17. Five "Rs" of Making Study Guides
■ Reflect
■ Record
■ Recite
■ Review
■ Reduce
18. Step 1: Reflect
■ Question:
– What do I really know?
– What do I not know?
■ Evidence:
– Where do I show it?
■ Attitude:
– Be Skeptical
■ Method:
– Grade yourself
19. Step 2: Record
■ Goal:AvoidingYOUR common
pitfalls
■ For each section or problem type:
– List common mistakes
– Record “KEYS” to the process
– Example problems
20. Step 3: Recite
■ Rework old problems
– Read the solution
– Cover it
– Write it out on a blank page in 3-
column notes
■ Find Study Partners
– PeerTutors
– Classmates
– Study Group
21. Step 4: Review
■ Get Right [Mindset]
■ Prioritize StudyTime (30 min)
■ DoYour Part
■ Make a “Tactical Retreat”
■ Back on the Horse
“If I can
understand the
process &
practice enough,
I know I can do
this!”
“How am I
supposed to do
it if the
instructor didn’t
teach me?”
22. Example:Algebra
■ Top: 3 Column Notes
■ Middle: Practice Problems
■ Bottom: Reflection on Learning
25. Create a “Launch” Study Schedule
T-14 T-13 T-12 T-11 T-10 T-9 T-8 T-7 T-6 T-5 T-4 T-3 T-2 T-1 L
Reflect
Record
Recite
Review
Reduce
Test Day!
Chill Day!
26. Scenario
■ Jim is studying for his pre-algebra exam
■ The exam covers Chapter 1 & 2
■ Chapter 1 has six sections
■ Chapter 2 has five sections
■ Jim is really worried about Sections 2.4, 2.5, & 2.6 which he started but is confused
about.
■ Jim knows he has mild test anxiety, so the night before he wants to be low-key and
comfortable.
■ Jim decided to apply one tip from the tutoring workshop and create a study plan
28. Jim’s Daily Study Plan:
T-10 (Section 1.5)
■ Don’t waste your time studying in long
blocks!
■ Be flexible about the order
– Reflect
– Recite
– Record
– Reduce 1.2
– Review 1.5
■ Be flexible about the time needed for
each step
T-10
15 min: Reflect on 1.5 (Mark HW)
BREAK
20 min: Record 1.5 (formulas)
BREAK
35 min: Recite 1.5 (Read/Cover/Write)
BREAK
5 min: Review 1.5 (3 column notes for each
type of problem)
BREAK
15 min: Reduce 1.2
29. Tip for the totally lost:
Studying sections in order can help review & fill-in knowledge
gaps for later sections. However, make sure you have enough
time to “double up” days to get enough review time in on last
sections.
Tip for all others:
Start with the most challenging section first if you got through
the assignment (with some mistakes).
31. Our Services
Study Help
• Drop-In Study Help for all courses
• Study Groups
• On-Track Appointments
• Question Drop-Off
Tech Help
• Drop-In Student Tech Help
• Ask-a-Lab Associate Question Drop-off
• Get Tech Ready and Appy Hour Workshops
Learning Help
• Check out our collection of self-service resources that supplement classroom materials
Get In Touch!
www.wccnet.edu/LC (live chat assistance offered during regular hours)
(734) 973-3420
Lab Email: LCLab@wccnet.edu
Tutoring Email: TutorWCC@wccnet.edu
Editor's Notes
Introduce yourself
First name
Major
Courses you tutor
Ask attendees their names & emails
Email students a copy of workshop materials so they can follow along.
Ice Breaker: How many have every felt like this internet meme?
What was the big hurdle that contributed to this feeling?
How did you get through it?
Conclusion: It’s okay to feel this way. However, the goal of this workshop is to empower you to move forward more quickly by giving you the mindset, process, & self-awareness to transition more quickly to getting it done.
Addressing Skepticism: It’s ironic that after learning something difficult, people look back and say/believe it “wasn’t as hard” as they thought. Many don’t even acknowledge that there ever was a significant challenge.
