A. Translate the questions into your own words.

B. Read each option carefully.

C. Use a strategy:

1. Attack unfamiliar words by sounding them out, by breaking them into familiar parts with meanings you know, by looking at the surrounding words and sentences for clues to the meaning of the word.
    
2. Use your general knowledge. Ask yourself, “What do I already know about ____________”?
    
3. Anticipate the answer and look for the one most like what you expect. Be flexible. You may not always find exactly the choice you are looking for. Then, you must choose the best of the options available.
    
4. Use logical reasoning. For each possible answer, ask yourself, “What would happen if . . . “?
    
5. Use process of elimination with multiple choice questions for which more than one option is correct.

• Pick out the options you are sure are correct.
• Pick out the options you are sure are incorrect.
• Rule out all answers which contain wrong options.
• Rule out all answers which omit options you are sure of.
• Select the best remaining answer.
• Look for Test-Wiseness cues if the other strategies don’t work.

If you guess at an answer, check your guess against what you already know and against what your logical reasoning tells you.

Kentucky State University

Students too often put off a written assignment, considering it a chore too formidable to approach until the last minute. As a result, grades inevitably suffer.

Writing is not a talent reserved for a select few, it is a skill that can be learned. Planning and organization are its essentials. With a knowledge of these, the student can through effort and practice improve his writing ability.

Suggested below is a guide to organized writing. Use this outline in writing class assignments, essay tests, and term papers.

1. INTRODUCTION – OPENING PARAGRAPH

2. BODY – THREE DEVELOPING PARAGRAPHS

In each paragraph:

3. CONCLUSION – FINISHING PARAGRAPH

Virginia State University

How do I begin to increase my vocabulary?

Vocabulary is an ongoing process. It continues throughout your life. What you have done is to slow your effective method of learning vocabulary down to a snail’s pace.

When you were younger you learned something day in and day out. You kept squeezing every moment of the day into a new and different learning situation. You continually asked questions and drove yourself to learn more. Look at the following examples:

• at the age of 4 you probably knew 5,600 words
• at the age of 5 you probably knew 9,600 words
• at the age of 6 you probably knew 14,700 words
• at the age of 7 you probably knew 21,200 words
• at the age of 8 you probably knew 26,300 words
• at the age of 9 you probably knew 29,300 words
• at the age of 10 you probably knew 34,300 words
• college sophomore you probably knew 120,000 words

What this tells you is the more you learn, the more vocabulary you will know. No matter what your age, you must continue to learn. Words are “symbols” for ideas. These ideas formulate knowledge and knowledge is gained largely through words.

Suggestions:

• Read. the more you read, the more words you will come in contact with.
   
• Use new found vocabulary in your everyday communication (writing, speaking).
   
• Become familiar with the glossary of your textbooks.
   
• Become familiar with the dictionary. Understand the pronunciation keys as well as why there are multiple meanings for words.
   
• Try to learn 5 new words a day. If you know these words – use them in your communication process. Without using these new words, it is a waste of your time.

Read. Read books from fields other than your major. Read books which interest you and concentrate while you read.

Virginia State University

Things To Do Before Reading

1. Make specific times to read assignments for each course. Mentally commit yourself to these time periods to read about these subjects. This makes concentration easier.
    
2. Recall what you already know about the topic to be read.
    
3. Bring an open mind to what you read. You don’t have to agree in order to understand what an author says.
    
4. Intentionally state a reason to read (e.g. “I want to find out about …”) or create questions out of titles, subheadings, italicized words, etc. and read to find the answers. Concentration and memory improve when there is a specific purpose for reading beyond the fact that something has been assigned.
    
5. Divide a long chapter or assignment into pieces. It is easier to concentrate if you focus on one piece at a time instead of trying to digest a large amount of material at once.
    
6. Take one or two minutes to skim through a chapter before reading to see how it is structured and where the author is going to take you. Look at the title, introduction, subheadings, and summary.

Things To Do While Reading

1. Read only when you are able to concentrate. Monitor yourself by putting a check mark on a piece of paper whenever concentration wanders. This will help return your mind to the reading assignment. If you cannot concentrate, do something else for five or ten minutes, or study a different subject for a while.
    
2. As you read, take notes from the text. Condense ideas using abbreviations, symbols, short phrases, and sketches. Avoid complete sentences.
    
3. Use a specific format for organizing notes from textbooks. The Cornell System for organizing notes involves drawing a line 1/3 from the left margin of a notebook paper. Main ideas are recorded on the left side and details recorded on the right side.
    
4. Another convenient note format is to make a question from a main idea and place it on one side of a notecard. Read to answer the question and put the answer on the other side. This reduces forgetting what was just read and provides a fast and easy way to organize note for later learning.
    
5. When you make notes, use your own words to record ideas. This will aid in learning and in later recall on tests.
    
6. Change reading speed according to the difficulty of the material and the purpose for reading. No single reading speed is effective for all types of reading material. Textbook reading should be done fairly slowly and deliberately compared to reading newspaper articles or novels. If you take good notes, you should not have to read a textbook chapter more than once.
    
7. Read and study in locations free of visual and auditory distractions.
    
8. When concentration or understanding what is read is a problem in textbooks, read aloud as if explaining it to someone else.

Things To Do After Reading

1. In your spare time, think about what you read. Discuss information to be learned with others such as in a study group.
    
2. Relate what you read to class lectures.
    
3. Look at main ideas or questions and recite aloud or write details and answers without looking, as if you are taking a test. If you can recall answers complete and accurately from memory, you know that you know the material. If you cannot, you know immediately where you need to concentrate your study efforts.

What you do before and after reading is as important as what you do during reading when learning from textbooks. The ultimate objective of all textbook reading should be to understand what is read and assimilate it into your store of knowledge. That is, the information has become a personal possession. When this happens, the information has been learned.

University of Central Florida

1. Misread Direction Errors

These errors occur when you skip directions or misunderstand directions but answer the question or do the problem anyway.

To avoid this type of error, read all the directions.

2. Careless Errors

Mistakes made which can be caught automatically upon reviewing the test.

To avoid this type of error, watch for simple mistakes carefully as you review the test.

3. Concept Errors

Mistakes made when you do not understand the properties or principles required to work the problem.

To avoid this type of error in the future, you must go back to your textbook or notes and learn why you missed the problems.

4. Application errors

Mistakes that you make when you know this concept but cannot apply it to the problem.

To reduce this type of error, you must, learn to predict the type of application problems that will be on the test.

5. Test Procedure Errors

Mistakes that you make because of the specific way you take tests, such as:

6. Study Errors

Mistakes that occur when you study the wrong type of material or do not spend enough time studying pertinent material.

To avoid these errors in the future, take some time to track down why the errors occurred so that you can study more effectively the next time.

By Paul D. Nolting, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997