EXAM PREPARATION- UNWOO

As this weekend blogging topic is the Exam preparation, I thought how I prepare for the Exam. Last week, I had a three exam which were ENL, CHI, and MAT. I did my best. I put lots of time before the Exam. For ENL, I memorized the entire vocabulary list and reviewed seven chapter of the grammar. ENL class is not hard class. So I got good grade for the class. Also, for MAT class, I had learned every single part in the middle school. So I had no problem to study MAT. However, the problem occurred from CHI. As I never learned the CHI, I had a many problem to study CHI. Too much things to memorize, study, and understanding. I could not get a focus what we learning. So, I just memorize and study all the material. This way made me tired. I spent three hour to study each chapter. Even thought I spent all my weekend, I could not finish. I felt upset. I thought that something wrong about my Exam preparation. After one week, my first exam for ECN is coming up. I am really ‘afraid’ of studying ECN. I should study and review eight chapters. It is more than CHI. Fortunately, I have enough time to study everything. However, I want to study ECN efficiently. I read a text book which is chapter 8. I noticed that I missed many things to prepare the Exam. The reason I got panic on the Exam is that my Exam preparation for the test has have many problem for the perfect score. As I want more efficient way to prepare for the Exam, copying the ways and skills to prepare for the Exam on CLS text book is the best way to get better grade on the ECN test.

First of all, I did not know that Organizing is important to prepare the Exam. Before the Exam, I always organize only my note not profiling, source outline, and topic outline. However, According to the book, Organizing includes knowing what information or topics will be covered on the test, the format of the test, and the sources that the professor expects you to use to learn the material. Actually, I do not think this is not a good way to prepare for the ECN test. I really want to skip this part. However, as I promise to do everything on the textbook, I tried for my more efficient preparation.

According to the Exam Experiment guide line, for the Before Exam profile, it should be honest.

After I finished Exam profile, I knew that the problem of my preparation skill. My inefficient study skill and unfocused sight what we learn caused problem had made me to prepare the Exam not perfectly.

According to the Exam Experiment guide line, for the source outline, titles, heading, lecture, and notes by date on each chapter should be included for the good source outline.

According to the Exam Experiment guide line, for the topic outline, specific topic, source, information, chapter, and dates on each chapter should be included for the good topic outline.

After I finished source outline and topic outline, I noticed that I really focus what we learned and what I should study on this Exam. Exact date, notes, homework, and presentation about each chapter help me to organize perfectly before starting to study ECN exam. I think I already ready for the test. Based on this outline, I can get more efficient and productive study schedule. I finished the blog, I knew that effective test preparation consists of organizing, studying, and evaluation. Especially, organizing help me to study more efficient and productive. These skills made me to prepare perfectly. I already feel i am ready to take a test. These ways lead to test taker to be more efficient and productive time consumer and better man to focus topic of the exam.

In conclusion, according to CLS text book and my experience,

Organizing+Studying+Evaluation= Efficient and productive test taker

Seongju Kim Exam Prep

Currently there are many exams going on as we are in 6th week of the semester. For this week's topic, Exam Prep, I chose IST 195 test that I have taken recently. I usually started to study the night before the exams because I used to procrastinate studying and homework and finish studying and works with my friends. This week's strategy is to help students prepare well and early for the tests. It is very important because tests are biggest part of our grades in most classes. Even preparing and doing well on the exams might give A's or B's in the class. So I should prepare well for the upcoming exams. IST 195 is a class that we can learn basics of computers and internet. As it was the first test of this semester, I studied from the intro of the lecture to what I had learned before the test.

This was the topics of each lecture written on the syllabus. I checked it to ensure how far and what topics we have learned in the lecture. Then I needed to check the syllabus if there is any information about the format of the exams.

Format of the tests were not specifically described but it says there is a review session before the test that students need to attend to ask questions about chapters and get some expected questions on the exams.
It is optional in class but mandatory to attend review sessions for students because the instructor will guide us the way we should study for the exams and talk about the exams. I attended to take notes of questions and the format of the tests. Format is important because we can predict how the exams will look like and how specific the questions are. More questions mean that the questions will be more detailed because it asks more.
Professor told us that there will be 25 multiple questions and 1 bonus question in the review session. It was the only time that I could find out about the test format so it is always important to attend classes or review sessions before tests. He went over the topics and lecture slides that we have learned so far. I wrote down the questions he went over.

