Answers:
What methods can I use to prepare for tests?
Organization is very important when you have a great deal of information to study. I recommend these methods:
Review your old tests. Make corrections if you have not already done so to avoid repeating your mistakes.
Go over your class notes. If you do not understand something you have written, or if you have "holes" in your notes, ask your teacher for help.
Try to anticipate the kinds of questions your teacher will ask on the test. Make out some sample questions or even entire tests.
Review the chapters in your textbook that the test will cover. Pay particular attention to boldface terms, chapter summaries, and questions in the text. Most important of all is the recommendation that you understand there is no easy way to prepare for this kind of major test. After all, the time you spend in preparing should pay off when you do well on the test.
Set aside time each day to work on your subjects. Even if you are all caught up, spend the time to go over notes or your textbook.
Tell your teacher that you would like to talk about your progress in class, and ask for suggestions on how you can do better.
Go to the library and check out books that are on the same topic you are studying in class.
Pay attention in class no matter what is going on around you. This will be hard, but if you can concentrate on what your teacher is saying you will learn the facts and skills that you will find later in tests. Keeping up with homework and participating in class are very important.
As for tests, here are a few suggestions to help you:
Talk with your teachers about your concerns. They really want you to do well and are more than willing to help!
What type of test is most difficult for you? Do you do better on essays than you do on multiple choice questions? Decide which type of test gives you the most problems. Then you can learn techniques for taking that kind of test.
Are you studying effectively for your exams? Here are some ideas that will make a difference.
Make sure you know what material will be covered on the exam. There is nothing worse than studying for hours only to find out you were doing the wrong chapters. Go over your notes. Do not wait until the last minute to study. Try to tie all your information into a big picture in your head. Visualize information. Get a good sleep the night before, and eat a nourishing breakfast. When you first sit down to a test, start answering something, anything, immediately. Once you start, you will be on a roll. Do not get discouraged!
OR
Go to a nice, clean, neat desk in your room. If you have paper junk and leftover pizza slices on your desk, studying will not be the biggest problem on your mind.
Make sure that you have all these study supplies: a pencil, a notebook, books to study, and good old-fashioned silence. Unless you're completely positive you work better with music, turn off the stereo. Focusing is hard enough without Beyonce telling you "you make me lose my breath".
Get out your pencil, notebook, and book to study. Brace yourself.
Open the notebook and book you are studying.
Read the chapter or whatever you have to study in your book. Concentrate.
While you are reading you want to make notes of the little things. Make it short enough so that you can study it. Make short little breaks now and then (think half an hour of studying= 5 minute break) unless you're cramming, and in that case, good luck to you.
Get a friend, Mom, Dad or someone to test you on what you have just read and studied. A key here would be to make sure that the person has a fair amount of patience.
Do this every night until the day of the test/quiz. Depending on what you're studying and how much time you have, give yourself assigned time slots.
Tips
You need peace and quiet for all the steps above (or at least, they greatly HELP).
Your attitude greatly helps the outcome of your studying: if you're pissed off at the world, you won't really care much about biology, and likewise, if you're so excited you can't breathe, you are not going to want to sit down and read about the Mesopotamian Era. Think about that and try to regulate your moods when it's time to hit the books.
Warnings
Don't fry your brain. Remember to take breaks now and then unless you want to go into work overload.
If you hate studying, remember soon the tests will pass. Focus on the present but remember how much this will help in the future. You CAN do it!
Things You'll Need
a pencil
a notebook just for study notes
a book to study
a clean desk to study on
a fresh, clean room
anything electric off(unless you can handle it)
a patient person who is willing to help
a decent attitude
OR
Do you ever need to remember a list of items, but don't have a pen and paper on hand? Using the Roman Room trick, you can remember a great many things. Basically, you make a room in your mind. Mentally, you go to your room and look at it every day to make sure you remember everything. Whenever you want to remember a new item, you change something in your room, and when you revisit that room in your mind, you'll remember that item. Here's how to make this work for you.
Steps
Create and memorize a room in your head. Make it as big and beautiful as you wish. Smaller rooms are easier to remember, but big rooms work too.
Test yourself by making a list of 10 words to remember tomorrow. For example, consider the following list:
a shoe
a dog
a desk
the date 12/09/1990
a cow
your Grandpa Billy Bob
a turkey
$20 you owe your landlady
computer
eggs
If you want to remember all these things, just change things in your room in ways that will remind you. You can add an ugly shoe pattern to the walls, have a barking dog on your couch or table, put an elaborate desk against the wall, write the date on the frame of a famous painting on the wall, put a picture of a fat cow on the wall, have Grandpa Billy Bob eating sloppy joes on your new white carpet, have a Thanksgiving turkey on the dining room table, have your landlady standing there yelling with a bill in her hand for $20, a broken computer on the floor, and eggs smashed on the door. These are all just ideas - you can use anything you want to memorize.
Try to remember your whole list the next day. If you didn't remember some of it, it could be because you didn't make the change noticeable or memorable enough. If you just wrote the date on the wall, you won't remember it, but if you wrote it in big neon pink letters on the bottom of the Mona Lisa, you'll have a better chance of remembering it.
Review your Roman room regularly, until you know it like the back of your hand. That way, when you make a change, it'll stand out, just the way if somebody made a drastic change to your bedroom, you'd notice immediately.
Tips
The Roman Room is better for short lists, but can be used for long lists as well.
If you want to be able to remember longer lists, try the Memory trick (see related wikiHows below).
Try not to memorize it all at once. Take baby steps, gradually moving up.
Try to find someone else willing to learn this technique with you.
This exercise may have originated as a Buddhist meditation. You can find this entire exercise in the book "Path Notes of an American Ninja Master" by Glenn Morris. Prepare a time chart starting from less interesting to high intresting but stick to the schedule. It will help.
Prepare a time chart starting from less interesting to high intresting but stick to the schedule. It will help.
I will say that you lock your door when you are studying and if you are doing you homework go to a Friends house to do it!
Study in a quiet place. No music, no TV, no phone calls, etc. Give yourself a small reward for every 30 minutes that you study such as a piece of fruit, an energy bar, a Coke or whatever. Make notes on what you read. Try to condense it into a sentence or a few words. If you are allowed to write in the book, underline or write in the margins. Are there study questions at the end of each chapter? See if you can answer them. If not, go back and find that specific information. Source(s):
teacher
Distractions are easy when you are bored with something BUT many course are required bored or not.
CLose the blinds. close the door, turn off the phone, tv, stereo.
Look at is this way:
School is your job you go to everyday and you get paid by receiving and retaining as much information as possible given to you by the current employees.
Your reward will be a good paying job in the future and a brain full of information. seriously? try getting tested for ADD/ADHD or what ever they have labled it this week.
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