A. Translate the questions into your own words.

B. Read each option carefully.

C. Use a strategy:

1. Attack unfamiliar words by sounding them out, by breaking them into familiar parts with meanings you know, by looking at the surrounding words and sentences for clues to the meaning of the word.
    
2. Use your general knowledge. Ask yourself, “What do I already know about ____________”?
    
3. Anticipate the answer and look for the one most like what you expect. Be flexible. You may not always find exactly the choice you are looking for. Then, you must choose the best of the options available.
    
4. Use logical reasoning. For each possible answer, ask yourself, “What would happen if . . . “?
    
5. Use process of elimination with multiple choice questions for which more than one option is correct.

• Pick out the options you are sure are correct.
• Pick out the options you are sure are incorrect.
• Rule out all answers which contain wrong options.
• Rule out all answers which omit options you are sure of.
• Select the best remaining answer.
• Look for Test-Wiseness cues if the other strategies don’t work.

If you guess at an answer, check your guess against what you already know and against what your logical reasoning tells you.

Kentucky State University

Students too often put off a written assignment, considering it a chore too formidable to approach until the last minute. As a result, grades inevitably suffer.

Writing is not a talent reserved for a select few, it is a skill that can be learned. Planning and organization are its essentials. With a knowledge of these, the student can through effort and practice improve his writing ability.

Suggested below is a guide to organized writing. Use this outline in writing class assignments, essay tests, and term papers.

1. INTRODUCTION – OPENING PARAGRAPH

2. BODY – THREE DEVELOPING PARAGRAPHS

In each paragraph:

3. CONCLUSION – FINISHING PARAGRAPH

Virginia State University

How do I begin to increase my vocabulary?

Vocabulary is an ongoing process. It continues throughout your life. What you have done is to slow your effective method of learning vocabulary down to a snail’s pace.

When you were younger you learned something day in and day out. You kept squeezing every moment of the day into a new and different learning situation. You continually asked questions and drove yourself to learn more. Look at the following examples:

• at the age of 4 you probably knew 5,600 words
• at the age of 5 you probably knew 9,600 words
• at the age of 6 you probably knew 14,700 words
• at the age of 7 you probably knew 21,200 words
• at the age of 8 you probably knew 26,300 words
• at the age of 9 you probably knew 29,300 words
• at the age of 10 you probably knew 34,300 words
• college sophomore you probably knew 120,000 words

What this tells you is the more you learn, the more vocabulary you will know. No matter what your age, you must continue to learn. Words are “symbols” for ideas. These ideas formulate knowledge and knowledge is gained largely through words.

Suggestions:

• Read. the more you read, the more words you will come in contact with.
   
• Use new found vocabulary in your everyday communication (writing, speaking).
   
• Become familiar with the glossary of your textbooks.
   
• Become familiar with the dictionary. Understand the pronunciation keys as well as why there are multiple meanings for words.
   
• Try to learn 5 new words a day. If you know these words – use them in your communication process. Without using these new words, it is a waste of your time.

Read. Read books from fields other than your major. Read books which interest you and concentrate while you read.

Virginia State University

Things To Do Before Reading

1. Make specific times to read assignments for each course. Mentally commit yourself to these time periods to read about these subjects. This makes concentration easier.
    
2. Recall what you already know about the topic to be read.
    
3. Bring an open mind to what you read. You don’t have to agree in order to understand what an author says.
    
4. Intentionally state a reason to read (e.g. “I want to find out about …”) or create questions out of titles, subheadings, italicized words, etc. and read to find the answers. Concentration and memory improve when there is a specific purpose for reading beyond the fact that something has been assigned.
    
5. Divide a long chapter or assignment into pieces. It is easier to concentrate if you focus on one piece at a time instead of trying to digest a large amount of material at once.
    
6. Take one or two minutes to skim through a chapter before reading to see how it is structured and where the author is going to take you. Look at the title, introduction, subheadings, and summary.

Things To Do While Reading

1. Read only when you are able to concentrate. Monitor yourself by putting a check mark on a piece of paper whenever concentration wanders. This will help return your mind to the reading assignment. If you cannot concentrate, do something else for five or ten minutes, or study a different subject for a while.
    
2. As you read, take notes from the text. Condense ideas using abbreviations, symbols, short phrases, and sketches. Avoid complete sentences.
    
3. Use a specific format for organizing notes from textbooks. The Cornell System for organizing notes involves drawing a line 1/3 from the left margin of a notebook paper. Main ideas are recorded on the left side and details recorded on the right side.
    