He posts his lecture slides on Blackboard to let students access and review with. I downloaded lecture notes and looked over and took separate notes that is briefly explained.

After finishing my notes for the exam, I read over my review notes over and over again before the exam. It helped me to learn how to prepare for exams well that are most important of other graded works. I learned to spend more time and effort to prepare for exams.

Preparing for the Impossible Exam

Last Monday was the first Exam in my ARC 121 Building Structures class. To prepare for that exam, I had used the 20 minute test prep, read the syllabus to know what was being examined and made myself a study guide complete with room for diagrams. However, along with the rest of class (whose average on the exam was a 42%), I did unusually poorly. I am hoping that the way I'm going to begin to apply Anticipating Test Questions to my study schedule for this class will improve my grade for next exam. Last Exam, I studied in groups using a self-made study guide made with guidance from the syllabus. I have included an example of a page to the left. After reading about the Anticipating test Questions strategy, I think something that would have helped my studying efforts would have been to include more of the diagrams referenced in class, since the exam was based on reading and memorizing certain diagrams. It also would have helped to copy down the questions the professor asked about the diagrams in class. Since I am a Visual Kinesthetic Learner, it would have helped me to redraw the diagrams to commit them to memory.

Even though the next exam in this class isn't until April 6th, I have already started acting to prepare myself for the exam. I'm already keeping an ongoing study guide that I add to after every class as part of my 20 minute test prep. So far, I have included questions that were posed both in class and discussions, as well as major concepts that the professor said would be important. Furthermore, I included a column for Diagrams and questions about the diagrams. I think the method of using a graphic organizer to organize study relevant material as I attend more lectures will help when I am creating my Source and Topic Outlines.

On the last test, I was thrown off guard by the convoluted wording of the questions. But now that I can look at the Exam I just took to refer to the kinds of questions asked, I hope the next one will be easier. In my interview with the professor for this class, I asked if there were any resources available to students that could help with practicing relating the equations and diagrams and he said that he didn't provide any examples but the ones in class, and he was reluctant to put the lectures online for fear that students wouldn't attend class. I plan on beginning to focus my class notes more heavily on those diagrams. Now that I am more familiar with the evaluation technique from firsthand experience, I anticipate having less trouble figuring out how the questions are worded.

exam prep

This week’s blog topic is exam prep. I am guessing that exam preparation is considered to be the toughest thing for college students do. Since I tend to procrastinate a lot, I am very used to reviewing the class material the night before exams. This is certainly not a good way to prepare for an exam. I was already feeling like I need a different and efficient way to study for an exam. I chose my math course as my trial course for the strategies because it is already getting more difficult and I wanted to prepare for the next coming test.

I recently had a math test and the result was not very good. I was confident before taking this test because I did a lot of class note review. However, I have to admit that I only reviewed my notes and there was lack of solving practice problems and this caused me to get a poor grade on the test. Because I did not practice much, I did not fully understand the concept even though I reviewed the whole note. I was overconfident that I am a visual learner and I was not aware of the fact that I also I got a high score for kinesthetic learner so I have to actually solve problems before the test. I solved all the problems on the test because I wanted to make sure that I know everything covered on the test just in case when I get any problems in next test related to this material.

This is an example problem my teacher gave us in class. I can see the problem in the first picture and this example problem are very similar.

Likewise, this example problem he gave us will probably be on the next test. For this week, I reviewed all the examples and worked on some problems on my text book similar to them. By doing so, I can understand the chapter we covered in previous class better and memorize the pattern the questions have. It is a good feeling to understand and know what is definitely going to be on the test.

Lastly, I went through my syllabus. Everything was not directly related to how to prepare for an exam but the second point of learning goals. It says “select and apply an appropriate mathematical model for certain elementary probability problems.” In order to be able to do this, you need to practice solving problems much.

After doing exam prep with the strategies, I feel pretty much confident that I will do much better on next exam.

A+++++++++++++!!!

