
Stress, Self Esteem/Self Efficacy
Study Skills
Subject-Specific Study Guide Mega Sites
Test Taking
Time Management
Writing
On this page:
Note Taking Tips
The key to taking notes, as to all other study skills, is organization. Well organized notes are effective notes. Here is where large numbers of people make a critical mistake in college. They assume that note taking skills used in high school will be effective in college as well. Often, they are wrong. The next sections will look at a very effective format for taking notes, the selection of important material for inclusion in notes, and the use of other note taking aids.
- Use large sheets of paper, 8-1/2 x 11 minimum, narrow-ruled if possible. The bigger the paper, the fewer pages of notes you will need to take. The fewer the pages of notes, the easier it is to study them. Also, fewer pages make it easier to see how one thing relates to another. In other words, large paper aids organization.
- Write the date in the upper right corner of the paper as you start each class. Notes can sometimes get torn out of notebooks and misplaced. Sometimes you may need to turn in your notes to the instructor or loan them to another student. By dating notes, you can put them back in order. This is especially important in courses where material learned one day is needed in order to understand what happens in the next lecture. Putting dates on your papers keeps everything in order for effective study.
- Put a title on your notes. Your instructor will usually tell you in the first few minutes of a lecture what it is all about. Frequently, she will even say something like, “Today I’m going to talk about...,” and then list what the lecture topic will be. But even if she doesn’t do this in so many words, it is up to you to begin your note taking by forming the question, “What is this lecture going to be about?” Listen for the answer to this question. When you hear it, write it down at the top center of your paper. The title helps to keep notes organized. Everything of importance in the lecture will need to be about that topic. If you want to see whether something belongs in your notes, ask yourself whether it relates to the title. If so, write it down. If not, don’t put it in your notes.
- Draw a line from the top to bottom of your page about one-fourth of the way from the left edge. Then, very simply, put all important topics to the left of that line. All supporting details about a particular topic go to the right of the line. These supporting details include things like definitions, causes, steps in a process, important researchers, and diagrams as well as any other material you consider important.
- Leave space between items. There are several reasons for this. Normally, an instructor will only be able to cover three or four main topics in the fifty-minute class time. Sometimes the entire class period may focus on only one main topic. Too much material written on the left side of your page detracts from recognizing easily the main points covered.
Many lectures seem to be unorganized because the instructor goes from the first point, to a second, or even a third or fourth one before coming back and filling in material on an earlier point. If you write on every line and if an instructor goes back, you have no place to put this extra material when it is given.
Another reason for leaving lots of empty lines (white space) is that it helps the brain to visualize the individual topics and the supporting information. With the left and right margins as well as white space above and below each main idea, the entire chunk of information is framed by white.
- Indent to show levels of organization with less important material indented even further to show that it is related to what is on the line above it. If a person does not indent, there will be times when, in studying notes, she won’t know whether material on the second and third lines is part of the material begun on line 1--or something different and not related to what’s on the line before. Indenting tells how one line relates to another at a glance.
Back To Top
Recognizing Important Material
How does a person know which material from a lecture is important? How does a person know what belongs on the left side of the line? On the right side? Here are some of the ways to find significant material:
- Read the textbook and recommended or required reading materials first. The first suggestion for recognizing important material for notes is to use your textbook as an aid. Read text assignments before coming to class. One reason people may have trouble locating important points and terms in lectures is a lack of familiarity with the material. While competent lecturers do not just repeat material from the text, they will usually use terms mentioned in the text and will present ideas and explanations related to what appears in the text. You lose a valuable aid by not reading the text first.
- Listen for repetition. If your instructor repeats something using the same or different words, trust that it is important and put it in your notes.
- Listen for examples. If the instructor gives examples to illustrate something, the principle being illustrated is important. Examples are only important by themselves if they are research examples or ones that make something strikingly clear. In research examples, only the barest details are important. Usually, you will need to remember only:
- The researcher’s last name,
- The basic facts of the research, and
- What the research proved (the who, what, and what significance questions)
- Pay attention to the instructor’s mannerisms. Verbal clues and personal mannerisms are guides to important material. Instructors do say things like “It is important to remember....” They give you clues through numbers: “Here are the five steps in the process,” “There are two kinds of family,” or “These are the three basic causes of the revolution.”
