who would have thought studying could be so easy!?

My typical study habits normally consist of rereading my notes and praying that that gets the job done for preparing for my exams.

This isn't always the best way to work though and I don't always feel as prepared as I want to be when I just reread my notes...

So this time around for my earth sciences exam I tried a new strategy! One that enco

uraged me to use ALL the sources I had been given instead of just the chicken scratch I scribble down in lecture.

My original source and topic out were a hot mess! but once I realized that I had to write down all the sources i have for earth science (my textbook, lecture notes, and an online exam) everything became a lot more clear! After breaking down the sources, I separated what text book chapters I needed to review and what notes correlated with the chapters making it clear what topics were going to be on the exam!

That leads us to the next step! the topic outline! by looking at my sources I was able to see there were three main topics that were going to be on my exam. I organized

my sources that I had to see what was going to be useful to help me study for each topic. OH! and it also helped me see where the major source of information was coming from! I was able to see that majority of my test was most likely going to be on the earth's interior. I studied this section the most and wow was I lucky! Go figure that almost half of my exam was on the earth's interior... Without making a source outline and a topic outline I never would have seen the pattern.

By using my main topics I then skimmed my textbook for definitions and predicted 10 different test questions I thought could possibly appear on my exam (10 can be a little ambitious but I had the free time to do it so why not use it wisely)! I first

wrote all my practice questions on a sheet of paper, then I transferred each of the questions over to note cards! I wrote the topic on one side of the notecard and the question with possible answer choices on the other side. Not only was I able to anticipate test questions but i then turned those test questions into a new study method of flashcards which I found to be so effective!!

This weeks strategies of the source and topic outline and anticipating test questions were confusing to me at first, but once I realized how to use everything effectively i found out these methods are definitely useful. After receiving my test grade back it confirmed that I will continue to use these techniques because I ROCKed my test! (ironic because a portion was on rocks ;))