This week's main topic on blogg is Exam Preparation. I think this is the most important blogg out of all the bloggs we have to do this semester. In all my classes, exams are the most important thing when it comes to the grades. Exams take over almost 75% of each grades in each courses. Therefore, preparing well enough for the exams is the most important thing for me or all the students must do. I have a big economics exam on March 9th, and I have decided to prepare for this exam because there is a lot to cover. Right now I have almost two weeks before my actual economics exam, but I think 2 weeks is a very good time for me to get started on. I have never prepared before the test. When it was almost the exam date, I would sit down a day or two days before the test and start cramming everything into my head. I read the chapters, read my notes and try to memorize everything at once. However my problem was, there were too much information going through my head all at once. On the the not only I was confused about which one was the right answer, but also my head goes blank due to trying so hard to recall so much information all at once. So here is my stradegy of preparing well enough for my upcoming economic exam.

The image on the left is my syllabus for my econ class. It clearly shows the course objectives for this class.

The image on the above is my test preparation outline for this exam. Looking at my syllabus I first copied the course topics then within the course topics I break in down to little topics in green, as you guys can see.

All of the images on the left are my processes of reading and studying for the topics that I each break down into. I highligted the main focus of the topics and on the side I wrote down some of the more important facts so later on I can make questions out of it.
These images are my continuations of the studying and readings that I did to prepare for the topics.

I am still in the process of preparing for my econ exam because I still have 2 weeks to go. I never ever have or had thought of preparing for a exam ahead of time. When I first heard my TA telling to prepare for an exam atleast 10days in advance, I thought What??! that is way to early! It is because I was never used to preparing for an exam. However, now that I tried this method of preparing for an exam, I feel more relaxed and calm. Unlike before when I just did not care about an exam that was coming up next week and just hung out with friends, the night before the test I would cram everything into my brain, praying God to somehow remember everything back when taking the test. But, God never seemed to help me. So, here I am not relying on God this time and trying to do things on my own. Since I know myself well enough that I can never remember things if I am not used to it, I figured out trying to prepare for the exam ahead of time so I can look at the materials over and over again. Then instead of memorizing the whole materials, I will be used to the materials. And on the exam I won't have problem being confused about the questions or the answers and I would easily recall the right informations for the right questions. This method seems to work very well for a messy person like me. And someone who procrastinate a lot. Due to starting on study guide for my econ exam almost 2 weeks before the actual exam, I feel like so much informations that I have to know for this exam is really nothing afterall. Well prepared person will be successful in whatever he/she is doing, and hopefully me, being well prepared for this test, will get an A+!

Too Soon to Prep For an Exam?!?

It's that time of the semester where everyone has more than 3 exams in one week and/or midterms coming around the corner. How do we really prepare for these exams and what can I do to do well? In order to help everyone with this problem this week's topic is Anticipating Test Questions.

For me, I just went through all of my exams last week so I don't have much to do until after spring break. However, that doesn't mean I should leave all the studying til the night before the exam. At this point as I'm learning new topics for my classes I can start to study by anticipating test questions. For example, using your previous exams to create your own questions, creating your own questions, Looking into your syllabus, taking notes on what your professors ask in class, and using study aids such as study sheets or graphic organizers.

In MAT222 I just recently took an exam and I did an okay job on the test. I have noticed that it is always so hard to predict how the test is going to come out in math because there are so many different ways to give math problems. You have to pretty much know the whole, all around basics in order to solve through any given problems. Previously in order to study for my first exam I simply l

ooked through the class examples and worked on several homework problems before the exam. I guess that worked a little bit but not to the point of satisfaction.

I realized that we got our exam back to keep so I looked back into the test and saw that the questions were all very similar to the textbook problems. This means that most likely, in the next exam the questions will be all similar to the textbook problems. Also a lot of the examples that she gives in class are pretty much the same questions on the exam with different number.

I'm a kinesthetic learner, meaning I have DO it in order to understand a material. What I did this week was looked back into the notes I took and the example my teacher went over in class. Since we did not do work from the textbook in this chapter yet I decided to take some time and work on some extra problems to help me review and understand the section better. After solving few problems I found myself solidifying my knowledge on the topic. That means, since this topic will be in my long term memory I will be able to not struggle as much as if i were to try to relearn all of this right before the exam.