4. Another convenient note format is to make a question from a main idea and place it on one side of a notecard. Read to answer the question and put the answer on the other side. This reduces forgetting what was just read and provides a fast and easy way to organize note for later learning.
    
5. When you make notes, use your own words to record ideas. This will aid in learning and in later recall on tests.
    
6. Change reading speed according to the difficulty of the material and the purpose for reading. No single reading speed is effective for all types of reading material. Textbook reading should be done fairly slowly and deliberately compared to reading newspaper articles or novels. If you take good notes, you should not have to read a textbook chapter more than once.
    
7. Read and study in locations free of visual and auditory distractions.
    
8. When concentration or understanding what is read is a problem in textbooks, read aloud as if explaining it to someone else.

Things To Do After Reading

1. In your spare time, think about what you read. Discuss information to be learned with others such as in a study group.
    
2. Relate what you read to class lectures.
    
3. Look at main ideas or questions and recite aloud or write details and answers without looking, as if you are taking a test. If you can recall answers complete and accurately from memory, you know that you know the material. If you cannot, you know immediately where you need to concentrate your study efforts.

What you do before and after reading is as important as what you do during reading when learning from textbooks. The ultimate objective of all textbook reading should be to understand what is read and assimilate it into your store of knowledge. That is, the information has become a personal possession. When this happens, the information has been learned.

University of Central Florida

1. Misread Direction Errors

These errors occur when you skip directions or misunderstand directions but answer the question or do the problem anyway.

To avoid this type of error, read all the directions.

2. Careless Errors

Mistakes made which can be caught automatically upon reviewing the test.

To avoid this type of error, watch for simple mistakes carefully as you review the test.

3. Concept Errors

Mistakes made when you do not understand the properties or principles required to work the problem.

To avoid this type of error in the future, you must go back to your textbook or notes and learn why you missed the problems.

4. Application errors

Mistakes that you make when you know this concept but cannot apply it to the problem.

To reduce this type of error, you must, learn to predict the type of application problems that will be on the test.

5. Test Procedure Errors

Mistakes that you make because of the specific way you take tests, such as:

6. Study Errors

Mistakes that occur when you study the wrong type of material or do not spend enough time studying pertinent material.

To avoid these errors in the future, take some time to track down why the errors occurred so that you can study more effectively the next time.

By Paul D. Nolting, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997

To reduce math test anxiety, you need to understand both the relaxation response and how negative self-talk undermines your abilities.

Relaxation Techniques

The relaxation response is any technique or procedure that helps you to become relaxed and will take the place of an anxiety response.

Someone simply telling you to relax or even telling yourself to relax, however, without proper training, does little to reduce your test anxiety. There are both short-term and long-term relaxation response techniques which help control emotional (somatic) math test anxiety. These techniques will also help reduce worry (cognitive) anxiety.

Effective short-term techniques include The Tensing and Differential Relaxation Method and The Palming Method.

Short Term Relaxation Techniques

The Tensing and Differential Relaxation Method

The Tensing and Differential Relaxation Method helps you relax by tensing and relaxing your muscles all at once. Follow these procedures while you are sitting at your desk before taking a test:

1. Put your feet flat on the floor.
2. With your hands, grab underneath the chair.
3. Push down with your feet and pull up on your chair at the same time for about five seconds.
4. Relax for five to 10 seconds.
5. Repeat the procedure two to three times.
6. Relax all your muscles except the ones that are actually used to take the test.

The Palming Method

The palming method is a visualization procedure used to reduce test anxiety. While you are at your desk before or during a test, follow these procedures:

1. Close and cover your eyes using the center of the palms of your hands.
2. Prevent your hands from touching your eyes by resting the lower parts of your palms on your cheekbones and placing your fingers on your forehead. Your eyeballs must not be touched, rubbed or handled in any way.
3. Think of some real or imaginary relaxing scene. Mentally visualize this scene. Picture the scene as if you were actually there, looking through your own eyes.
4. Visualize this relaxing scene for one to two minutes.

Practice visualizing this scene several days before taking a test and the effectiveness of this relaxation procedure will improve.

Side One of the audio cassette, How to Reduce Test Anxiety (Molting, 1986), further explains test anxiety and discusses these and other short-term relaxation response techniques. Short-term relaxation techniques can be learned quickly but are not as successful as the long-term relaxation technique. Short term techniques are intended to be used while learning the long-term technique.

Long Term Relaxation Techniques

The Cue-Controlled Relaxation Response Technique is the best long-term relaxation technique. It is presented on Side Two of the audio cassette, How To Reduce Test Anxiety (Molting, 1986). Cue-controlled relaxation means you can induce your own relaxation based on repeating certain cue words to yourself. In essence, you are taught to relax and then silently repeat cue words, such as “I am relaxed.”

