Study 
            Skills  
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             Strategies for Effective Learning 
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              Managing Your Time & Study Environment 
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              -  Determine your goals, values, and priorities.
 
              - Evaluate your schedule and make adjustments 
                as appropriate.
 
              - Get a plan before starting a task. Set time limits to stay focused.
 
              - Break tasks into manageable (and meaningful) chunks.
 
              - Stay caught up with reading and assignments.
 
              -  Have a strategy for taking tests. Monitor 
                your time. 
 
              - Web sites on managing your time 
                and study environment.
 
             
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            Reading College Texts 
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              - Preview - survey the material to get the big picture 
                before reading the material.
 
              -  Question - set your purpose; ask what you already know. 
                Ask what's important to understand from this assignment.
 
              - Read - read for meaning and annotate 
                text. If you don't understand, adjust your strategy i.e., 
                re-read or read slower.
 
              - Recite - summarize what you just read by saying it or 
                writing it in your own words. Make a note of questions that occur 
                to you as your read.
 
              - Review - go over it regularly 
                so it stays fresh.
 
              - Web sites on these and other topics 
                on reading college texts.
 
             
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            Listening, Note-Taking, and Using Visual Organizers 
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              - Preview text and list questions to help focus your listening 
                during lectures.
 
              -  Use Cornell notes or mapping 
                for class notes depending on the style in which information is 
                presented.
 
              -  Annotate - make margin notes in 
                text to label information; circle important terms and concepts, 
                underline important details; summarize, and note questions you 
                have about the material.
 
              - Use graphic organizers to show 
                relationships between concepts (i.e., Venn diagram, fishbone diagram, 
                feature analysis, etc.).
 
              -  Map your ideas to organize writing 
                for papers and tests.
 
              - Web sites on listening, note-taking, 
                and using visual organizers.
 
             
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            Research and Writing Papers 
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              - Plan ahead - develop a schedule for completing each step of 
                the process.
 
               
              - Choose a topic.
 
               
              - Do your research. Learn how to use the library and to conduct 
                research.
 
               
              - Write the paper.
 
               
              - Edit your work.
 
              - Web sites that provide information 
                on research and writing papers. 
 
             
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            Taking Tests 
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              - Stay up-to-date on assignments. Learn material and review as 
                you go along.
 
              - Analyze past tests to determine how 
                you can improve your test-taking skills.
 
              - Ask the instructor about the test. Ask yourself what was stressed 
                in the text and in lectures.
 
               
              - Apply stress management techniques to deal with test anxiety.
 
               
              - Break up study sessions by units or chapters.
 
               
              - Prepare to answer different kinds of test questions.
 
              - Survey the test. Answer the easiest questions first, to control 
                anxiety. Then strategize a plan and concentrate greatest effort 
                on the questions that are worth the most points.
 
               
              - Map responses to essay questions before writing.
 
              - Web sites providing information 
                on taking tests. 
 
             
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  Developed by Meg Keeley
    Special Populations 
    Office, Bucks County Community College
    With funding from the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied 
    Technology Education Act
    Designed and Produced by Chimera Studio
   Copyright 1997 Bucks County Community College. All rights 
    reserved. 
    
    
    Author: keeleym@bucks.edu