BYU Student Development 109: Effective Study Skills Midterm

Meta-Cognitive Awareness

Knowledge about yourself as an information processor

List 4 elements of meta-cognitive awareness

-Learning strategies (learn specific, research-based ones)

-Learning purpose/goal (create a specific one)

-Relate (new knowledge/challenges to background knowledge/experiences)

-Monitor current understanding as you go

Belief of Fixed Mindset

Qualities are carved in stone

Goal of fixed mindset

Prove yourself (every situation confirms or denies your abilities)

Questions you may ask if you have a fixed mindset

Will I succeed or fail? Look smart or dumb? Be accepted or rejected? Feel like a winner or a loser?

Belief of growth mindset

You can cultivate basic qualities through efforts; creates passion for learning

Questions you may ask if you have a growth mindset

What experiences will stretch me? What can I try next? What challenges interest me the most?

Fixed mindset applied to reading

If I'm intelligent, information should come to me easily, so I should understand everything I read; If I don't understand what I read, I'm stupid and can't do it.

What fixed mindset signals

Danger, failure, discomfort, too much work

Growth mindset applied to reading

When I don't understand what I'm reading, I'm learning and stretching myself; of course a new subject will be difficult and confusing at times, because I haven't had any experience YET. I'll look for new strategies to help me study, or talk to the TA/Professor.

Memory depends on these factors:

Background info

How difficult/dense the material is

Your interest level

How much time you have to prepare

How you're going to be tested (MC vs. essay)

Top strategies for memory

Spaced study

Retrieval practice

Interleaving

Varied study

Getting enough sleeps

Meshing hypothesis

Each person has a best learning style and will learn more and retain

Main point in MIS Ch. 1: When learning is harder (takes more effort), it's...?

Stronger and lasts longer

Main point in MIS Ch. 1: Learning is stronger when...?

The abstract is made concrete and personal

Main point in MIS Ch. 1: You usually can't embed something in memory simply by...?

Repeating it over and over

True or False? Failure is a useful source of information

True

Spaced Study

Spaced out retrieval practice over multiple sessions

Why spaced study works

Helps memory consolidate into cohesive representation, strengthens and multiplies the neural routes by which the knowledge can later be retrieved

Cover and Recite

Ex. of retrieval practice; after looking at a subheading, try to recall the most important points in that section, then check to see if you missed anything important

Free recall

Ex. of retrieval practice; After reading something (preferably after a delay), write down the main points from memory

Ex. of review materials in textbook

Practice tests

Reflection terms

Lists of key terms

Create and take your own practice test

Ex. of retrieval practice; can use Bloom's Taxonomy & Prof's Questions

Teach someone else

Ex. of retrieval practice

Concept map/recreation of textbook graphic or flow chart from memory

Ex. of retrieval practice

Conclusion to creating your own exam questions study

We remember answers to our own questions better than answers to questions someone else created

3 groups of subjects in creating your own exam questions study

Read and re-read passage

Read the text, then answered questions created by researchers

Read the text, created questions they anticipated could be asked on an exam

Bloom's Taxonomy

Pyramid of questions (remembering, applying, analyzing, understanding, evaluating, etc.)

Why interleaving and varied study are unpopular

Feels slower

More confusing and frustrating at first

The compensating long-term advantage is not apparent

Study session plan

Ex. of interleaving; interleave the study of different subjects across one study session, and include "diffuse mode" breaks

Mid-term Prep

Ex. of interleaving; mix up review questions from different chapters in a single study session out of of order

Benefits of interleaving

Remember information longer

Develop discrimination skills

Learn how to assess the context and differentiate between problems

Practice critical sorting processes (select an appropriate formula to use to solve a problem)

Varied study improves

Trasnfer

Transfer

The ability to extract the essence of a skill or a formula or word problem and apply it in another context; encodes the learning in a more flexible representation that can be applied more broadly

Ex. of varied study

Mixing 2 or more different retrieval methods for the same chapter or subject

Use multiple sensory modes (auditory, visual, kinesthetic)

Study at different times of day

Study at different places

Ex. of retrieval methods

Quiz

Flashcards

Animations

Key terms

Focused mode

Highly attentive

Focused tightly and intently on a specific problem

Direct approach to solving problems using rational, sequential, analytical approaches

Diffused mode

Relax attention

Let mind wander

Insights often flow from preliminary thinking

Big pic perspective

Shows different areas of the brain to hook up and return valuable insights

To learn about and be creative in math and science, we need to strengthen and use...?