I also revisited my syllabus to see if i could find something helpful. One thing I noticed was "Completing homework to the best of you ability is critical to your success in this class, which is why you are encouraged to work with others to complete assignments and prepare for exams." A lot of the homework problems are given straight from the textbook that means she gave us a hint on where majority of the test will be from. It would have been better to notice these things earlier on but now that I know I could do well on the next exam.

I hope by trying to anticipate questions on the next exam will help me really prepare myself well and do much better on the exams. It is allowing me to pretty much pretend I know what is going to be on the next exam and just simply preparing for it many weeks before.

Sung Hoon ranking priorities

Sorry I did my blog on word but I couldn't copy and paste.
So I just uploaded as images.

Sung Hoon

Ranking Priorities

This week I used the Ranking Priorities strategy to organize all the tasks I had to get accomplished. Before reading about this strategy, I had already done something similar where I wrote down all the outstanding tasks and highlighted them with colors that communicated their urgency. Because I am a visual learner, I decided to keep the highlighting/color strategy to rank my priorities. Afterwards, I reorganized the tasks within the color groups on the other side of the page.

Normally when ranking my priorities, I would just complete the the tasks in the order that I thought to write them down, without giving much thought to what I actually needed to get done first. This caused many problems because when I tried to complete my work, the things that i needed to get done first were always left out standing even though I had spent hours and hours of my time doing homework. Putting everything in order according to due dates and their optionality really assisted me in seeing what I needed to do and when I needed to do it.

un woo

This week’s topic is the problem solving. I was thinking about my problems to study in this school. I did not have any big problem to solve. However, I had a lot of small problem, which should be fixed by rescheduling and implement new skills. To me, recognizing small problems to change a given situation was hard. So, I decided to use a cost: A Problem –solving Strategy.

this picture is about my problem and possible option.

First, I wrote every single small problem for recognizing main problem. Also, I should think about what I want to change. I want to make change my schedule. I want to do another sports club. I think I have enough time to do it. However, whenever I study in library or somewhere else, I waste my time too much. There are too many distractions to finish my homework in short time such as computer, cell phone, and place. My second problem is even if I put everything on the planner, sometimes I forget due date of my homework and essay. Due date always comes up on my head in the last minute. So, I always should hurry for every single thing.

Second, with these two problems, I made an option for solving those problems. Many options pop up on my head. For the first problems, at the first time, I thought I had a time management problem. So, I tried 20 Min test prep for reducing my study time. However it did not work for me. So, I recognized when I am studying, there should no computer and cell phone on my desk. Also, I should find isolated place to study. I always brought my vocab list for my ENL class and CHI class. I found that weight room and bathroom is the best place to memorize the vocab list. For the second problem, I thought using an I-pod planner could be work for me. However, after I implement post it reminder, I noticed this is the right way to remind me. I put post-it on my computer and my jacket. Computer and jacket was the best place to remind me.

this picture about implement in my life and results

Finally, for three days, I tested many things for solving my problems. I think my situation has been changed to positive way by my options. For problem one, I think I found a right place to study, which are weight training room and bathroom to memorize vocab list. This way helps me to reduce my homework consuming time. I should use these places to do my homework for a while. For problem 2, I put post- it and note card right above my computer and inside of my jacket. This way help me not to forget my homework and essay due.

These pictures are about implement of the problem 2

Looking for Priorities

I often come back from class asking myself, "What do I start with?" It is always hard to choose what is more important and what needs to be done first. I always end up doing things that are fun and usually leave some important things to do last. Then when I realize its 11PM at night I ask myself, "Wow, why do I have so much?" If I set my priorities straight, then I would have already finished the work and at 11PM I could have gone to sleep or continue doing what was fun. I'm sure a lot of you have gone through this problem.

Starting this Wednesday I decided to try ranking priorities. In categories of A, B, and C, A being absolutely essential I listed all the work that was due this week and even the regular homework assignments. If you look at the picture, in the A category I listed all the exams and assignments I need to finish this week. Everything on the A list tells me that those things are absolutely essential and I need to study for the exams and get those other work done before I can do anything else on the list. On the category of B, I have the regular homework assignments that I have to do every week. I'm used to these assignments so I can find ways to get them done after doing what is more important first. These are things like reading assignments in biology and IR and also the journals for CLS 105. Lastly in the C category I listed all sports and fun activities because these are not my priorities as a college student. If my A and B categories are not done then I cannot proceed to my leisure and fun activities.