After enough practice, you can relax during math tests. The Cue-Controlled Relaxation Technique has worked with thousands of students. For a better understanding of test anxiety and how to reduce it, listen to How to Reduce Test Anxiety (Nolting, 1986).

Negative Self-Talk

Negative self-talk is a form of worry (cognitive) anxiety. This type of worrying can interfere with your test preparation and can keep you from concentrating on the test. Worrying can motivate you to study, but too much worrying may prevent you from studying at all.

Negative self-talk is defined as the negative statements you tell yourself before and during tests. Negative self-talk causes students to lose confidence and to give up on tests. Further, it can give you an inappropriate excuse for failing math and cause you to give up on learning math.

Students need to change their negative self-talk to positive self- talk without making unrealistic statements.

Positive self-statements can improve your studying and test preparation. During tests, positive self-talk can build confidence and decrease your test anxiety. These positive statements; as well as others, can help reduce your test anxiety and improve your grades. Some more examples of positive self statements are on the cassette tape How to Reduce Test Anxiety (Molting, 1986). Before the test, make up some positive statements to tell yourself.

The 12 Myths About Test Anxiety

1. Students are born with test anxiety.
2. Test anxiety is a mental illness.
3. Test anxiety cannot be reduced.
4. Any level of test anxiety is bad.
5. All students who are not prepared have test anxiety.
6. Students with test anxiety cannot learn math.
7. Students who are well prepared will not have test anxiety.
8. Very intelligent students and students taking high-level courses, such as calculus, do not have test anxiety.
9. Attending class and doing my homework should reduce all my test anxiety.
10. Being told to relax during a test will make you relaxed.
11. Doing nothing about test anxiety will make it go away.
12. Reducing test anxiety will guarantee better grades.

By Paul D. Nolting, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997

Essay tests can have on them the following types of questions: short or long answers, fill in the blank, and sentence completion. Use the following suggestions to help you with essay-type tests:

1. Make a brief survey of the entire test. Read every question and the directions. Plan to answer the least difficult questions first, saving the most difficult for last.
    
2. Set a time schedule and periodically check your progress (to maintain proper speed). With six questions to answer in 60 minutes you should allow a maximum of 10 minutes per questions. If your 10 minutes passes and you have not finished the question, continue to the next one and come back to the other one later. Do not sacrifice any question for another.
    
3. Read the question carefully. Underline key words: e.g., list, compare, WWII, political and social, art or music, etc. As you read, jot down the points that occur to you beside that question.
    
4. Organize a brief outline of the main ideas you want to present. Place a check mark alongside each major idea and number them in order of presentation in your answer. Do not spend too much time on the outline.
    
5. When you answer, always rephrase the question.Example: Explain Pavlov’s theory of conditioning. Answer: Pavlov’s theory of conditioning is based on…The remainder of the answer is devoted to support by giving dates, examples, stating relationships, causes, effects and research.
    
6. Present material that reflects the grader’s personal or professional biases. Further, stick to the material covered in the reading or lecture, and answer the question within the frame of reference.
    
7. If you do not understand what the instructor is looking for, write down how you interpreted the question and answer it.
    
8. If time does not permit a complete answer, use an outline form.
    
9. Write something for every question. When you “go blank,” start writing all the ideas you remember from your studying – one of them is bound to be close!
    
10. In sentence-completion items, remember never to leave a space blank. When in doubt – GUESS. Make use of grammar to help decide the correct answer. Make the completed statement logically consistent.
     
11. If you have some time remaining, read over your answer. You can frequently add other ideas which may come to mind. You can at least correct misspelled words or insert words to complete an idea.
     
12. Sometimes, before you even read the questions, you might write some facts and formulas you have memorized on the back of the test.

ANSWERING AN ESSAY TEST WITH SEVERAL QUESTIONS

1. Do a memory data dump.
2. Read all the test questions and underline the important words.
3. As you read each question, write down key words relating to the answer that immediately comes into your mind.
4. Develop a test progress schedule.
5. Answer the easiest questions first.
6. Expand the key word outline begun in Step 3.
7. Organize the outline.
8. Write the answer.
9. Go to next easiest question and proceed to Step 6.
10. Review all test questions.

KEY WORDS ON ESSAY TESTS

By Paul D. Nolting, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997

Objective tests include those with multiple-choice, true/false or matching questions. Use the following suggestions to help you take an objective test:

1. Before you start taking the test, preview the entire test – Survey to find how many questions there are and of what type. Set a time limit so that you will have at least five minutes at the end to recheck your test.
    
