You've made the decision to take some college-level courses with Central Texas College. Your reason may be one of many: to earn a two-year degree and transfer to a four-year institution, to earn promotion points, for self improvement. Regardless of why you are taking the courses, you want to do the best you can, and we at CTC want the same for you.
Before you attend that first lecture or complete your first reading assignment, go through this material to get on the right track and avoid speed bumps and dangerous detours.
In addition to the information contained in this Orientation, Central Texas College provides Academic Systems free of charge for all students. Go to http://ctc.academic.com and register to access material on Study Skills, Writing, and Mathematics. These materials are interactive and include audio as well as text and graphics on the following topics.
Study Skills
Writing
Math I
Math II
The time you spend preparing to study relates directly to a successful outcome. But time, or lack thereof, is a common complaint. In fact, can you identify with Louis? (See the quotation below.)
I am definitely going to take a course on time management . . . just as soon as I can work it into my schedule. Louis E. Boone
How often do you comment that you don't have enough time to accomplish everything you wish to do? If you have a job and/or a family, school work may take a low priority. You can't add hours to the day or days to the week, but if you learn to plan your time wisely, you should be able to make better use of the time you have. As an added bonus, you should feel less stress.
The first step in time management is to see how you currently spend your time. You may spend 40 hours a week on your job, but what about commute time? How much time do you give to your friends and family? Have you ever taken the time to add up all of the hours you spend on your regular activities? Is there any time left to sleep?
Go to the study skills self-help information site at http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html and take the survey "Where Does Time Go?" Then, view the suggestions for time scheduling:
Additional information on time management is available at study skills and strategies (http://www.studygs.net/). You might want to examine some of the other links as well.
How-to-Study.com offers hints on "Managing Time" on a term, weekly, and daily basis at http://www.how-to-study.com/Keeping%20Track%20of%20Assignments.htm.
Use the Cliffs Notes web site (you're probably familiar with the books) at http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-106283.html (How to Get a Grip on Stress and Time Management) for a cram session on time management.
Now that you have time under control, let's look at your study environment. Where you study and how you study is as important as how often you study.
You should identify a quiet place with a desk or table, a chair, and good lighting. Your bed might be inviting, but remember your goal is to stay awake and concentrate.
Although music or some type of background noise might be ok, avoid the tv. It's too easy to get engrossed in a show rather than your course work. Watching CSI can be interesting, but it probably won't help you with your Introduction to Criminal Justice final exam.
Make sure you have everything you need: your textbooks, notes, paper and pencil, and a clock. Why a clock? To help you manage your time.
And, don't forget to take regular breaks.
Visit these web sites for hints on preparing to study. Remember, these are just a few of the sites available to you on the web. You can also search for sites related to "how to study" or "study guides."
Do you have to see a name or address in writing in order to remember it?
Do you put instructions aside and refer to them only if you run into trouble putting a bookcase together or using a new computer program?
Do you enjoy audio books or do you find your mind wandering as you listen?
Your answers to these questions relate to your preferred learning style and like clothing, one learning style doesn't fit all.
Take the learning style inventory at http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp to identify your preferred learning style from among the following (note that some inventories show only three learning styles: visual, aural, and kinesthetic). Then, view the VARK helpsheets at http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=helpsheets to develop effective study skills for your preferred learning style(s).
These learners need to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson. They tend to prefer sitting at the front of the classroom to avoid visual obstructions (e.g. people's heads). They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays including: diagrams, illustrated text books, overhead transparencies, videos, flip charts and hand-outs. During a lecture or classroom discussion, visual learners often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information.
If you are a visual learner, here are some suggestions just for you:
They learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. Auditory learners interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. These learners often benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder.
If you are an aural learner, here are some suggestions just for you:
These learners learn best by reading and re-reading the textbook and their notes, writing and rewriting their notes, and in general, organizing items into lists.
Tactile/Kinesthetic persons learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration.
If you are a tactile/kinesthetic learner, here are some suggestions just for you:
These learners don't have a single preferred learning style. They learn best through combinations. If you have multiple preferences you are in the majority as somewhere between fifty and seventy percent of any population seems to fit into that group.
VARK is one of many learning style inventories. Here is some other sites: http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm and http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm. If you want to try others, do a search on the Internet.
Now that you know your learning style(s), try these activities to see how your learning style can affect performance.
How did you do? Go to the next activity.
How did you do? Go to the next activity.
How did you do?
Was your score higher on one of these activities than on the others? If so, it may be a result of your learning style. Learn to use this to your advantage.
You may be saying to yourself, "I learned to read in first grade! Why do I need to think about reading strategies in college?"
Yes, you can read the words in your textbooks, but how good is your comprehension of their meaning?
How often have you read a chapter, or even part of a chapter, in a textbook and then thought, "What did I just read?" Could you answer questions about the content without referring back to the pages?
And slowing your reading speed does not necessarily increase your comprehension. It only means that it takes you longer to read the assignment.