This week, I just had a lot of things to take care of and if my priorities weren't straight I wouldn't have been able to pull off this week. Already having 2 exams right before the weekend brought a lot of burden on my shoulders. I also had remaining 2 faculty interview to finish so I definitely had to plan something out. By having this list on my desk I had reminders to focus on the absolutely essential assignments and then proceed into the less important things. What I noticed was that, because I really wanted to get to the C category, I was able to work efficiently in studying for both of my math and IR exams. I pushed myself to finish all the necessary work and keep proceeding into the next category. Every time I finished through the list, I became more anxious to really focus and finish thing efficiently. When that time came for me to go play basketball with friends I realized, I have gone through a lot to be here and I found myself enjoying more during that time than usual. After taking both of the exams I felt very relieved and happy because I knew I did pretty well on both of them. It showed that this strategy worked for me well.

One thought I had while working on this strategy was that if I can somehow incorporate last week's strategy like the D's Due and Do and this ranking priorities I feel like I can be even more efficient. For example, on each things for the Due's section, if I rank the priorities of the assignments then I think that will have an interesting outcome.

I suggest that everyone try this strategy out because it has really worked for me and it will be interesting to see what others think about this strategy.

Gina Got Problems??!

So, this week's topic is problem solving. My main problems when it comes to studying are, I do not know what to study first and the study environment that I am in. When I sit down on my desk and started to do the things I have to do or study, I end up watching a movies on computer or go on facebook. It is because of me not knowing what to start on first and there are just way too many distractions surrounding me. So I have tried these two stradegies this week, the Ranking Priorities and The Study Environment Chart.

The image on the left is the chart I did for Study Environment. I first chose the Bird Library as one of my study environment. When it comes to finals week, I often go to the Bird Library to study my school materials. As you can see in the picture, Bird library seems to have a very comfortable environment to study and it has all the technical equipment available. However, it is not a quiet environment to study and it is pretty far from where my dorm is. Also, there is no one that can help you with whatever you need help with. In other location, I have choose my room as a study environment. because other than studying in Bird Library, I study in my room a lot. As you can see my room is comfortable room temperature to study in and also I can keep large supplies safe. However, my room has the most distractions. The computer, bed, phone, my roommate, and food are the things that distract me the most. Even when I promise myself not to get distracted from those things, it never seemed to work. While studying, I tell myself I will nap for 30 minutes and I always end up not getting up till' the next day. I end up not finishing my homework or I end up not being prepared for the tests.

As you can see in the chart however, the total points of study environment is 13 to 14. My room comes out to be the better environment for me to study in. Even with lot of objects that can distract me in room, the Bird Library has ditractions with people. Bird Library always have someone that I know. If I go there to study and I see someone, I end up studying with them then I end up eating and taking a break with them, then I end up just going home after.

So for this whole week, instead of going to Bird Library daily to study my math test on thursday, I studied my math test in my room then on wednsday night, I met my friends from my math class at Bird Library, then asked questions from math materials I was studying in dorm. My conclusion is that studying in my room is a better study environment for me.

My second technique for solving problems was the Ranking Priorities. I know many students struggle with what to do or what to study first because there are just so many things that they have to do.

The picture on the left, I divided all my to do lists into 3, A, B, and C. In group A, those are the things that I should mostly take in considerations. And within group A, I numbered which one is more important the other. My first priority in group A is to get good grades. My 2nd and 3rd priorites in group A is to do well and tests and do homework on time. Using my room which is a best environment I chose to study in, I did really well on my math test and turned all my homework on time. I have accomplished 3 of my main priorities in group A.

In group B, main priorities are to do well on research papers and do well and quizes and homeworks. In group C, main priorities are cleaning the room, doing laundry and exercising.

