Study Methods

As a student you should:

• Spend as much time studying for this non-traditional course as you would have spent if you had registered for this course in its traditional lecture format - going to lectures and doing homework.

  • This translates to about 10 hours a week for a 16-week course, or about 12 hours a week for this 12-week course.

• Do not procrastinate, and you should not cram for exams. Set up a regular study schedule for this course and stick to it!

  • Read the learning objectives.

    • The learning objectives listed in the textbook at the beginning of each online chapter are more general than those composed by the instructor.

    • The instructor's learning objectives will be correlated to the examination questions.

  • Study the assigned textbook material. This includes the "Issues and Applications" sections found at the end of most chapters.

  • Complete the Study Plan and relevant Sample Test over the chapter you are studying.

    • Re-study the material you were weak on.

    • Go to the Study Plan again and take the second Sample Test for the chapter.

    • Once again re-study the material you are still weak on.

  • Do all of the homework for the chapter you are studying. This Homework is graded but can be taken over and over again until you get it right.

  • Take the relevant quiz for that chapter after you feel comfortable with the material the chapter covers.

• Take the four midterm exams and the final by their assigned deadline dates.

Reading the textbook thoroughly is the key to doing well in this Distance Learning course.

• Distance Learning courses have no lectures to help you understand the material being covered.

• You must rely almost completely on the textbook to help you understand the material. This is why reading, and re-reading the text is so essential.

• I recommend that you take these steps in reading each chapter. If you read your textbook in this structured and disciplined way, you will learn much more than if you approach your reading task in an unorganized manner, and you will do much better on the exams than you would otherwise do.

• Step One: Skim the chapter. Spend three to five seconds looking over each page of the chapter.

• Step Two: Quickly read over the chapter again reading only the title of the chapter, the learning objectives, all the headings and sub-headings in the chapter, all the words in bold print, and all the words in the left column of each page in the chapter.

• Step Three: Read the introduction of the chapter, the first paragraph of each section or subsection in the chapter, and the first sentence of all of the other paragraphs in the section or subsection. Finally, read the summary of the chapter.

• Step Four: Without referring back to the chapter make a list of all the important concepts, terms, ideas, theories, and laws that you can remember.

• Step Five: Read the introduction, the learning objectives, and the summary of the chapter in the "What You Should Know" section at the end of the chapter.

• Step Six: Revise and improve your list and then use it to make the outline/map of the chapter.

• Step Seven: Read the chapter in the text completely and thoroughly.

• Step Eight: Revise and improve your outline/map once again. This time add the key terms to the appropriate places in your outline/map if they had been included before this time.

• Step Nine: Complete a Study Plan for the chapter in MyEconLab.

• Step Ten: Revise your outline/map one more time.

• Step Eleven: Review your outline/map every four or five days until the exam and then use it to prepare for the exam.