Experiment on reading:
Dr. Perry (psychologist), Director of the Harvard Reading-Study Center, gave 1500 first year students a thirty-page chapter from a history book to read, with the explanation that in about twenty minutes they would be stopped and asked to identify the important details and to write an essay on what they had read.
The class scored well on a multiple-choice test on detail, but only FIFTEEN STUDENTS of 1500 (1%) were able to write a short statement on what the chapter was all about in terms of its basic theme. Why? Only fifteen readers had thought of reading the last paragraph marked "Summary" or of skimming down the descriptive flags in the margin.
This demonstration of "OBEDIENT PURPOSELESSNESS" is evidence of "an enormous amount of wasted effort" in freshmen study. Dr. Perry suggested that students ask themselves WHAT IT IS THEY WANT TO GET OUT OF A READING ASSIGNMENT, THEN LOOK AROUND FOR THOSE POINTS. Students should "talk to themselves" while reading, asking "is this the point I'm looking for?"
Source: A Harvard Report on Reading Improvement at http://www.dartmouth.edu/admin/acskills/lsg/harvard.html
Would you have been
Good reading skills are essential to your success in your college-level classes. Here are a couple of reasons why:
Go to http://www.ablongman.com/textbooktips/index.html for quick and easy tips to improve your reading:
Another resource for improving your reading comprehension is at http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/%7Edon/Study/7read.html. These are the main ideas:
In order to know what you need to do, you must identify where you are. Here's how you can check your reading skills:
How did you do? If you missed any questions in the different areas listed below, you may want to spend some time honing your reading skills.
Improving your reading skills and applying reading strategies
A good reader:
Go to http://www.how-to-study.com/Improving%20Reading%20Skills.htm for more on reading skills.
SQ3R is one recommended method for improving your reading comprehension. The letters in the name stand for these five steps:
Another method is PQR3, which stands for
(Sounds similar to SQ3R, doesn't it?) Go to http://www.how-to-study.com/pqr.htm to learn more about this method.
There is even a related study method known as M.U.R.D.E.R, which stands for
Check this system out at http://www.studygs.net/murder.htm. Are you beginning to see similarities among the various systems?
If you search the Internet, you will find an abundance of sites dealing with reading strategies. Some are good; others are not so good. The sites listed below are a good place to start.
As you visit the various web sites (http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html, http://www.studygs.net/, and http://www.how-to-study.com/, for example), you might notice distinctions being made based on the type of material being read; i.e., a strategy for reading novels, how to read a difficult book, skimming and scanning scientific material, how to read essays you must analyze. This emphasizes the fact that how you read should depend on what you are reading and your purpose for reading it.
Why take notes?
Evaluate your present note-taking system. Ask yourself:
If you answered no to any of these questions, you may need to develop some new note-taking skills!
Here are some guidelines for taking notes:
The information above is from http://www.arc.sbc.edu/notes.html. Click on the link for more on how to streamline your notes. This MSWord document provides more information on note taking: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/docs/taking_notes.doc.
There are a number of different methods for taking notes and they may look very different, as illustrated by these two examples. The one on the left is the Cornell method; the one on the right, mindmapping:
These are some common notetaking methods:
For details on these methods, go to http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetaking.systems.html. Also check out this resource about note taking: http://www.how-to-study.com/Taking%20Notes%20in%20Class.htm.
Go to http://www.ablongman.com/textbooktips/index.html and select the following for more on note taking:
Select the links related to note taking at http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html.
View http://www.how-to-study.com/Taking%20Notes%20in%20Class.htm at How-to-Study.com
Finally, check out these sites for hints on using your notes effectively to review: http://www.yorku.ca/cdc/lsp/notesonline/note5.htm and http://www.yorku.ca/cdc/lsp/notesonline/note6.htm.
If some of these links don't work or if you are interesting in further research, use a search tool and type in "note taking."
Practice, Practice, Practice
Practice makes perfect! If you practice enough, you won't have to think about applying reading strategies or taking notes. You will just do it.
Start small by using the short stories at http://literacynet.org/cnnsf/home.html to practice your reading skills and reading strategies.
We hope that this information on preparing to study has been helpful, but do you feel that your problem is remembering? Don't worry. There are ways to help you build your memory skills too. Some general hints on remembering are available at http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/remember.html, and a number of tools and techniques for improving your memory are presented at http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html. These tools include acronyms and mnemonics.
An acronym is defined as "a word formed from the initial letters of a name," such as PCS for permanent change of station or SOC for Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges, "or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words," as radar for radio detecting and ranging.
A mnemonic is defined as "a device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering."
As a child, you might have determined the number of days in a given month by reciting the rhyme "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November . . . ." or by using your knuckles ("peaks" have 31 days and "valleys" have 30, except February, of course).
