Look At Me Go!

Look at me go! It is Saturday night and I am doing my blog! Usually I am the last one to do my blog on Sunday afternoon, but this time I'm not! Probably because I went home for the weekend to get my car fixed so I'm not out tonight, but also because I don't want to be the last one to post anymore. So, I am turning over a new leaf and I will be doing my blog earlier from now on. This past weekend has been ah-mazing! Actually though, it was time to take a trip home. I left Thursday night after my last class and drove 4 hours to Connecticut. A feeling of excitement came over me when I pulled into my driveway, I had actually forgotten how great it was to go home sometimes! Not only was my house spotless, but we had actual FRESH food, and clean floors. For me, this was like a dream come true, since I live purely off of Lean Cuisine's, grilled cheese, and our floors are so dirty I have to wear shoes in the kitchen! My mom washed my clothing for me, and actually bleached my whites, which were previously yellow (Thanks Syracuse laundry services.) Not only did I get real food and clean clothing, but I also got to sleep in, with no interruptions of hearing people walking in and out, or talking too loudly, I actually slept until 2 in the afternoon easily. It turned me into a new person, I was no longer grumpy, the wonder's of what going home can do!

So, I am being as lazy as I can possibly be, and trying pretty hard not to move from the couch, but it hit me, I have a test this Wednesday, as well as my Astronomy test at the end of the week so I have to start my Exam Experiment! So, I decided to try out T.A.R.T. which stands for

Terms Read the terms and definitions in bold print in a chapter or glossary in the beginn

ing and end of the chapter. Create abbreviations for only important terms.

Attend Attend lecture, reread your lectures notes prior to reading the textbook.

Read Read the chapter for clarification of the information covered in lecture.

Test Create test questions you think your professor will ask, then answer them.

Here are the notecards which I made for step one of TART.

Then of course I attended the lectures, read the chapters to

make sure that all of my notes covered what my professor

taught to us in class. However I still have two more classes

before our test so I haven't created the Test part until the next

class to make sure I get in all the notes!

The next test strategy I tried out was Charlie Reads Smart

approach. For this one, similar to TART is done like this:

Chunk - Chunk the assignment according to your attention span and schedule realistically.

Read - Keep in mind the professors reading purpose.

Summarize - Create a graphic organizer,outline, index cards, taping, or summary.

Test - Create test questions and answers reading strategy.

Here is my Charlie Reads Smart strategy played out!

Charlie Reads Smart didn't really work for me. I didn't like the

chunking the part or the creating the

questions part either, it isn't my

preferred style to learn. For me, usually

these strategies show me how to apply

LAME however with this particular

strategy I didn't see how to apply LAME to Charlie Reads Smart. For me,

TART worked really well for me in understanding how to apply LAME

especially the evaluation part of how the teacher is going to evaluate me and

what I have learned. To me, TART made that more clear which for me,

is what I need when it comes to LAME because I struggle for some reason

trying to understand it and put it to good use!

I have started to like to end all of my blogs with Dr. Blumin's favorite

saying, which has slowly become mine as well.

"If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten."

And for once I can say that I am changing my ways and it is a great feeling to want to change what you have always done to do better! Look at me go!