2 The Power of Positive Thinking
2 The Power of Positive Thinking
2 The Power of Positive Thinking
Good News! Even small improvements in study skills pays big dividends. Success in any field creates a positive feedback loop that increases motivation and performance, which encourages more success. This 48-page study skills booklet provides a complete summary of the tools, tips and techniques necessary for becoming an efficient and successful student. Five pages from the book are included online below. These pages are copyrighted. However, they may be downloaded and used by individual students or downloaded, copied and tested by teachers as shareware. For more information about using these pages or the book, email [email protected] without putting in the 123 (to limit web trawlers from collecting this email address and sending spam)
Table of Contents
1 What are your Goals? 2 The Power of Positive Thinking 3 Learning How to Learn 4 Your Rights and Responsibilities 5 How to Manage Time and Set Priorities 6 How to Use Questions 7 How to Improve Reading Comprehension 8 How to Study Effectively 9 How to Improve your Memory 10 How to Organize Information 11 How to Get the Most from Lectures 12 How to Take Notes in Class 13 How to Identify your Best Learning Styles 14 How to Read Textbooks 15 The Importance of Using Scratch Paper 16 How to Save Time and Take Shortcuts 17 How to Succeed in Math 18 How to Prepare For and Take Examinations 19 How to Solve Word Problems 20 How to Sharpen your Critical Thinking Skills 21 How to Improve Creative Thinking 22 How to be an Effective Writer 23 How to Use the 7 Sides of your Brain 24 How to Improve Visualization
25 How to Set up a Study Group 26 Good Health 27 How to Relax 28 The 7 Biggest Mistakes Students Make 29 How to Make Effective Use of Tutoring 30 Can Learning be Accelerated? Note that in the book, each of these sections is one or two pages in length. This modular design makes the book ideal for copying.
Note: Teachers who are interested in the book, should check New Information for Teachers.
Select a new habit or technique you want to develop, like one found in this book. Convince yourself it's important. Make it fairly easy to do. Write out a schedule for working on it. Practice using the technique, keep track of progress. Reward yourself after each practice period. Use your habits as often as possible, both in simple and in new situations. Use a coach, teacher, tutor, group or friend. Identify internal blocks, e.g., lack of time, poor self-esteem, procrastination, poor techniques, lack of success, lack of confidence, stress, poor organization, poor reading and math skills. Seek help if necessary Start small, take one step at a time and enjoy each success.
Table of Contents
Emotional blocks - boredom, daydreaming, stress, guilt, anger and frustration reduce concentration. Sickness - getting sick and blowing your schedule. In all of these cases, the first step is to recognize the problem and resolve to improve. Use priority lists to focus attention. Try positive self-talk. To avoid distractions, find a quiet place to study, the library or a study hall. Get an answering machine.
Table of Contents 7 The Purpose of Reading. The purpose of reading is to connect the ideas on the page to what you already know. If you don't know anything about a subject, then pouring words of text into your mind is like pouring water into your hand. You don't retain much. For example, try reading these numbers:
7516324 This is hard to read and remember. 751-6324 This is easier because of chunking. 123-4567 This is easy to read because of prior knowledge and structure. Similarly, if you like sports, then reading the sports page is easy. You have a framework in your mind for reading, understanding and storing information.
Improving Comprehension.
Reading comprehension requires motivation, mental frameworks for holding ideas, concentration and good study techniques. Here are some suggestions. Develop a broad background. Broaden your background knowledge by reading newspapers, magazines and books. Become interested in world events. Know the structure of paragraphs. Good writers construct paragraphs that have a beginning, middle and end. Often, the first sentence will give an overview that helps provide a framework for adding details. Also, look for transitional words, phrases or paragraphs that change the topic. Identify the type of reasoning. Does the author use cause and effect reasoning, hypothesis, model building, induction or deduction, systems thinking? See section 20 for more examples on critical thinking skills. Anticipate and predict. Really smart readers try to anticipate the author and predict future ideas and questions. If you're right, this reinforces your understanding. If you're wrong, you make adjustments quicker. Look for the method of organization. Is the material organized chronologically, serially, logically, functionally, spatially or hierarchical? See section 10 for more examples on organization. Create motivation and interest. Preview material, ask questions, discuss ideas with classmates. The stronger your interest, the greater your comprehension. Pay attention to supporting cues. Study pictures, graphs and headings. Read the first and last paragraph in a
chapter, or the first sentence in each section. Highlight, summarize and review. Just reading a book once is not enough. To develop a deeper understanding, you have to highlight, summarize and review important ideas. Build a good vocabulary. For most educated people, this is a lifetime project. The best way to improve your vocabulary is to use a dictionary regularly. You might carry around a pocket dictionary and use it to look up new words. Or, you can keep a list of words to look up at the end of the day. Concentrate on roots, prefixes and endings. Use a systematic reading technique like SQR3. Develop a systematic reading style, like the SQR3 method and make adjustments to it, depending on priorities and purpose. The SQR3 steps include Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. See Section 14 for more details. Monitor effectiveness. Good readers monitor their attention, concentration and effectiveness. They quickly recognize if they've missed an idea and backup to reread it.
Table of Contents
Know Thyself.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Old Chinese Proverb People learn differently. Some prefer using pictures. Others like working in groups. How do you learn best? Here are the three major factors making up your learning style. 1. The three senses - auditory, visual and kinesthetics 2. The two reasoning types - deductive and inductive 3. The two environments - intrapersonal and interpersonal Check these factors as they apply to different subjects to discover your learning preferences.
Inductive reasoning ( ) - I like to see some examples when first learning a new subject, before developing an overview. ( ) - I prefer to learn the rules of a new game "as we go along".
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Introduction 1 ..... What are your Goals? 2 ..... The Power of Positive Thinking 3 ..... Learning How to Learn 4 ..... Your Rights and Responsibilities 5 ..... How to Manage Time and Set Priorities 6 ..... How to Use Questions 7 ..... How to Improve Reading Comprehension 8 ..... How to Study Effectively 9 ..... How to Improve your Memory 10 ... How to Organize Information 11 ... How to Get the Most from Lectures 12 ... How to Take Notes in Class 13 ... How to Identify your Best Learning Styles 14 ... How to Read Textbooks 15 ... The Importance of Using Scratch Paper
16 .. How to Save Time and Take Shortcuts 17 ... How to Succeed in Math 18 ... How to Prepare For and Take Examinations 19 ... How to Solve Word Problems 20 ... How to Sharpen your Critical Thinking Skills 21 ... How to Improve Creative Thinking 22 ... How to be an Effective Writer 23 ... How to Use the 7 Sides of your Brain 24 ... How to Improve Visualization 25 ... How to Set up a Study Group 26 ... Good Health 27 ... How to Relax 28 ... The 7 Biggest Mistakes Students Make 29 ... How to Make Effective Use of Tutoring 30 ... Can Learning be Accelerated? Notes and Bibliography