If you have studied music, you might have used these techniques for remembering the names of the notes: FACE represents the names of the notes in the spaces on the staff. The first letters of the words in sentence "Every good boy does fine" represent the names of the notes on the lines on the staff.
A mnemonic used to recall the steps for simplifying algebraic expressions is "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally."
We will illustrate the steps using this expression:
Step 1: Work inside the parentheses. This particular expression involves going through Steps 2-4 in order to simplify inside the parentheses:
Step 2: There are no exponents outside the parentheses--skip to Step 3.
Step 3: Multiply:
Step 4: Subtract: -9
Below are a few more examples from other subject areas, but there is no law against creating your own memory aids, as needed.
Use the sentence "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" to recall the order of the planets from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto)
Big Brown Rabbits Often Yield Great Big Vocal Groans When Gingerly Slapped for the color codes for resistors (black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, and white). The last two colors in the resistor sentence relate to gold and silver, which represent multipliers. Alternate sentences have been offered in the past for resistor color codes, but some are more "politically correct" than others.
More on acronyms is found at http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/acronyms.html and http://www.how-to-study.com/UsingAcronyms.htm.
Does the course involve vocabulary? Try the note or index card approach as described at http://www.how-to-study.com/Index%20Cards%20Vocabulary.htm
If you have practiced the strategies we have outlined in this material, you should be reviewing on a regular basis as you study rather than waiting to cram right before a test. Try to anticipate what is important and will be on the test, and use any review materials that are available, such as practice tests or review sheets. This doesn't mean that you don't need to study right before a test, but you shouldn't have to stay up all night to prepare for it, and you should feel more confident when you take the test.
These are a few resources to help you get ready. See the links for "Preparing for Tests" and "Taking Tests" at http://www.studygs.net/. Also, try "Strategies to Use With Questions You Cannot Answer Immediately" at http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/strategi.html and "A Strategy for Taking Tests" at http://www.how-to-study.com/A%20Strategy%20for%20Taking%20Tests.htm.
CliffsNotes comes through again at http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-106284.html (Remember What Not to Forget at Test Time) and http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-106287.html (Know Your Stuff for In-Class Exams).
Once you are sitting in the hot spot with your pencil in hand, use the DETER strategy for taking tests as described at http://www.how-to-study.com/A%20Strategy%20for%20Taking%20Tests.htm. DETER stands for
Again, practice makes perfect. There are several web sites for taking practice tests. Here are so a few:
For many classes, you need to know the basics about using a computer and possibly even surfing the Internet in order to complete certain assignments. If you are taking a distance learning class, you MUST have some basic knowledge of computers and the Internet. You must be able to prepare, save, and retrieve files; send and receive emails with attachments; deposit files in an electronic drop box; locate and navigate web sites; download software and plug ins; and participate in discussion boards. A good resource for learning about these items is http://www.learnthenet.com/english/index.html. Once you have reached this site, note the "How To" list at the left side of the screen. If you are a novice, you might want to start with "How to Use this Site." Otherwise, start with "Master the Basics" and then work your way down the list. You will find information ranging from making the connection to the Internet to building your own web site Click on each underlined word or title to access the information. This information is also available as the "Animated Internet." Be sure to visit Netiquette, a primer on the do's and don'ts of communicating on the Internet. For example, did you know that you should avoid writing e-mail messages or posting in newsgroups using all caps. Why? Because IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING! The "Harness E-Mail" section has hints on E-Mail Etiquette. In the age of computer worms and viruses, we recommend you read the section on "Protect Yourself" to keep your computer from picking up a "bug"! And if you hear or see words that are unfamiliar to you, try the glossary.
Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101 at http://www.jegsworks.com/Lessons/index.html includes lessons on the topics listed below, and the approach is very detailed yet easy to understand. Even if you have never touched a mouse before, you should be able to follow along.
Another "New User Tutorial" is available at http://northville.lib.mi.us/tech/tutor/welcome.htm.
The "Computers and Technology" section of the AARP web site at http://www.aarp.org/computers/ covers topics from choosing a keyboard to anticipating and avoiding personal computer disasters.
Also consider these sites:
Do you want to learn about specific items; i.e., WindowsXP or MSWord2003? These are Microsoft products. You can go to http://www.microsoft.com/ and find training on just about every product produced by Microsoft--even older versions.
An important part of using the Internet is to be able to find and evaluate resources. This interactive tutorial provided by the University of Texas System Digital Library can help you build these skills: http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/.
Check out the research and study sites for college and graduate students, instructors, and advisors at http://www.education-world.com/higher_ed/study.shtml. This site includes information on copyright, citation and plagiarism, as well as online encyclopedias and other research tools.
The content of this orientation is intended for all college students, regardless of whether they are taking courses in a classroom or as a distant learner. If you are taking courses online, on CD, or hybrid, we have developed a handbook just for you. This handbook addresses distant learner responsibilities and provides instructions and contact information on student and support services. You can find the handbook at our web site at http://online.ctcd.edu/handbook. (top)