Overall, my conclusion on using Study Environment, and Ranking Priorites worked out pretty well. You guys should first look through syllabus and see which gives you the most points to get good grades. Then rank them according to hardest classes to lowest classes. So for me, my hardest class is my math class. So, in group A, doing well on math exams is ranked before all the other exams. Then the next step is rating which is the better study environment. In my case, my room was a better study environment than the Bird Library and studying in my room this week helped me do well on my math exam. You guys should definately try my techniques!!

Seongju Kim Coper

This week, we learned about problem-solving strategies and I chose COPER as my problem-solving strategy for this week. These days, I have a problem with workloads I get every week. There are so many writing classes this semester so I have to write everyday for homework and essays. In COPER strategy, first and only thing I put in the Current Condition is having too much workload. For options, I thought of doing works earlier, spend weekends wisely, and not to waste my time. Then, I thoroughly wrote down all the due dates for every homework and essays so I can schedule and finish them early. I tried to finish easy and simple works early so I could concentrate more on the big homework and essays night before the due date.

I started adapting this strategy on Wednesday and through Friday night. I used them mostly on ENL 211, CLS 105, and IST 195 which have most works to do every week. I finished problem-solving homework early because I take most time on writing homework and essays. IST class uses Blackboard often to give out homework and labs and to collect on them on Blackboard. There is only one writing homework every Monday in IST class. So I leave out the writing assignments and finish homework and labs first. Then I start writing assignment with ENL and CLS because these classes have most writing assignments.

This stratetgy helped me to work ahead but I have to keep myself diligent. I feel exhausted sometimes because I don't have enough break after each big workloads. There are always another tests or projects after tests or projects. I'll be really busy this semester catching up the classes and many writing assignments. I chose this method because I always worried about my workloads and this strategy is for the problem-solving.

Seongju Time management

I chose time management as my strategy because I have most difficult time dealing with this even I know what to do. I prefer to use target planner because I think I get more free time for myself but it makes me procrastinate my HW and studying until the last minute. Eventually I finish my HW but it's not productive for me because I get to finish everything the night before the due dates and it exhausts me and my works are not even organized well.

This week I adapted time management to my schedule to use time more effectively. Firstly, I marked all the time that is settled such as sleeping time, and classes. Then I colored the rest as a free time that should be whether for my HW and studying or for my time to play and rest.

It helped me to have a broader outlook at my weekly schedule. I used to spend my time mostly playing and hurried to finish HW at the night after checking what things are due for tomorrow's classes. Usually I had to whether stay up until the morning to finish all the HW and studying or I just gave up and slept which critically damages my grades. However, this week with the time management, I started doing my works when the classes end and free time starts after I realized that I have more works than I expected and I thought I shouldn't spend much time on playing before I realize my HW and studying amount because it makes me tired next day in class for pulling an all-nighter for HW and studying or my grades fall down as I miss the works and fail the tests. The time management was a good plan to try because I learned a lot from this week's time management. Some people are just lazy to try these strategies as I was.

un woo

According to this weekend topic ‘time management’, I could get a most effective and productive way to manage my time. As I am getting old, I started to forget various things such as HW, Quiz day and, friend’s birthday. I noticed organizing in the head has a limitation. I started to use a planner for my time management and productive life. Also, I started to use top- five strategies to manage my study time.

First of all, I put everything about my class in the planner. After I spend my time to organize the entire schedule this semester, I could get the general flow of the class. I always very anxious when is my test and quiz? , what is our homework about? , and what things are we leaning in class? After I organized everything in the planner, those questions solved very easily. Second, I put my spring break, friends’ birthday, wresting practice, and party plan. I am not an unorganized boy. However, these things are very easy to forget. Third, based on the planner, I make a daily time by time planner. After I made time by time planner, I found a many empty spaces in my daily schedule. Some spaces are 20~60 mins. The others are 60 mins and more. I noticed that I always do homework and entertaining for 60 mins and more spaces. However, for 20~60 mins, I do nothing. So, I made a plan for the small spaces. For example, doing homework and pre-studying for next class. I think It will save my time for other works. Finally I also used target planner for my Enl essay which should be done by March 25th. I made six circles for divide my work process. Also, I put my working process step by step and time by time. After I made a target planner, it is really easy to see every single due date. The target planner is very outstanding for lots of work.

I think using time management skill make my school life more productive and effective. According to my time management skills, it is possible to take one more club or class right now. Also, target planner is very useful way to do something very easily and step by step.