2. Read the directions, carefully, making sure you understand exactly what is expected.
    
3. Find out if you are penalized for guessing. If not, always guess and do not leave any unanswered questions.
    
4. Carefully read each question; underline key words.
    
5. Anticipate the answer and look for it. Read all the alternatives before answering.
    
6. Do not read into questions what is not there.
    
7. When your anticipated answer is not one of the options, discard it and systematically concentrate on the given ones.
    
8. When two or more options look correct, compare them with each other. Study them to find what makes them different. Choose the more encompassing option unless the question requires a specific answer.
    
9. Pass over the difficult or debatable questions on your first reading and come back to them after completing those about which you were sure.
    
10. Use information from other questions.
     
11. In all questions, especially the true-false type, look for specific determiners. Words such as “rarely,” “usually,” “sometimes,” and “seldom” allow for exceptions; “never,” “always,” “no,” and “all” indicate no exceptions.
     
12. Mark statements true only if they are true without exception. If any part of the statement is false, the whole statement is marked as such.
     
13. Stay in one column of a matching test. Usually it will be the column with the definition. Work backward to find the word or symbol that matches it. Be sure to find out if the answers can be used more than once.
     
14. If you know you made an error, change your first answer. If it is just a guess, keep your first impression.
     

By Paul D. Noltlng, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997

What to know before you start to study:

1. What type of test is it?
   1. Objective – multiple choice, true/false, matching or a combination.
   2. Essay – short or long answer, or sentence completion.
   3. Problem solving.
   4. Combination of the above.
2. What material is to be covered?
3. How many questions (approximately)?
4. What is the time limit?

If the information above is not given by the instructor when he/she announces the test, ASK. This information is valuable to the way you study. Also, ask the instructor for old exams you can use for your review.

Studying:

1. Be sure you have read all the material to be covered and all the lecture notes before you begin your serious studying.
    
2. Plan what you will study and when you will study it.
    
3. Each review session should be limited to one hour. Take breaks of five to 10 minutes between hourly sessions.
    
4. Try to predict exam questions. If it will be essay, try to answer your predicted questions.
    
5. Study in a group only if everyone has read the material. You do not gain much when you must “tutor” someone else or if other students are not prepared.
    
6. Prepare summary sheets to study and eliminate rereading the textbook.
    
7. Review for objective tests by concentrating on detail and memorizing facts, such as names, dates, formulas and definitions (know a little bit about a lot).
    
8. Review for essay tests by concentrating on concepts, principles, theories and relationships (know a lot about a little bit).
    
9. For problem-solving tests, work examples of each type of problem. Work them from memory until you get stuck. Study your guide problem and begin working it again from memory, from the beginning. Do this until you can work the entire problem without referring to your notes.
    
10. On the day of the test, do not learn any new materials. It can interfere with the knowledge you have already learned.
     
11. Try not to discuss the test with other students while you are waiting to begin. If you have studied, you do not need to be flustered by others making confusing remarks.
     
12. Try to consciously make yourself relax before the test begins.
     
13. After the test is over, forget it! Do not discuss it and do not look for answers you might have missed. Concentrate on your next exam.
     
14. Keep in good physical condition by not ignoring food and/or sleep requirements.

By Paul D. Nolting, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997

To become a better note-taker you must know when to take notes and when not to take notes. The instructor will give cues that indicate what material is important Some such cues include:

• presenting usual facts or ideas
• writing on the board • summarizing
• pausing
• repeating statements
• enumerating; such as, “1, 2, 3″ or “A, B, C”
• working several examples of the same type of problem on the black- board
• saying, “This is a tricky problem. Most students will miss it.” For example, 510 is “undefined” instead of “zero.”
• saying, “This is the most difficult step in the problem.”
• indicating that certain types of problems will be on the test, such as coin- or age-word problems
• explaining bold-print words

You must learn the cues your instructor gives indicating important material. If you are in doubt about the importance of the class material, do not hesitate to ask the instructor about its importance.

While taking notes, you may become confused about math material. At that point, take as many notes as possible, and do not give up on note-taking.

As you take notes on confusing problem steps, skip lines; then go back and fill in information that clarifies your misunderstanding of the steps in question. Ask your tutor or instructor for help with the uncompleted problem steps, and write down the reasons for each step in the space provided.

Another procedure to save time while taking notes is to stop writing complete sentences. Write your main thoughts in phrases. Phrases are easier to jot down and easier to memorize.

Abbreviations

By Paul D. Nolting, Ph.D., Winning at Math, 1997