Study Tips

Daily in class:

  • Take good notes.

  • Stay organized.

  • Continuously make connections to prior lessons – how can your prior knowledge help you?

  • Focus throughout the entire lesson – immediately ask (or write down) questions you may have as they come to you.

  • When asked to communicate your learning and understanding with your group members, focus on making connections with what the other students are saying. Take the time to verbalize your own understanding of the topic at hand. (If one fully understands the material, he/she will be able to communicate the “hows” and “whys” related to the problem with no problem.)

  • Be a risk-taker: don’t worry about being wrong. Speak up in class. The more engaged you are in class, the better you’ll understand the material (and enjoy class). Actively participate!

  • Continuously reflect on your own understanding. It is ok to not grasp something immediately, but be honest with yourself and recognize the need for extra help.

Completing homework:

When you come to a question you do not know:

  • Write down what you DO know about the problem - try to make sense of the problem using your prior knowledge.

  • Write down specific questions about that particular problem - you need to ask those questions in class as we go over homework.

  • .Try working backwards.

Nightly:

Review your notes and/or reorganize your notes – use highlighters or colored pencils to rewrite, underline, show examples, etc. You can do this as you complete homework, but you should take about 15 minutes each night to review that day’s learning. This will eliminate the need to cram for a test. Also, arriving to class each day with an understanding of the material will help you make connections to the new learning.

Before an assessment:

  • Compare your notes with a partner’s (or friend’s) notes. Make sure you aren’t missing any major details.

  • Go over prior assessments, focusing mostly on problems you missed. Make sure you fully understand why your answer was wrong (not just on knowing the correct answer) and how to correctly solve it. Use your book, notes, online textbook, etc. to find other problems like it to practice. (All graded work should be in your binder behind the tab labeled “graded work”.)

  • Reread your notes, including old homework assessments. Look at those questions you wrote down when completing the homework assignment – can you answer your own questions now?

  • Go through all of your handouts. Again, review all, but focus on problems you struggled with.

  • Use the practice tests in your textbook.

  • As you study, make sure you aren’t simply completing computation only type problems. You need to review the word problems and/or critical thinking problems we’ve completed in class and/or in homework. Your textbook also has several higher order thinking problems. Not all are assigned for homework - look for new problems to complete.

  • Analyze your work. Identify mistakes you make regularly - following directions, mistakes with basic skills, misunderstanding of vocabulary, etc.

  • Remember: you learn math by doing math. Rework old problems as well as new problems. Don’t rely on JUST reviewing notes.

  • Keep in mind: Each “real world” problem is different and may require a different strategy – you must have mastery of the concepts as well as an understanding on HOW to apply the skills.

AND ALWAYS REFLECT, REFLECT, REFLECT:

Reflect on:

  • What you DO know.

  • The connections you can make.

  • Questions you have.

  • How you study.

  • What you study.

  • Where you study.

  • Your individual test-taking strategies.

  • What you do when you come to a problem you don’t know.

Think about what works for YOU and make changes to what doesn’t work.