Learning and Study Skills
For Mr. Kimball’s Chemistry,
Physical Science Classes and
Math Classes
Organizing Your Study
1. Prioritize your time. (My Weekly Schedule)
2. Read chapter, annotating key words and phrases.
3. Outline main points using section headings and
summary.
4. Familiarize yourself with pictures and tables
(along with captions).
5. Study Power Points thoroughly-print out for notes
and to use for lecture quizzes.
6. Work through example problems and do practice
and further practiced problems.
7. Do homework.
8. Learn concepts well enough so that if I ask a
similar question on a test in a different way, you
can still get the answer. Don’t just memorize
steps.
Reading the TextbookAnother Way
1. Preview the chapter by locating 5 diagrams or
figures that catch your interest along with page #
and caption and paraphrase each diagram and
figure.
2. Choose at least 10 unfamiliar terms. Write
definitions in your own words and provide a short
example from personal experience or imagination to
which that term may apply.
3. Write 5 questions that you predict will be on the
test and write answer using what you read in the
text.
Alternate Methods Click Here
Learning Skills
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Take responsibility for your education.
Have confidence in what you know and can do.
Do not procrastinate study.
Learn to listen and read precisely.
Make and use practice tests to prepare for tests.
Persistence. Never give up.
Learn to recognize and utilize patterns.
Learn to draw pictures and diagrams to aid in communication
and understanding.
Learn to think sequentially or in steps.
Do neat work.
Learn to study and work in groups.
Try something new.
Habits of the Mind
Get help if you need it.
Barriers to College Education
Take Responsibility!
Your education is what you make of it.
You make the world you live in. What
type of world do you want? Whatever
the answer, only you can make it. Set
goals of what you want to know and go
and find it. Don’t blame others for
things that happen in your life because
it is your life of your making. Make it the
best!
X
Confidence
• Learn to have confidence in yourself
and what you know.
• If you make a mistake, admit it, learn
from it, correct it and move on.
• Realize that if you miss one small part
of a problem there is still part of the
problem you still understand.
• Come to class mentally prepared.
You can
do
anything!
!!
Procrastination
“shortcuts are longcuts. . .
longcuts are shortcuts”
• If the pulley assembly is available pull
both ropes and see which is easiest. Both
gallon jugs have the same water in them.
One is easier to raise than the other.
• This is because, due to the pulley system,
you pull more rope with one than the
other. The force needed to lift the jugs is
distributed over a longer distance that you
pull the rope.
• The same is true with studying.
• If you distribute your efforts and study
over more time, the learning will be
easier and more thorough.
• If you try to do too much in too little of
time, studying and learning will become
as heavy as the jug that was hard to lift.
You will burn out, overload, and
probably not succeed in the class.
• Make up your mind now to study
ahead of time. It is like waiting too long
to pull the ripcord when parachuting.
Waiting two weeks may be too late:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8vEcC0IxKA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBZzX8OWrc
• Or waiting until you are halfway across
a stream to learn to swim.
• Set aside time every day to study. Read the
chapter carefully. Take and review your
notes. Practice the problems in the chapter.
Try the homework. Try to figure out as much
as you can yourself.
• Don’t rely on the help of others too much or
you will grow weak and unable to solve
problems yourself.
• Start now preparing for the final.
OrJust
Don’t
hit the
drown!!!
ground!!!
Do
It !!!!!!
Precise Listening and
Reading
Making Mountains out of Molehills
• Learn to listen to exactly what is being
said and read exactly what is written.
• Students often read into things that which
is just are not there.
• Most concepts are simple but are made
difficult by plugged communication filters
or inability to listen or read with precision.
• Cornell Note Taking Format (Click Here)
Making Moutains out of Mole Hills
• Do not read into what is written or
said by the instructor things that just
aren’t there.
• Listen and read with precision!
What is real.
What you
think is
real!
Real Problem
What you think the
problem is!
Listen/read exactly and hit the
mark of understanding!!!
Practice
• Nothing can be mastered without practice
• Do all examples in each chapter and practice
going through the given solution procedures.
• Try problems with the answers at the end of
the chapter or book and see if you get the
right answer.
• Practice 5-10 problems covering every
concept until you have mastered the concept
or technique.
Practice Tests
• Find a list of problems that cover the material
of the test and that have answers.
• Work the problems like you are taking a test
without looking up the answers.
• Grade and correct your test and look up how
to find the answers.
• Repeat the test doing the only the ones you
missed.
• Repeat the process until you have correctly
worked all of the problems
Persistence
The wind beneath your wings.
• A successful person is one that gets up one more
time than they fall down.
• Complete the class as much as possible if you
think you may have to repeat it. The more you
learn now the better you will do second time
around.
• "Become a Possibilitarian. No matter how dark
things seem to be or actually are, raise your
sights and see possibilities—always see them,
for they're always there."
~ Norman Vincent Peale
Patterns
• Look for and memorize patterns.
• Find a problem and solve it.
• Then put in new numbers and see how the
answer is affected.
• Try changing one small part of the problem
or rearrange the problem with new numbers
until you understand all perspectives and
aspects of the problem.
Look for
patterns that
repeat over
and over
again….
Pictures
• Pictures and diagrams help us understand
and communicate with ourselves and others.
• You do not need to be an artist.
• Visual and Audio communication is more
effective than audio communication alone.
• Write out all numbers and formulas and it will
be easier to put the numbers in the correct
place in the formulas.
• Use Graphic Organizers. Click
Sequential Thinking
• Learn to organize your study and
thinking into sequential steps.
• Read one sentence at a time until you
understand it. Then, and only then, go
on to the next sentence.
• Break problems down into steps and
look at and do only one step at a time.
• Think in steps, like a staircase
• Look for the first step
• Link each step to the next using
the question as a guide to end on
Answer to
Question
First Step (generally not a conversion factor)
Neat Work
• Write out all steps neatly with units
attached to all numbers.
• Neat and orderly work reflects an
organized and intelligent mind.
• Neat work makes checking your work
easier.
• Again shortcuts are longcuts and
longcuts are shortcuts.
Groups
• Most work in the real
world is done in groups.
• When you can explain a
concept or teach another
how to do a problem you
are approaching
understanding.
• Two heads are always
better than one.
• Help your friend and he
or she will help you.
• Click here for example
Try Something
NEW!!
• You never learn anything until you
try something new.
• Don’t try something foolish.
• Look for traits in others or their
activities that you admire and try
them on yourself.
Getting Help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfPrW9
olbM&NR=1
• Get help if you need it.
• The best source is the instructor. Attend
study sessions. Arrange to meet with the
instructor during office hours. (FMOOWMP)
• Work with others. Two heads are better
than one.
• Do not rely too much on others. If you do
you, will grow weak and not learn how to
solve problems yourself.