How I Applied "20 Minute Test Prep"

My study schedule last semester was mostly narrowed to about four to five hours locked in a study room the night before an exam. It was hard to find people to study with me because I hadn't reviewed the material at all, and they would have had to reteach me more than half of the material. For these reasons, I thought that the 20 minute test prep would be the most useful for me, because it would spread out the time I spent studying while simultaneously preparing me to study with other students. The class that I have an upcoming exam in is Building Systems (ARC 121). During class, my professor goes through a PowerPoint presentation which he doesn't make available on Blackboard. On each slide is a picture but since most of the pictures he uses are from our textbook or online sources that he shares with us, I put my effort into taking written notes on points he makes during class. I have been struggling with exactly how much I should write down because the lectures and readings that we have for class are weighted equally on the tests. What I have settled on for now is writing down everything I can, so after I have my first test, I can go back and take note of what information was targeted on the exam. For my 20 Minute test prep, after a lecture, when I have written down all my notes for the class, I go back and look up the pictures in the textbook and online so that I can draw them in the margins next to the notes I took during class. Also, I like to add in extra information that I wasn't able to jot down while in class.

Things that I thought were helpful when using this strategy were threefold. Firstly, I found that the strategy was most effective when I was able to review either right after the class, or some time the same day. As soon as I let more than a day go by, I felt that my ability to remember information about the lecture diminished greatly. Secondly, I was able to buy a notebook that has pages that are half lined, half sketch so I could save time having to divide the page

beforehand. The notebook is Bienfang brand and I think it would be useful for other majors who use the 20 minute test Prep strategy. It makes visual and written note taking neat and makes relating pictures to words very easy, so not only would it work effectively for people using 20 minute test prep, but also visual learners like me, who learn through imagery and drawing. Finally, I found that writing questions I had after class down after the notes was helpful because I then remembered to ask them either in class when I pulled out my book to take notes, or when I was studying with other people before the test.

Sung Hoon Time management

I chose 20-minute test prep as my strategy because I am a procrastinator and though that this is the right one for me to try. I knew I would have much improvement in classes if I spend at least 20 minutes each day for review what I have learned. Last year, I never reviewed the new information I got from classes until testes or quizzes were coming up. But this time I really committed the week for me to try the strategy. Since it is not easy to show how I reviewed or the order of review, I am just going to show the notes from my class that I reviewed each day and the result of the strategy.

These are some of my note that I took in my MAT class. I write down everything my TA writes on black board or says in class, so my notes from the class are basically the entire lecture. I spent some time to review them every day.

These are two of the HWs that I submitted and got back. The one that I did really badly on was a HW assignment from the week before this week. And the other one is an assignment from this week. I can see the huge improvement in scores. ( I shouldn't worry too much about the first HW because my TA is dropping two lowest HW)

These are stuff from my Japanese class. The grammar sheet was an important study guide I needed to review in order to prepare for the quiz. I studied all the rules that are mentioned on the sheet for short time every day. After studying and taking quiz, I could see my review strategy resulted in success.

I think the 20-minute test prep is a good strategy that fits my studying style. I am going to keep on reviewing study materials from classes.

Biology Exam Prep- Brian Kim

This upcoming week, I have to study for 2 exams. First in Biology 123 on monday and MAT222 on thursday. Since my bio exam is on monday I decided to blog on my biology prep. In order to begin this preparation, I decided to use the D's Due and Do Organizer strategy. Our professor provides us the powerpoint lecture slides on black board so I figured, if I set dates on each lecture slides to go through I'll be forced to study early on for my exam. Looking at back into my syllabus, I noticed that each week, we went through two chapters a week. So I decided each day starting thursday the 10th, I will go through two chapters of slides. So far I was able to keep up studying each day and I have one more section to go through and review the materials before I take the exam on monday night. This strategy seems to be really working for me because I usually procrastinate a lot when it comes to exams but now I feel like I am ahead of the game. There will be no more late night studying if I can keep up with this strategy and I will most likely use this again.

