Study Prof

Many of the test prep books out there include schedules to help you prepare for the GRE or SAT, but every single one that I’ve seen has a fatal flaw!  Their schedules would have you studying each topic only once before the test.  That’s crazy!  No one will master a difficult topic, much less remember it a month or two later, if they’ve only practiced it once.

Many teachers know about spiraling curriculums.  A spiraling curriculum ensures that students keep coming back to the same topic at regular intervals.  This increases recall and promotes mastery.

Our schedule should do the same; things we know we should study less and less as the day approaches.  Things we struggle with we should work on more and more.  Moreover, the best study schedule would be flexible enough to work whether you have a week, a month, or a year in which to prepare.

Here’s a simple method that will…

1. Make sure you study everything you need to before the test.  No worries about skipping something vital!
2. Automatically have you review most the things with which you struggle most.  No wasted time.
3. Enable you to clearly identify what you actually need to study.  That means confidence on the test.
4. Put the knowledge into your long term memory.  No fear of studying it now and then forgetting it by test time.
5. Enable you to study as much or as little as you need to in order to prep.  It’s easily configurable to your schedule and needs.

First, get a test prep book (or two) that is comprehensive, giving plenty of attention to each section of the test.  You want a book that explains things in a way that you find easy to understand.  The best way is to go to a book store, pick out five or six likely looking candidates, and thumb through each of them.  Pick the one that appeals most to you.  You’ll quickly find that they all have very similar techniques, but that some seem easier to understand or are more comprehensive.  Here are my personal picks for SAT and GRE.

Next, get a book that has actual practice exams.  I recommend GRE: Practicing to Take the General Test 10th Edition, which contains actual GRE tests released in the past.

Now begin following this schedule.

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One of my students sent me these math problems, although I’m not sure of their source.  I’ve posted the solutions for you.  Although these problems are from the SAT, similar problems might be encountered on the GRE. By the way, these images below don’t show up very well at all in Internet Explorer but they show up fine in Firefox. Go figure. Download them if you can’t see them well in your browser.

(this is an updated version of a post from January 2008)

I’ve posted quite a bit on how and when to study in order to maximize recall, but putting it all together may be a bit daunting.  Follow this step-by-step guide and you’ll be well on your way to the top of the class!  These may seem deceptively simple, but every one of these steps is supported by research.  Start following these steps NOW to boost your grades and recall.

Best Study Schedule

1. Study every day rather than studying for long periods on one or two days a week
2. As far as it is possible, establish a regular daily study schedule
3. Study early in the day as much as possible.  Most (but certainly not all) brains function better earlier in the day.
4. Study between classes during time that would normally be wasted
5. Study in short sessions, from twenty to forty-five minutes each
6. Take frequent breaks from two to fifteen minutes long between each session and do something completely unrelated
7. Review at the beginning an end of each study session
8. Study new material within fifteen minutes of learning it, and again within twelve hours.  Aim for 100% mastery
9. Study the cumulative class notes at least once per week
10. Don’t study at night or on the weekends when it can be avoided.  Rest is just as important as study!  Exception: A brief review right before bed can cement information in.  For example, if I spent two hours going over new notes during the day, I might take ten minutes right before I close my eyes to mentally rehearse the material.

Mid-terms and finals are the bane of most college students’ existence.  One final exam would be bad enough, but at the end of the semester we often have to take two or three exams in a single day!  It’s enough to make even the most studious among us pine for the life of a beach bum.

If you find yourself in this unenviable position, here are some tips and tricks to help you make the best of a bad situation.

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What could be more normal than drinking a tall glass of ice tea on a hot day?  Ice tea was sold for the first time on a hot day in 1904, at the World’s Fair.  Tea concessionaire Richard Blechynden was trying to boost sagging sales, and his new-fangled iced tea was a hit with thirsty fair-goers.

Up until that time, hot was the only way most people drank their tea.  Now, in the U.S. at least, cold tea is the norm for much of the year.

Similarly, learning new habits can seem awkward at first.  They seem unnatural.  After awhile, though, they become so normal you can’t imagine doing without them.

Keep that in mind as you work on forming new academic habits, like reviewing your notes as you walk across campus.  Persist and the ungainly new habit will become as natural as drinking a tall glass of ice tea on a hot day.

Yes, you read right.  You can actually love essay tests.  For most of us, essay tests rank right up there with colonoscopies and tax audits, but read on, and you’ll find out why essay tests are actually the best kind!

Please don’t jeer or throw things, but I’ve always preferred essay tests.  I think it goes back to my freshman year in high school when Coach Davis, my history teacher, gave us an essay question that was something like, “What factors contributed to the victor’s triumph in the 1858 senate race between Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas?”

My first thought on reading this question was, “Kuhhrap!  That Lincoln guy sounds real familiar, but who was Douglas?  Was I even here that day?” My ignorance was so complete that I didn’t even know who won the election, much less why.  (And you wonder why study skills are a concern of mine.)  However, by (more…)

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Want to know how colleges are handling SAT scores versus ACT scores?  College Board publishes tables for just that purpose.  Take a look here.

Many schools accept either the SAT or the ACT when considering admissions.  If the school you want to get into accepts either one, you should probably take both! 

Reports from my students indicate that they often do significantly better on one or the other.  One student, for example, made an 800 on her combined math and reading scores for the SAT–significantly lower than average–yet scored in the 93rd percentile on the ACT. 

Wow!  These two tests are used by universities to predict the same thing–college GPA–yet her SAT scores put her at the bottom of the stack and her ACT scores predicted exactly the opposite.  Needless to say, she used her ACT scores to gain admission to her school of choice.

Now you can sign in on the GRE.org website and pay $20 by credit card to send your GRE scores to colleges.  Take a look here.

There is a new SAT score reporting system!  By calling customer service or via the web you can choose exactly which scores are sent to a given college.

Example: Let’s you took an SAT Biology Test, and SAT Chemistry Test, and you took the SAT General Test two times, scoring higher the second time.  You can now log on to the SAT website and tell them to send the chemistry and biology scores and the scores for the second SAT General Test.

Nice!  I hope they implement this for the GRE as well.  To find out all the details look here (this will download a pdf file).