They give you "summing-up" clues such as "in conclusion," "therefore," and "finally" to alert you to important material. Listen for these verbal clues.
Some lecturers have favorite gestures, hand movements, and facial expressions that they use in certain situations. Study your lecturer. You may soon find out how this person delivers important material.
Back To Top
Other Aids to Note Taking
Additional things can be done beyond listening for clues and using an efficient format. Choose your seat carefully. Sit close to the front. Research shows a clear relation between where students sit in class and grades. This association is not magic; there are several reasons for it. Acoustics are not always good. You may not hear important material if you sit in the back. If you don’t hear it, it can’t go in your notes. People toward the front have fewer distractions: fewer people moving, talking, doing other work, or even sleeping around them.
Use Your Test
Another important clue for note taking is your first test. When the test is returned, ask where the questions came from. If items came from classroom notes, did you have the necessary information? Was the material you took down in class adequate for passing the test? What kind of material was emphasized on the test (researchers, theories, straight facts, etc.). The kind of material emphasized on the first test will probably be emphasized on future tests. This is the kind of material that belongs in your notebook.
Ask Questions
If you don’t understand something, ask a question. There are no foolish questions. It is the instructor’s job to be sure you understand, but if you don’t ask questions, the instructor will not know whether you understand or not. If you don’t understand, you may lose out on material that is needed for future classes or for tests.
Review
Review your notes as soon as possible after a lecture. Studies show that most lecture material is forgotten within the first 24 hours after a lecture. If you want to remember your material, go over it as soon as possible after the lecture. This may take 5 minutes, but in aiding recall and cutting into the amount of forgetting, it will be a worthwhile investment in your classroom success. Reviewing notes helps you assess what you know from a lecture and what you don’t know. It helps set the stage for the next day’s lecture and can make this new material easier to learn.
Make Friends
Finally, make a friend in each course you take. You can compare notes with this friend early in the semester. If you are both getting the same material, then you can be fairly confident that you are getting what is important. If there are major differences between your notes, there is cause for concern because one of you is probably not getting the correct material. Then it is time to check with your instructor to see if you are on track with your notes.
A friend can also help by providing notes if you miss a class. Getting notes from another person is not as good as being there, but it does prevent you from totally missing important material. Another technique for using your friend when you have missed a class is to ask that person to read notes to you. This allows you to stop them and ask questions if you don't understand something.
Back To Top
On this page, you will find information on...
Test Anxiety
About
Test anxiety is the name given to the uneasy feeling experienced by most people as the time for a test approaches. The extent to which people experience test anxiety varies greatly, and the symptoms experienced differ from person to person. Many people feel that mild test anxiety is beneficial because the mind is made more alert, and the attention is focused as the body gets ready to do “battle” with difficult material. However, severe test anxiety can be overwhelming, leaving the test taker with a racing heart, sweaty brow, nauseous stomach, and only fragmented thoughts. Test anxiety may occur before a student starts preparing for a test, while studying for a test, and while taking the test. Here are some ways to lessen anxiety:
- Do not come to the testing area too early.
- While you need to assure that you will be on campus and at the test site before a test begins, you should arrange your time so that you will arrive at the testing site right before the test begins. Being excessively early, or arriving at the test site more than a few minutes before the test starts frequently causes anxiety.
Talking with classmates and sharing their fears and problems about the upcoming test only add fuel to existing anxiety. Then, when the test actually begins, all of these negative emotions come rushing back into memory to haunt already nervous students. If this description fits you, avoid your nervous classmates by not arriving early and try to keep yourself busy thinking about other things. - Use positive self-talk.
- Anxiety frequently is accompanied by a little voice in our heads that tells us that we can’t succeed--that we will fail. Counteract this negative voice by consciously telling yourself that you can succeed, that you’ve studied the material. In the few minutes before the test starts, set a positive framework. Repeat over and over to yourself, “I can do it! I will do it! I can do it! I will do it!” This will help build your confidence. Talk positively to yourself.
- Use relaxation techniques.