Now when I was studying the slides and the materials, I tested my attention span for a little bit. I noticed that after looking through the materials for about 10-15 minutes I zoned out. So, I thought the 10 minute technique would be perfect for me. So during the 10 minute period, I was able to focus on the materials and even seemed like I was able to go to more materials and memorize them. Right before the 10minute mark ended I jotted down couple things that I could not really remember onto an index card and post it notes so that I can later review them. At times I took several short breaks in between the 10minute period but other times I even went over to my friend's room to just relax for awhile. However I never knew that just studying for a 10minute interval would be so effective. I feel confident in the materials I have gone through and hoping for a great result on this exam.

PICTURES:

One on the top are my notecards and post it notes I made during my 10 minute technique and used during it. These were very helpful when I was finally done going through my own assignments each day I was able to use another 10 minutes to review these materials.

One on the bottom where the post it is on my planner shows my due dates of all the sections I had to go through each day. This became my checklist and something that I had to follow for couple days which really forced me to do them. It was a very helpful technique.

Gina's Weekly Post

So this week's topic was to see how wellyou can manage your time and schedule in a most effective and productive way. Since I am a very unorganized person, I thought it would be easier for me to use the D's Due and Do Organizer on my planner. First I took out all my syllabus from my classes and looked for hw, quizes, exams, and projects' due dates. Then I divided each day on my planner in half, making the left side the DUE date, and the right side what to DO on that day. As you can see on the image on the right, the pink highlighter is dividing the each day in half. The left side of the pink divider is the things that are due on that day and the right side of the pink divider are the school materials that I shoud be doing on that day. Also, I circled and enlarged the letters of the things that are most important to do that are due the following week. For my week of February 7th through February 13th, HOA paper and MAT study is emphasized as you can see. It is because HOA(History of Art)'s big paper is due on the February 15th. And MAT221(Statistics) test is next thursday which is on the February 17th. But for this blogg, I am going to talk about what stradegy I used to do the HOA research paper. Starting on monday, I divided the parts of the research paper by using the Chunking the task. I divided my HOA paper into six parts so I can be done by saturday and get it over with. HOA paper is based on looking at a painting and analyzing the art itself and the backgroud of the art.

The image on the left is the first step of the Chunking the task on my HOA paper. (Monday, February 7th) I have divided the main focus of the topic and highlighted it, dividing into 6 parts. As you can see on my planner picture above, the right side of pink divider on the February 7th it says HOA paper, which is what I had to do on that day. So I have dont one of the sixth parts I have divided using the Chunking tast.

The image on the left is the second work I have done with Chunking the task on the February 8th.

This image on the left is the third work I have done on the February 9th.

The image on the left is the fourth part of the chunking the task on February 10th.

tThe image on the left is the fifth work of the Chunking the task I have done today, February 11th. And tomorrow which is the 12th, I woud be done with my HOA paper!!!!! YAY!! This paper is actually due on the 15th but since I will be finished tomorrow I can look it over many times and make it a better quilty paper.

By using the D's Due and Do organizer and Chunking the task have been very helpful to me for this week. I was always unorganized and so clueless about due dates of important exams and projects. So, it was very common for me to procrastinate right before the day that is due. However after using D's Due and Do organizer, it had saved me a lot of time since everything was so organized and was in order. All I had to do was to just look at my planner daily for like few seconds. Before using the technique I would first had to find my syllabus then look for what is due, and I wasted so much time doing that. Then after I look over the syllabus I would forget again when the due date was for a certain exam or project. So, I would go back and find the syllabus again and look for the dates again which took me so much time. I felt like using the D's Due and Do organizer, it not only had all the due dates but all the things I should do for each day which was very productive for me. Also, using the chunking task on my HOA paper helped me a lot. Breaking the paper by chunks and doing it one by one daily, not only had better quality of writing, but also saved me a lot of time. I just had to work on my essay for about 20 minutes each day and I was done way before it was due. Before knowing the Chunking the tast technique, I would just write the paper right before the date that is due and write it for like about 5 hours stressing and stressing. The time I was spending on a paper was way too long and since I was writing a paper just at once, it seemed like my paper was just dull and repetitive. Now, using bothe D's Due and Do organizer and Chunking the task, it has saved me so much time and I actually feel very accomplished and well prepared. This is the end of Gina's blogg for week February 7th~February 13th !!