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Click to edit Master title style

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I’m Not A Weed!
Study Smart –
Improving
Your Study
Skills

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Study Smart –
Improving Your Study Skills
Proudly Presented by:
Alexandria von Ausdall, TAMUC
Petula Brown, Trinity
Randi Lou Franklin, Inter-Lingua

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What’s getting in the way?
• Skill gaps
• Not knowing how to study
• Low self-confidence
• Disorganized
• Low motivation
• Lack of support

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Understand your learning Style
• The auditive: You learn by listening.
• The visual: You learn by seeing text (reading) or by seeing
real or mental pictures.
• The tactual: You learn by using your hands and feet.
• The kinesthetic: You learn by using your whole body and / or
by involving yourself as a person.
Sensory modalities The Dunn & Dunn model.

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10 Strategies
To Deal
With it All…

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What am I ever
going to use
this for??
My actual grade
is much higher
I’m stupid!

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1. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF !!
• Believe in your abilities
• Recognize your individual talents
• You have to want it!
• Develop the confidence to do well now AND for your future!

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2. BE ORGANIZED
• Use an assignment notebook
• Use a 3-ring binder for class notes
• Use different folders for each class
• Have phone numbers for classmates; find out
what you’re missing
• Keep your study zone and backpack neat
• Get organized before going to bed
• Pick 1 day/week to reorganize yourself

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3. MANAGE YOUR TIME WELL
• Use class time and study halls
• Create your own study plan
• Homework DOES NOT = Studying!
• Plan for a ½ hour of homework & studying PER DAY, PER SUBJECT!
• Prepare for things that may go wrong
• Make it fun! Get a group together and order pizza; studying is
not an ugly requirement – it’s a good investment
• Reward yourself!!!

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4. BE SUCCESSFUL IN CLASS
• Learn how to adapt to different teachers
• Be in school, on time, every day
• Be prepared for each class
• Sit in front of the class if possible
• Always do assigned practice problems
• Participate in class

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5. TAKE GOOD NOTES
• Preview material the night before
• Be an active listener
• Are you only writing down what you see on this screen or are you
actually listening to the information being relayed?
• Recognize important information
• Get lecture notes if you are absent
• Create a mind map, make flash cards, use mnemonics
• Go over your notes as soon as possible
• Rewrite if necessary

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6. USE GOOD READING TECHNIQUES
• SQ3R
• Survey: titles, headings, pictures, graphs, charts, etc.
• Question: turn boldfaced subtitles into questions
• Read: read with the purpose of answering your
questions
• Recite: stop periodically to check for your
understanding
• Review: go back to answer your questions, answer
chapter questions, review material a little
every night

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Recall in the Hall
• Recall key points of previous lecture while going to
next location
• Relate material covered to past concepts and
future associations
• Use flash cards to test yourself while waiting in
lines, eating, at the gym, doing laundry etc. . .
• Use association and pictures as memory anchors

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7. STUDY SMARTER
• Find a good place to study
• Get started on something easier, don’t save the most difficult assignment for last!
• Know your learning style
• Organize your study time
• Know HOW to study
• Use tricks to help you memorize information
• Use humour!
• Write a song or use mnemonics

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Start making up your own mnemonic devices
Recommended: Breakthrough Learning (1995) by Scott Bornstein
• Use positive pleasant images
• Use vivid colorful silly images
• Use three-dimensional
images
• Exaggerate the size of the
images
• Use humor
• Use symbols (traffic lights,
pointing finger)
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Memories • Colors
• Smells
• Tastes
• Touch
• Feelings
• Shapes
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While written language
is one of the ways we
communicate, it is only
one of the skills and
resources available to
our minds.
“Elephant” OR

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By using all your senses, but especially your ability to create
visual images, you can increase your power to memorize.
Researchers say:

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DEVELOP TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES
• Do not cram, study material daily and methodically
• Be prepared … eat before test … then relax
• Develop a plan how to approach the test
• Read ALL your answer choices
• Mark questions you want to return to
• Don’t spend too much time on a single problem
• Increase your odds on multiple choice
• Try to “Predict”/estimate the answer first
• Eliminate choices you KNOW are incorrect

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9. REDUCE TEST ANXIETY
• Study enough to feel confident
• Get a good night’s sleep
• Mentally practice going
through the test
• Be confident and think
positively!

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10. GET HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT
• Professors
• Guidance counselor/ advisor
• Peers / study groups
• Parents / family (allow them to help)
• Library / Internet research
• Outside tutoring professionals

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Questions?