Point: Learning changes our brains, attitudes, beliefs about who we are & where we are going
There is supposed to be difference between high school & college education
College Education is aimed at
Specialized study
Working with professionals to become a professional
Instructors are trying to help students with skill building & concept mastery
Develop critical thinking skills for problem-solving
Reflecting on their own learning (“metacognitive learning”)
Accurate self assessment
Balance Independence with Inter-dependence
Instructors spend a lot of time defining course start/end points & progess
Walk-Thru: lecture, readings, practice problems, labs, presentations, projects, exams, etc.
To further control how you study is very confining & counter-productive to goals
There are so many methods
The best learning is applied to student lived experience
The bad news is that there are many paths from “Point A to Point B”
The good news is that we evaluate the process used to become more effective—Save Time, Get Learning “Done”
After a semester or two you will be comfortable with the process that works for you
At the beginning it will be challenging
Ask participants what they think & why.
Explain that both contain good information for different stages of learning.
Reality:
The study guide is just a plan.
Like a diet, it doesn’t work if you don’t follow it.
Also realize:
A general plan may help you avoid failing—that’s not the same as passing.
An effective study guide is different from a chapter or unit summary.
A unit summary overviews key points from the chapter without distinguishing challenging topics or suggesting priority for study.
This is already available in the form of
End-of-Chaper reviews in the textbook
Student lecture notes
More of the same is not likely to help
Reality:
There is a difference between studying and reading/looking over things
Creating meaning requires active thinking
Reading only involves decoding
Students that want to be effective with their time should use the process that is the most active.
This is Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Processing. It’s a model that describes different levels of thinking that are used.
Creating a study guide represents the apex of thinking—it is the hardest mental task to do. It means that you have to work through the other layers.
Looking over a provided study guide only requires comprehension—one of the lower levels of processing. While this is important but you may not be ready for the test just by understanding
Ex: People can watch a science documentary and follow along (ie comprehend) the main ideas—this does not make the audience ready to perform a lab, build a rocket, or perform surgery.
Reality:
The study guide does not represent what’s in your head!
Students write down what the DON’T know
As you study, the brain recognizes more information more quickly
Students find they remove information from study guides because eventually it becomes very obvious
A well-prepared student may have a study guide that is a half or quarter page in length, includes pictures, and isn’t very comprehensible to others.
Multi-page
Lots of topics
No priority between what is known and unknown to the user
May not be relevant all semester
Conclusion:
May be helpful in the learning phase
Less helpful for exam review phase
One page
Bite-size topics
Fewer, more relevant facts to a specific person
Color-coded by topic, with headings
Hand-written content is generally easier to remember
Arrows show awareness of relationships between topics
Relevant to what this particular student needs to know
Ironically, it is less than useful to others—though they don’t always realize it!
A personalized study guide COMPLEMENTS student strengths & weaknesses
After effective studying the information is in your head
You don’t need to write so much down on the page
EX: the address of a new apartment may be unfamiliar on the first visit—you might have to write down the zip code, etc. After another visit, getting mail, or filling in paperwork you don’t need it written down.
Things to know: this process is non-linear
Analogy: while driving you shift gears to provide the smoothest, effective ride--the order changes based on context.
It’s okay to get help AT ANY STAGE of this process.
Successful students are very accurate about guessing what they do & do not understand
They have high level of awareness
They accept differences in understanding
Good News: This ability can be learned & improved through practice.
Understanding comes from Review & Recite stages
Awareness comes from Reflection & Recording stages
Reflection is the first stage in building awareness
Goal: figure out what you really know & what you really don’t know
Attitude: be skeptical & ask for proof
Process: Markup Your Own Practice Problems
Get a red pen (or any other color)
Notice & mark common mistakes on old problem sets
Ex: Math – making mistakes in arithmetic
Ex: Anthropology – writing a summary instead of making a claim
The next step is to figure out why you don’t know something
Do this by figuring out what information is missing or misunderstood.
Let’s call this info “KEYS” to the process
Process:
Take a page and fold it into quarters
Assign one box to each section & write-in a heading
If you understand the material well move on!
Note: You understand it if you got the homework right the first time through.
