How to Create Study Guides That Actually Work

How to Create Study Guides That Actually Work Megan L. Effective study guides can make a huge impact on how you learn and retain material. Find out the best tips for success in this guest post by San Diego tutor  Natalie S Studying for an exam can be a stressful, daunting process. When youve got a textbook, a binder full of lecture notes, and a bunch of homework, it’s hard to know where to start! Study guides are great tools that make this process much more manageable and efficient. Check out the tips and suggested resources below to help you create study guides that will make you more effective and less stressed. 1. Start with the basics. In order to ace your exams, you need to do the work from the beginning. This may seem like a pretty silly statement, but it bears repeating anyway. It’s pretty difficult to create a study guide if you didnt do any of the homework or projects leading up to exam time. So, start off the right way: be present in class, do the required readings, complete the assigned homework, and engage in class discussions. If you consistently do this, the process for creating a study guide and acing your exams will be much easier. 2. Take notes. Take notes. Take notes. When you’re in class or reading on your own, make sure to always have a pencil, highlighter, and Post-it notes in hand. When you write something down, you internalize the information better, so even though it might be easier to just listen in class, it’s more beneficial to you in the long-run if you consistently take notes. Class lectures are designed to introduce you to the material, subsequent readings from your textbook are designed to have you review the same information again, and finally, this information is reinforced once more when you do your homework. When teachers give you a test, they want you to take all of those instances of hearing, reading, and writing about the information, and apply all of that to prove youve actually internalized the information. The best way to do all of this successfully is to write the material down over and over. 3. Take the right types of notes. This is a very important piece of the study guide puzzle. This may take some time and practice, but you have to find a balance between extracting the most important details and rewriting your entire textbook. A good study guide should be a combination of both the lecture notes and notes from the readings. Go through chapter notes and look for similarities in your lecture notes. If certain topics, names, or concepts appear more than once, underline or highlight them, and make sure they are prominent in your study guide. Something that appears multiple times is clearly important and will show up on an exam. Combine your two sets of notes into one, coherent study guide. 4. Ask your teacher for guidance. Before making a study guide, ask your teacher  if he or she is going to provide a list of terms, ideas, and even possible essay topics that will be on the exam. Sometimes teachers will offer this information to make it easier for you to create your own study guide. 5. Third time’s the charm. A great option for getting the most out of your study guide is to write it in three steps. The first step is writing the long version. This is a lengthy outline that includes a lot of detail on the major topics. In this first version, rewrite your class notes in a more organized outline, compile notes from the text, and include any additional ideas that you learned from class. In the second step, you cut this outline down by half. Write out the major headlines and include 5-10 of the most important details under each headline. In the third step, a couple of days before the exam, cut your outline in half again, and write down only the major bullet points. Once you’ve written those down, repeat out loud the details that pop up in your head for each bullet point. The goal in creating this type of outline study guide is to force yourself to rewrite the info in your own words more than once. Each time, youll begin to learn the material more thoroughly, and by the third time, you’ll be able to practically teach the material yourself! There are all kinds of ways to organize your study guides based on the subject you are reviewing and the learning style that suits you best. For more help creating and learning about different types of study guides, check out the following helpful resources: Quizlet Study Guides and Strategies Examples of Different Types of Visual Organizers Natalie S. tutors in English, ESL, History, Phonics, Reading, and Test Prep in San Diego, as well as through online lessons. She received her BA in English Education at the University of Delaware, and her MA in English Literature at San Diego State University. Learn more about Natalie here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo  by  English106

Huntington Learning Center Celebrates National Parental Involvement Day

Huntington Learning Center Celebrates National Parental Involvement Day This month, the Huntington Learning Center of City will celebrate National Parental Involvement Day on November 16, a day that honors the powerful contributions that parents and caregivers provide in support of students success. This annual celebration held on the third Thursday in November each year was founded in 1995 by Project Appleseed, a nonprofit educational advocacy organization. Eileen Huntington, Co-founder and CEO of Huntington Learning Center says that the center encourages family involvement every day. Parents and caregivers can have a tremendous impact on their childrens school experience, she says. Some of the simplest activities help the mostlike showing an interest in what children are learning at school, helping children prioritize their homework each night and encouraging children to give their school work sincere effort. On National Parental Involvement Day and every day, we express our appreciation to parents who care about their childrens education and want to be a part of it. Huntingtonadds that there are many ways parents can foster their childrens academic success. Here are several suggestions for enhanced parental involvement: Ask teachers about academic milestones for this school year and keep tabs on how your child is progressing toward grade-level standards and checkpoints. Monitor homework time to ensure your child is managing his or her time effectively and working on the most important (i.e. due the soonest) tasks first. Check your childs homework each night for neatness and obvious errors. Set goals together for the semester, school year and longer term. Ask questions each day about what is going well and what is proving challenging in school. Take advantage of opportunities to meet with teachers and staff at back-to-school nights, open houses and conferences. Read all communications from your childs teacher and respond in a timely manner when he or she requests information. Make reading a daily habit for the entire family. Ask your childs teacher(s) if you can volunteer in the classroom or in other ways from home. Huntingtonreminds parents that parental involvement is easier than it might sound. While volunteering in the classroom and for the schools Parent Teacher Organization are great things, there are lots of ways to support your child, she says. Parents should make clear to their children that they believe school is important and encourage them to make it their top priority. Those who communicate this to their children and hold high expectations for them as students will see the positive influence. Learn more about National Parental Involvement Day at www.projectappleseed.org. For more information about Huntington Learning Center, visit www.huntingtonhelps.com. About Huntington Huntington is the tutoring and test prep leader.Its certified tutors provide individualized instruction in reading, phonics, writing, study skills, elementary and middle school math, Algebra through Calculus, Chemistry, and other sciences. It preps for the SAT and ACT, as well as state and standardized exams. Huntington programs develop the skills, confidence, and motivation to help students succeed and meet the needs of Common Core State Standards. Founded in 1977, Huntingtons mission is to give every student the best education possible. Learn how Huntington can help at www.huntingtonhelps.com. For franchise opportunities please visit www.huntingtonfranchise.com. 2017 Huntington Mark, LLC. Huntington Learning Center, the three-leaf logo, and 1 800 CAN LEARN are registered trademarks of Huntington Mark, LLC. Each franchised Huntington Learning Center is operated under a franchise agreement with Huntington Learning Centers, Inc.