Both the focused and diffused mode

What you can do to prepare to learn from a class lecture before the class begins

Preview the assigned material before class

Review lecture notes from previous class

Quiz yourself on stuff from previous class

anticipate what's coming

Regulate alertness

Create a few specific, interesting questions about the topic

Benefits of taking notes on a laptop

Record more words

Downside of taking notes on a laptop

Temptation to go off task

Multitasking

Temptation to record everything verbatim

Shallower information processing

Benefits of Cornell method

Processes information efficiently

Involves actively encoding info into long-term memory

Excellent as test prep strategy for challenging exams

When to use Cornell method

Challenging class/material

Subject matters to you

You'll use material later

Professor asks questions higher than remembering level

When not to use Cornell method

Already have plenty of background knowledge

Aren't going to be tested on the stuff

Isn't relevant to your life

Lecture is straightforward and easy to understand

Cornell notes format

1) Record

2) Create key words or questions

3) Reflect/summary

4) Review (quiz yourself)

Layered reading

Reading a text more than one, using a different pace and purpose for each layer

When to use layered reading

Challenging academic texts or material you want to know well

Material you're not very interested in

Skeleton

"Before" layer strategy; preview structure

T.H.I.E.V.V.E.S with Snatches def (not acronym)

"Before" layer strategy; preview content

Why preview?

See big pic

Create memory hooks

Create curiosity through questions

Activate background knowledge/experiences

Create specific reading purpose

See how text is organized (for Skeleton)

T in THIEVVES

Title

H in THIEVVES

Headings

I in THIEVVES

Introduction

E1 in THIEVVES

Every 1st sentence of a section/paragraph

V1 in THIEVVES

Visuals

V2 in THIEVVES

Vocabulary

E2 in THIEVVES

End questions

S in THIEVVES

Summary

THIEVVES with snatches can be used as: scholarly reading strategy, survival, or both?

Both

Prof's questions def (not steps)

"During" layer reading strategy; improves comprehension and retention

1st step of Prof's questions

Read my professor

Read my professor

Reflect on what your professor thinks is most important, what kinds of questions they ask in class or on tests, other clues to what's important to them

2nd step in Prof's questions

Create questions professor might have on the test

Semester schedule

Shows major assignments and exam dates for all classes across the semester

Benefits of semester schedule

Foresee problem time periods when a lot is happening at once

Foundation of To-Do list

Facilitates spaced study

Weekly class/study template

Model or framework that establishes pattern of weekly time use

Benefits of weekly class/study template

Reduces stress (regular times for studying)

Build habits

Build balance into schedule

How to create weekly class/study template

Identify best times to study

Set clear start and stop times

Swiss cheese method

Using little bits of time to do small pieces of the task, instead of waiting for one large block of time

Why people procrastinate

Fear of failure

Fear of success

Fear of being controlled

Fear of separation

Fear of intimacy

Overestimation of how unpleasant the task is

Underestimation of capacity to handle discomfort

Wishful thinking view of time

How to overcome procrastination

Increase awareness of excused used to delay

Pinpoint what you feel uncomfortable about

Identify strengths to overcome uncomfort

Work toward growth mindset

Increase awareness of wishful thinking view of time

Realistically assess how much time you actually have

Compare predictions of time with actual time

Pomodoro technique

1) Choose task

2) Set a timer

3) Distraction paper nearby

4) Work on task until timer rings