It was the evening before i was to give a test to my students, and i received a frantic phone call from a parent, asking me to let the daughter take the test later since the parent didn’t feel her daughter was ready to take the test. “Mrs. Ortiz,” the voice at the other end said, “You have the children reviewing sixteen pages of notes for this test! It’s too much! My daughter isn’t absorbing it all and she has the test tomorrow!”
“Okay, let’s see what we can do to help her. First of all, is this the first time your daughter has looked at the material?”
“Yes.”
“If this is the first time she’s looked at it, I agree with you: it’s a lot. But since it covers three and a half weeks, it’s really less than a page a day. So, let’s see if we can get her to review it in manageable chunks and follow a study plan.” The plan i gave her is the plan i will share with you. First of all, it is said that the difference between an A student and a C student is an hour per week. I haven’t tabulated it, but i do agree that what matters is short, repeated exposure to the material. Here’s the plan I gave this bright, pleasant student of mine: - When you take notes, don’t let your mind wander. Focus on what you are writing, and that will be your first exposure to the material.
- At the end of class, most teachers give the students five minutes or so before the bell rings so they can get their materials packed and get ready for their next class. Since it only takes a minute or less to do this, students have a few minutes to read over what they just wrote. This small use of a few minutes makes a huge difference: It reinforces what was just learned, right after it was learned and before details have a chance to slip through the cracks of memory. That way, if there’s anything missing
from the notes or something was written poorly or a question arises, you can catch it right away and ask the teacher or correct the notes so you can understand it later. - Next, review the notes as soon as you get home from school. It takes five minutes or less to read over one notebook page of notes, and if you do this for all your classes, it would take just above half an hour to review everything. A painless half an hour equals no more bloodshot eyes at three in the morning before a test. You will have much better retention, too. this is now the third time you have reviewed the one page of notes.
- At the end of each week, on Friday after classes are finished, review all the notes from the week. That’s five pages of notes that have now been reviewed four times.
- Before the test, give the notes another review. Because you’ve already reviewed it four times prior, this would give you a pretty good handle on it. At this point it’s just a refresher, not learning something new. The sixteen pages that seemed so overwhelming the first time you look at it is really quite manageable now, and the difference between failing and acing the test is really just a few minutes a day.
Author: Jana Ortiz. Ms. Ortiz has an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Philosophy of Education. She is the founder of Kosmar Enterprises. Look for additional tips from Ms. Ortiz in our next issue.
|
