Reading is a part of studying I have been having difficulties with since high school. Whenever I figure out that I have to do some reading for classes, I give a sigh of dislike before starting. For most of classes I am taking this semester, I have reading assignments. Even if I do not have to read for a class, in test or exam preparation period, I have to do much reading. I thought about the reasons why I hate(?) reading so much. First, when I am reading textbooks, I get tired and distracted very easily. Second, I get tired and distracted because there are too many new terms I have to know. Since I am having difficulties with reading because of the terms, I had decided to use the TART strategy for courses MAT 221 and CFS 338 because they are the classes that many terms and much reading are needed for.
I wrote down the terms my TA mentions the most in class and I added the definitions for them too. I know what terms he uses most often because I have never missed a class. I have been attending every single class each week.
Unlike other math classes that only use numbers in, we have lots of terms and definitions to memorize in order to solve the problems in statistics class. When I was in high school, I had experienced that I could not understand the lecture and text because there were too many terms I should have known. By writing down the terms, I could automatically memorize most of them.
After reviewing all the terms, I tried actually reading the textbook. Since I studied the terms, it was easier for me to understand most of the text but there were still some parts that confused me.
As the last part of TART, I decided to make a question that is related to the terms I just studied. I got an idea for the question from the textbook that I already have done but had some difficulties with. Knowing the definitions for ‘disjoint’ and ‘independent’, I could solve the problem much quicker than before.
I did the same for CFS 388. It was easier for me to apply the strategy because I already had done this for math.
I think TART is a good strategy a kinesthetic learner like me to use because this actually helps me to understand the class materials and the text.
I enjoyed reading your blog and I have also used TART on my readings. However if you are a kinesthetic learner like you said you were, you should use NSAS stradegy. This stradegy actually make you do things like writing stuff on flashcards. Nice blog and I hope when you try the NSAS stradegy, it works for you better.
ReplyDeleteIt looks great that this strategy helped you a lot to improve you. I should try your strategy as well as I'm a kinesthetic learner. Good job with your blog and I enjoyed reading.
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