- For those who have tape recorders or CD players, it may be a good idea to take about five minutes before a test to play relaxing music. Find a quiet corner; play your relaxing tape. Empty your mind of conscious thought. As the music plays, let your mind flow with whatever images present themselves. This procedure not only will relax you, but it will stimulate the kind of brain waves needed to improve test performance.
If anxiety occurs during the test, it usually will affect one of the major muscle systems of the body (stomach, back, arms, legs, etc.). Make a conscious effort to relax if you feel anxiety building up. Breathing deeply can help a person relax. It is hard for anxiety to build up if you are concentrating on breathing deeply because your mind is occupied with something other than the test.
- Use visualization.
- Visualization, creating mental pictures, can remove anxiety and help students briefly focus their attention away from the cause of their anxiety. What to visualize may depend on the problem or situation, but every student should visualize success.
Visualizing success takes positive self-talk one step further. See the professor handing back the tests, and yours has a giant red A at the top. Visualize celebrating a good grade with friends and classmates. Remember that most people live up to their own expectations, good or bad. If you continually see yourself with shortcomings, you are likely to increase your chances for failure.
To answer test questions efficiently, nursing students could visualize themselves working in a hospital as they answer procedure questions, or education students could visualize themselves teaching as they are taking the test. To relax and escape the stress of the test, students could visualize a warm Caribbean beach with the white sand and hear the relaxing sounds of the blue water.
Back To Top
Test Preparation
- Plan ahead for your study time.
- You should know the first week of classes when the instructors hand out the course syllabi the times all tests are scheduled. As soon as you find out this information, note test days on a calendar, and write the date one week ahead of each test. It is a good idea to use two different colors of ink in writing down this information so that there is no possibility of confusing the two different dates—the actual test date and the begin studying date.
Equally important, if students wait until the last minute to study, a serious problem exists if they find that they don’t understand some of the material. Other students are studying for themselves and cannot be bothered by helping someone else. It is too late to reach the teacher or to get a tutor. There is not even much time to think through the material.
However, by beginning study a week early, by going through text and notes once, students can see which items they don't know and can get together with other students, with the instructor, or with a tutor. They also have the time to think out the problem themselves.
- Decide what to study.
- Another way to think about this next test taking preparation tip is: think before you study. All course material is not equally important. Ask yourself: What material has been most important? What did we spend a week, two weeks, etc., working on? What did we spend a full day on? Which text chapters seem more important? During lectures, where did the instructor emphasize text material or differ from text material? What kind of material was on the last test?
- Instructors frequently ask the same types of questions again. For example, if an earlier test contained several researchers’ names, later tests may do the same. If an earlier test contained many questions on theories, the later ones may too. Use your answers to previous test questions as guides for your study.
Develop a study procedure.- Now you’re ready to actually begin studying. Go through all of your material once. Don’t stop on anything you don’t know. Then, go back through the material studying only what you didn’t know the first time. Study the third time only what you didn’t know the second time. Continue going over your material until you know and understand it.
As you study, divide your time into 30-40 minute periods. Long study periods without breaks are inefficient. Study for a half hour; take a short break (5 minutes); study again, then break again. Repeat this process until you feel confident about your material. On breaks, reward yourself for work well done. Do something short that you like to do (eat, listen to music, etc.). Following this pattern can enhance studying. Remember that there really is no short cut for studying, only more efficient methods.
Have good health habits.- Be sure to eat right during your study times. Coffee and other caffeine or high sugar items only have short term benefits. At exam time, it is particularly important to maintain a balanced diet. While a piece of fruit may give a quick burst of energy before a test, the best aid to effective study is a balanced diet. Adequate sleep is also important. People who are well rested are better able to function during tests than those who are tired.
Back To Top
General Tips
- Question: What should I do when I first get the test?
Answer: The most important element in determining whether or not you will do well in a testing situation is understanding test directions. Listen to and read all directions before answering any test questions. In each class there are people who may lose points--and sometimes lose a huge number of points--because they don’t follow directions.
Now, before actually writing down anything, read very quickly through the entire test. You want to know how many pages are on the test and what the point values for each section are. This information will help in planning test taking strategy. You will know which sections count most heavily so that you can plan your time to allow sufficient time for those parts.
