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!

Best Intentions

This weekend I went home to celebrate Yom Kippur with my family and to have a little time to myself and relax. As I was packing my bag of things I would need while I was home, I thought back to my IC meeting I had just a half hour before and remembered that I needed to start working on my Exam Experiment. While I had already done "Anticipating Test Questions" during the week as part of my CLS homework, I figured that I could do a "Source and Topic Outline" over the weekend and use it for both my Tech Assignment and Exam Experiment. After all, who doesn't love making life a little easier? Unfortunately, as I was already halfway home to Connecticut my mind began to wonder back to CLS (it's a 4 1/2 hour drive, you have a lot of time to think) and all of a sudden Dr. Blumin's voice popped into my head and I heard "Always study by topic, NEVER by source."And that's when it hit me, I had left my Dynamics of Addiction textbook at school. I originally had thought that all I would need was my class notebook and syllabus since it lists the chapters I would need to study right there, but clearly I forgot about Wednesday's class and my mindwas already on Noodle Kugel (only after I fast, of course). So, despite my best intentions this week's blog will focus on the "Anticipating Test Questions" I made during the week.

The first class I applied the test-prep strategy to was my Nutrition course. During each class Professor Short reveals a few test questions that will be on the next exam. While this is extremely beneficial, the handful of questions she has given us by the time the exam comes around isn't enough to study off of. Therefore, by anticipating test questions I am able to provide myself with 60 potential test questions as opposed to 15.

To Create these test questions I thought back to our first exam and noted that since all of the questions were multiple choice, and the pattern of the course information is by definition, that the majority of the questions were, and will be, defining terms and fact based. As a result, a lot of the questions I wrote are based on one or two word answers, since that is how it will look on the actual exam.

I've learned that by studying by asking myself questions in the format that I will be tested on, rather than simply memorizing information off of a flashcard, I am learning the material but in a way that is much more effective since I have basically created my own mock-exam.

The second course I applied the test-prep strategy to was my HTW318- Dynamics of Addiction class. Similar to my Nutrition class, in HTW318 the Professor asks the students a few questions each class, to which we have to answer by using our "clickers". Although Dr. Bergen-Cico isn't blatantly saying "these are the questions that will be on your next exam" I've learned through CLS that the chances that those questions, or ones very similar to them, will be on the exam are very high.

As well, when the Professor asks these questions I am able to see the way in which she is asking them, therefore giving me insight on how the questions will most likely be phrased on the exam. I also created five questions on my "Anticipating Test Questions" sheet based off of the syllabus. When I looked at the calendar I was able to see that a lot of focus was placed on "Uppers" and especially "Downers". From this I was able to look back at my notes from class, find information on these subjects, and then write potential test questions based on the way the Professor had phrased the questions in class.

When I can remember to do so, I also use the "20 Minute Test Prep" that I had first tried out on my first blog. While this technique and "Anticipating Test Questions" are similar because they both involve creating potential test questions, I found that this new test-prep strategy opened my eyes to a new way of creating questions and studying. Now, instead of just relying on my class notes to anticipate questions, I can refer back to my syllabus or listen for questions the professor is asking in class.

Even though I wasn't able to get a head start on my Exam Experiment like I had planned, this new strategy will help me in the future and even with the exam I will be using for the Exam Experiment. Now I have 10 potential questions to study off of! Wohooo!!