RUOrganized Column
First off, thank you very much for writing to RUOrganized. We
really appreciate feedback from our visitors. As you know, we
sometimes put entries on our page. We always ask first though...
Would you like your question and answer posted on the RUOrganized
website. (Your name and email do not have to go up if you don't want.)
Your question was:
I have a promotional test at school. It is the last test of the
year. If I do not pass, I'll have to stay down another year. I know I
have to study, but I can't sit down too long. Can you help?
As you surely know, studying for finals/90 point tests is
stressful, often boring, and discouraging. Hopefully, we'll be able
to help a little bit. (Don't worry, we're not trying to convince you
that studying is fun...)
First of all, try taking short breaks every 20 minutes or so. Do
some short activity to relieve your stress. Then, go back and study
some more. A strategy we reccomend is to write down the things you
already know. Then, look at a certain section of your notes, and than
when you think you have it, write it down. If you don't get it the
first try, than keep going, and come back to it. This way, you know
when you truly have memorized it. If you are really having trouble
studying, take something in the opposite hand that you are(righty,
lefty), and squeeze it lightly while you are doing your work. It
sometimes help to fiddle with something to keep yourself otherwise
occupied. Keep turning it and squeezing it lightly while you do your
work, and then try to focus yourself on remembering the information
sentence by sentence.
The key to studying is being able to tune out everything well
enough to actually CONCENTRATE on what your are studying! If you
think that you have something down in your mind really well, and you
have written it down to prove it to yourself, go on. After you are
done with everything, run over it in your mind and check in on the
paper that you wrote on. We can only make suggestions, but you have
to be the one that stays in your chair and does the work.
The best way to stay in your chair is to isolate yourself. Get
comfortable... Wrap yourself in a blanket, go sit in a comfortable
chair in an solitary room with no phone, no TV, and no available
computer. A sitting room will do nicely, if you have one. Picture
this:
Say you're in the gym at your school, and your coach tells you to
run 5 laps, do 20 pushups, and then 5 chinups. Say you couldn't do 5
laps because it was too tiring for you. Maybe you could only do 3 and
a half. Well, you'd probably stop trying because it wasn't that
important. Now picture that you are being chased by an outlaw on the
streets of New York. What would you do? Would you stop running just
because you were tired? Probably not, because it is too important.
It's just like testing. Normal quizes which are usually about 5
pointers should be studied hard for, but you can still get an A in
class, and it will not keep you from advancing to the next grade. The
final exams are really important, so they can not be forgotten.
Studying is 2 hours of pain, but then it's over. Though I
personally do pretty well in school, I have to study more than anyone
else because I just don't have a good memory. That's not really my
fault, but I have found a few strategies that help me. One was the
study-and-write it down strategy, and another was to take breaks
every-so-often. I've found that these strategies really work, but
again, it all depends on the personality. Again, we can only make
suggestions. The way the test turns out is mostly based on your will-
power.
Remember: You're climbing a mountain, here, not a molehill; but
think of it this way: When you get to the top, the rest of the trip
is all-easy downhill. Please write back and let us know if we've
helped.