Question: What strategies should I use when I take the test?
Answer: Sometimes tests have only one section for which specialized knowledge is needed. Do this section first. For example, some nursing tests have math calculation problems at the end. These problems are the only area of the test for which math formulas are needed. By finding this section, writing down the necessary formulas, and doing these problems right away, the student can dump this easy-to-forget knowledge and concentrate on subject specific items. Read through all of the test questions answering only those that you know. By doing this, you assure yourself of all of the points for these questions. If you don’t follow this procedure, you might not get to questions near the end of the test—questions which you might know. Another reason for following this procedure is that, especially in objective tests, it is quite common that later questions may help to answer earlier ones.
A final reason for doing questions we know first is the “light bulb phenomenon.” Frequently, a person will read a question and have no idea of the answer. Then, maybe even 20 questions later, that person will suddenly know the answer to this earlier question. If this happens to you, write the answer down immediately. If you don’t, the light may go off, and the answer may not return. In answering each question, read the entire question including all answer options carefully. Many mistakes occur because people read questions too quickly. They may read information that is not there or miss words that change the meaning of the question. Similarly, many people read answer choices until they find one that looks right, mark that answer, and quit reading. Tthese people may not have read the choice that is the best answer. Careful reading will assure that this will not happen.
As you are getting down to the end of the test, if you find there is an answer which you don’t know, guess. Answers left blank are most frequently marked wrong. Even a wild guess gives a chance for points. Let’s suppose that you have plenty of time to answer all questions. There is a great temptation to leave as soon as the test is finished. The best advice about leaving early is don't. If time remains, re-check answers, especially those you really weren’t too sure of. Remember that in a test situation, the mind and hand work very fast. And they don’t always cooperate.
Back To Top
Objective Tests
True or False
Are there clues for taking tests? Yes, but these clues should only be used to help answer questions if you have followed these first two principles that supersede all other clues: Obviously, study until you know and understand the material. If you know the right answer from your study, it doesn’t matter if it violates all of the clues. It doesn’t matter if it seems too easy to be right. If you know it’s right, it probably is.
The second principle is use common sense. We have all lived long enough to have stored up a fund of experience--our schema. If logic, based on our experience, tells you a thing is right, it may well be right. Trust yourself. Here are some techniques that are helpful to know when working with true-false questions:
- It is useful to begin with the assumption that the statement is true; your job is to find any reason why the statement might be false.
- Keep in mind that general statements, those which allow for no exception, are likely to be wrong answers. When you see words like “all,” “no,” “only,” “always,” “never,” often called absolute words, expect the statement to be false.
- Be sure that the entire statement is true. Sometimes the statements are written so that the first part is true, but the last part is not. This is one instance where careful reading is important. Read the entire statement to be sure that it is totally true. A variation of this same type of statement occurs when the true-false statement gives a reason. Part of the statement is true, but the reason given is false. When a true-false statement is only partly true, you must mark the answer false.
- A final clue about true-false questions is to be alert for negatives, such as the word “not” or a negative prefix, in the statement. Once again, careful reading is essential. If you don’t pay attention to that negative word, you may answer the question incorrectly.
Back to Top
Multiple Choice
The other main type of objective test question is the multiple choice question. This type of question has two parts--the stem (the question or statement) and the options (the answer choices). An effective way to answer this type of question is to read it as a series of true-false questions. Read the stem with each option separately as you answer whether that particular choice is true or not. In this manner you are less likely to be confused by several slightly different choices because as soon as you find one answer that you can eliminate, you can cross that one out and only concentrate on the remaining possibilities. Deal with each option in the same way. The clues for true-false statements will equally apply to the individual options in multiple choice questions. There are some additional clues as you look at multiple-choice items:
- See if you can find two options that are opposites. If so, one of these is likely to be the answer.
- Watch for repetition of a word or idea. If material from the stem is repeated in one option or if two options use similar words, the answer may be among the ones repeating key words or ideas.