If you don’t understand the material well in the section: write in
The mistakes made in homework problems on the first try
The Key Idea to avoid each common pitfall
Optional: Include example of each type
To recite means to perform the information
Apply it
Teach it
Rehearse it
Write it out
Use three column notes to clarify one item in each column:
Process
Application
Rationale
Work with a tutor
Ask the tutor to quiz you
Ask the tutor to listen to your recitation of the answer
Tutor a classmate!
If you are still facing pitfalls you may not have found all the KEYS that are needed.
Shrug off frustrations by taking a break & get into “creator mindset”
Find a 30-minute window of study time to focus on the specific topic
Go back to the original source material to figure out what idea(s) were missed
Adding more information into lecture or class notes
Re-reading limited, select textbook passages again
Watching limited, select lecture videos again
Asking follow-up questions in class or office hour
Looking up additional study resources (additional problem sets or examples)
Know when to stop!
Don’t get stuck in an endless loop of trying the same thing that doesn’t work—this is NOT learning!
You need to SAVE time & STAY motivated
Be COURAGEOUS & get help
Early—NOT the day before the test!
From the right people: instructors, classmates, tutors, friends/family
Here’s another example of a personalized study guide on a specific topic:
At the top the student
Lists & defines terms, with examples
In the middle the student creates & solves application problems
Notice that they also take time to check their work
You could go to office hours or tutoring!
At the bottom the students leaves space for reflection about their learning
Ex “The communitive property lets me move the numbers without changing the answer”
Basically, the student discovered the purpose of this math concept. Being able to restate it in their own words is more proof the student understands it.
Q: Why reduce information after so much work?
Handy reference guide – keep it simple
Shows only the info that’s relevance to you
Updates priority for the next study session
Transfers learning from short long term memory
Tip: Writing out by hand is generally better than typing!
Assess your progress
Ex: Jenny knows that when she can simplify her study sheet down to one side of a page she is ready for the test. This helps her plan what day to take her test and when to start studying. This also helps her feel confident the night before the test—instead of cramming she can have a nice dinner with family, watch a fun show with friends, and go to bed on time.
Process:
Cross off items on the study page that are committed to memory
Recopy the remaining information to a new piece of paper.
Don’t force it, but try to use less space.
Write in sections to study for each day
Recommendation: Always start with reflection to figure out what needs to be done.
Jim sets out a study plan to start 2 weeks early because it’s his first test
He dedicates one day per section for the sections he did “okay” on (Section 1.1 – 2.3)
Jim will schedule four study sessions of 15- 40 minutes each (as needed)
Reflect: self-grade his own homework and list his “Top 5” mistakes on the back
Record: Write down all the key formulas and rules on his study sheet
Recite: Use the Read/Cover/Write-it-Out method for the problems he knows how to do (30 min)
Review: For the problems he forgot or struggled with he will use the 3-column notes method (30 min)
Jim holds off on Reducing his study sheet for three more days to make sure he learned the content
When Jim gets to Sections 2.4 – 2.6, Jim allows 2 days per section
On the first day (T-6) he reflects on Section 2.4 and realizes he doesn’t really understand how to do the homework
He decides to skip the recite and record steps & dive into reviewing concepts
Jim goes back to the class notes for this section to review concepts
Jim goes back to the textbook examples and reads through the sample problems, line by line
Jim covers up the example and tries to recreate it on a blank page—it’s slow but he gets through
On the second day (T-5) Jim goes to tutoring
He completes the homework and double-checks the process with a tutor
Before he leaves the session he writes down his top mistakes
After a break he writes down the Key formulas on his review sheet
Before bed he spends 15 minutes reviewing a problem from tutoring using the Read/Cover/Write method
On T-4 & T-3 he follows the same plan
He also peeks ahead at Section 2.6 for just 10 minutes to size up his load
On T-2 Jim surprises himself by being able to understand Section 2.6 based on review of past sections.
If he needed more time he could still study on T-1 as long as he started early
Jim decides to stop studying at 3 pm because that’s when he typically starts worrying
Jim reduces his study guide one more time, this time updating Section 2.6
*This could be controversial! Let’s see what people think!”