- “All of the above,” “none of the above,” “a + b only,” etc. tend to be correct answers. In dealing with these options, it is important to remember some basic facts. First, remember that the words “all” and “none” allow for no exceptions. That means that when you are reading the options for the question, if you find even one option that doesn’t fit, you have, in effect, eliminated two possibilities.
- Avoid choosing unknown words. If you don’t know what a word means, it is likely to be a wrong answer. Instructors are usually not trying to trick you. If you think you have never seen a word before, you probably haven’t (provided that you’ve taken good notes in class and have done your reading assignments). So, don’t choose the unknown unless you know none of the other answers is correct.
- Choose middle numbers unless you know an extreme figure is right. In the number series: 225, 100, 150, your right answer is likely to be 150, the middle number. Obviously, if you have four numbers to choose from, two will be in the middle. This rule does not say which of these is correct, but one of them is likely to be.
- Avoid value judgments. If an item contains words indicating something is good or bad, this statement is probably wrong. The only exception is if an expert said it. For example, the statement “Capitalism is evil” is probably false because it is a value judgement. There are occasions, however, in which judgments may be contained in a correct answer. This happens if we are asked whether a person or group believes in the stated judgement. The statement, “Karl Marx considered capitalism evil,” may be true because here we are judging not capitalism but Marx’s beliefs about it.
- Avoid joke answers. Yes, there are ridiculous options and joke items on tests. If an item sounds stupid, it probably is. For example, in a psychology test, one stem read, “The shape of a trapezoidal window....” One option read “C. Depends on what you had in your morning coffee.” Clearly, this is a joke and should not be taken seriously. Another rule for answering test items is that longer, more complete items tend to be correct answers.
- Watch for double negatives. Sometimes an option or a stem contains two negatives. Sometimes these are negative words (“no,” “not,” etc.). Sometimes they are suffixes (“-less”) or prefixes (“non,” “in-,” “ab,” etc.). Combinations of these possibilities can allow for four or more negatives in a statement. To effectively deal with multiple negatives, cross out negative words and prefixes in pairs.
Back To Top
On this page...
Textbook Reading
There is a wrong way to read a textbook:
- Glancing at the title
- Plunging right in
- Paying little attention to meaning
- Highlighting or underlining too much
- Closing the book right after reading.
If you change ineffective reading practices, you’ll actually save study time. So how do you read the RIGHT way? Well, read on:
PR2: A Reading Formula
This textbook-reading formula can be summarized in the mnemonic PR2.
- “P” = pre-reading,
- “R” = reading, and
- “R” = review.
Repeat the R’s as many times as necessary until the material is learned.
Pre-Reading Activities
Setting a Purpose or Goal
Set a goal for your study session, breaking it up into manageable chunks: “I will spend 30 minutes reading the first 10 pages in the sociology chapter and then review what I read.”
This approach
- sets time limits,
- indicates the amount of reading to be done, and
- promises review time.
Surveying
- Look at the headings throughout the chapter
- These show you the important topics.
- These will help you understand the organization of the chapter.
- They will also help you plan study breaks.
- Notice any author highlighted words or phrases.
- These will probably be important vocabulary words or important ideas.
- Look at the pictures, graphs, tables, charts, etc.
- Read the chapter outline and/or summary (if there is one).
Activating Your Experience (Schemata)
Schemata is the information in your experience or prior knowledge that will help you make sense of what you read.
- As you survey and preview, put the book into a context of your own experience.
- Prior to reading, think about what you already know about the subject.
- This can make reading and retention easier.
Back To Top
Reading the Text
Reading a biology text might require a different reading strategy than reading a sociology text which could require a different approach than a political science text. However, some techniques are used in almost all textbook reading:
- Questioning to guide reading
- Highlighting to remember important information
- Recognizing critical vocabulary
- Identifying important examples
- Increasing comprehension
Questioning To Guide Reading
Asking a question focuses your reading on finding information that will answer the question.
- Try turning the chapter title and section headings into test questions.
- It makes reading a more active search for meaning.
- Asking “what” and “why” questions will most often point the reader to critical content in the text.
- Science, math, English writing classes, and the technologies frequently emphasize “how it happens,” another type of question you can form.
Marking in your Textbook
- IT IS OKAY TO WRITE IN YOUR TEXTBOOKS IN COLLEGE. But efficient notetaking or annotation is done after a section has been completely read.
- If there are several paragraphs in a section, the main idea of the entire section may not be immediately evident and the supporting details may only be clear after the reading is complete.
- You may want to develop some type of neat marking system, such as annotation. Just highlighting or underlining text is not an active learning technique; writing out main ideas in your own words or re-explaining something in the margins will help you learn the material.
Vocabulary
- Often critical vocabulary words are bolded or underlined in your textbook and provided in a list in the chapter summary.
- Identify technical terms relating to the main idea of the chapter
- Mark the terms in your textbook or make flash cards on 3x5 note cards.
- Words other than important terms, even big, impressive-looking words, are frequently not essential to text meaning. If you understand what you’re reading without looking up these terms, you probably don’t have to worry.
Identifying Important Examples
- Examples in textbooks are for you--they keep you interested and make ideas clearer.
- Use them to help you form a visual image of theories or concepts presented.
- Often research examples that are covered in several sentences or paragraphs are important.
- Also make up your own examples to help you understand concepts--write these in your notes or margins of the text.
Concentration
Maintaining concentration is a very common problem for college students. Over the years students have devised a variety of strategies to improve their concentration. Improving concentration skills should improve comprehension skills.
- Shock Therapy: find something that will jolt you when you find your mind wandering
- Activity Intervention: Break the monotony by deep breathing, or calisthenics, or drinking water.
- Add Pleasing Circumstances: Sip a cup of coffee, place a desk blotter of a pleasing color under your book, read outside, play relaxing music in the background.
- Choose a distraction reduced environment
- Study away from family or roommate interruptions
- Avoid tempting outdoor views
- Establish A Reward System: After completing a specified study time, reward yourself with a snack, a phone call, or 10 minutes of TV.
Back To Top
Review and Study
The purpose of a review is to get information into long term memory. Use active methods that help you interact or make connections with your textbook and with what you want to learn and retain.
- The goal is not to spend too much time studying your textbook.
- The goal is to get the information from the textbook into your long term memory as efficiently as possible and to keep it there.
Research shows that you should study no more than 30 to 40 minutes without a break. A very effective method of studying uses the last two or three minutes of your 30 to 40 minute study period reviewing what has been learned and the first few minutes of your subsequent study period recalling what has been previously studied.
There are two types of review:
- Immediate review
- Periodic review
Immediate Review
When you finish a reading (or study) session, review what you have read immediately.
- Review the chapter headings and try to recall the answers to the questions you formulated when you previewed the textbook chapter.
- If you are unable to answer your questions, reread the notes or annotations you took on that section.
- If your textbook has chapter questions or study guide questions, go through those.
- If you can’t come up with a clear answer, reread your notes or annotation on the relevant section or sections.
- If you do not readily come up with the correct answers, check to be sure you have taken notes or annotated the material that the author thought important.
Periodic Review
At regular intervals over the term, review what you have read to make sure that important material is put into long term memory. Remember most unreviewed material can be forgotten in one day, and up to 80% of what we read in textbooks is lost in two weeks.
- To retain information, you should schedule review on a regular or periodic basis so that previously learned material is not forgotten.
- Effective students devise various methods of recalling vital information.
- Mnemonics (such as FACE to help recall the names of the spaces on the treble clef), diagrams, and songs are all devices that help people recall information.
- Effective learners experiment to see what devices or methods work for them. Then they use these devices regularly.
- Predicting test questions is one of the most valuable skills that a student can learn. Review your tests:
- Did the instructor’s questions come from bold face words?
- Was there a heavy emphasis on researchers? Were any of the study guide questions used on the test?
- Knowing how your instructor tests can help as you read, mark, and review new textbook material.
- Study groups can be major aids to effective study.
- Several people getting together to help each other with assignments can frequently spot difficulties and solve problems more quickly than one person studying alone.
- One effective aid to getting important textbook material is the study guide. These guides may add to your book bill, but they are worth it.
- They usually contain extra problems and/or potential test questions on text material.
- They also point toward course material you will need to know.
Back To Top
Connect with IPFW:
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd.
