A Simple Technique to Remember What You Studied

byepitome|Motivation,Tips and Techniques,Video Tutorials|0 comments

A student once said to me, Teacher, you know why I dont study? Its because I have the memory of a gold fish! I will forget whatever I studied so I must study only on the night before the exam. (PS :- if you dont understand this joke, just google gold fish syndrome)

(Image taken from changeonesmind.wordpress.com)

I know that this is a very common problem among students. But do you know that theres a very easy cure to this memory loss problem? So for you goldfishes out there read this whole article and apply this simple technique below. It works!

So Whats the secret to a better memory?REPETITION

Repetition increases fluency of the flow of thoughts (thus increases memory), coherency, familiarity, dispels fear and encourages confidence. (This is an excellent combination of qualities to equip yourself with before an exam!)

You can repeat your lessons in various forms that suit your learning style written form (notes), verbal form (talk to yourself/talk to others) or even by mental reproduction .

(a) Repeat by Taking Notes

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This is the most common form. Teacher speaks in class, student take notes, student goes home and read the notes. Well, the point is, how many times do you read your notes, and how well do you understand them? Are those notes photocopied by your teacher and distributed to you, or you copy them from what you see on the blackboard directly, or

notes that you write yourself from what you understand from class and books?

Well, for each different answer to the questions above, they can either increase or decrease your chances of a longer memory of what you studied.Generally, if the notes are given to you (in photocopy form), or even if you copied down what the teacher wrote from the board, you tend not to understand or appreciate them completely. (Either they are too lengthy, sentences too complicated or the presentation style doesnt suit your taste).Thus you are not inclined to read them again and again. Some just chuck them aside when they reached home, and then conveniently lost them. This is actually quite a common phenomenon among students.However, for the more diligent ones, they actually spent some time digesting the notes given to them after the lesson or when they reached home, and better still,produce their own version of notesto customise to their own taste either make it more compact, easier to understand, uncomplicate the complicated, add their own acronyms or illustrations, shortcuts, or whatever gimmick they have. Now why do you need to do this?

(image taken from www.educatednation.com)

2 Reasons why your own notes are the best notes!

Firstly, this process helps you to understand better what you have learned in class earlier. Sometimes the teachers explanation is not too clear, missing some details, or you may not be focused enough to grasp 100% of what the teacher said. Thus, reading it over will help you to have a clearer understanding on the subject and its details.Secondly, doing your own notes will make you like it more! Why? Because it is in a language that you understand, in shortcuts that you know, in colors that you like, and in your own handwriting and style, not as boring and lengthy as the books, and easier to carry everywhere! When you start liking your own notes, you will have no problem reading them again and again. You will not feel resentful as when you have to reread somebody elses notes, notes that you dont understand, notes that you dislike!Well, notes is only one way and the most common way of repetition.(b) Repeat by Talking to yourself

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Some students do not like to repeat writing that much but prefer a more vocal way of practice. So after you close your notes, instead of writing you can start speaking out loud what you have just read. Explain the concepts to yourself, with as much details as possible. Yes, talk to yourself or talk to the mirror, (or to your mother, or to your dog, etc.)(c) Repeat by Teaching someone else(best way to remember and understand things)Students always ask me teacher, how do you remember all this stuff? My answer is simple cos I teach them day in day out.Teaching someone else what you have just learnt is one of the best way to get it into your long-term memory. Get your friends to ask you questions related to that topic, then explain the answer to them as though you would in a test. Teaching a knowledge to somebody else is an excellent way to reinforce what you have already learned and to strengthen your own memory recall as well. Plus, you also get to benefit your friends by doing that (from repetitive listening).(d) Repeat by using Imagination and Visualization

Well, a minority group of students do their revision a whole different way. They do not like to write their notes again and again, neither do they like to speak that much. However, their flow of thoughts can be very quick and coherent, and most have quite a rich imagination.These type of students will only need to picture in their minds what they have just learned. What they vizualise may be in the form of words, pictures, graphs, flowcharts, etc. By using method of logic aided by visuals from their mental reproduction, they would be able to get the whole picture of what the question requires, and subsequently would be able to answer the question in writing.One of the best way is to combine this method with notes. You should take the notes in a way that you can imagine them from memory. For example : I always teach using multi-colored pens. I draw colorful diagrams and use different colors for different keywords. I use flow charts / tables You may also use Mind-Map.

When do you need to repeat, and for how long?So fine, you understand that you need to repeat in order to remember. But wait when should I repeat the lessons and how long do I need to keep repeating them? I have to study other things as well right?Research has shown that most humanforget about 80% of what they learnt for the first timeif it is not repeated within 24 hours.Meaning if you learn Archimedes Principle on Monday 10am, by Tuesday 10pm you would have forgotten about 80% of it. But if you repeated what you learnt about Archimedes Principle between 10am Monday to 10am Tuesday, then you will have remembered about 80% of it for the next 7 days.Want to remember longer than 7 days? Read on

If within the next 7 days you do another quick revision of the same lesson, you will be able to remember Archimedes Principle for few months. This is shown from research into short-term and long-term memory.

ACTION STEPS to help you make use of this tip.1) Make your own notes on a topic that you have learnt but forgotten. Lets say Archimedes Principle.2) Try to fit your notes into 1/2 pages. Use diagrams, tables, mind-maps, and make them colorful.3) Read through the whole notes after youre done. (Make sure you understand what youve written. DO NOT Memorize until you understand them!)4) Now, close the notes and write out the entire notes again on a blank piece of paper. You may forget a lot of things, but try to write as much as you can.5) Open your notes and compare with what you wrote. Take note of the parts that you forget or remembered wrongly.6) Repeat number 4 again until you can rewrite on the blank paper at least 80% of your notes on Archimedes Principle.Next Step7) Within 24 hours from this exercise, take out your notes on Archimedes Principle and just quickly read through them. Remember the main points and headings, then go through the details in your head.You dont have to write them again. Just quickly revise the notes. You should spend no more than 10 minutes on this quick review.8) After few days ideally within 7 days, try to tell your friends all that you know about Archimedes Principle. You should be able to explain about 70-80%of the Principle from memory.Congratulations! Youve done it.After these 8 steps, you should be able to remember Archimedes Principle for a few months now. This sequence of repetition will embed the lessons into your long-term memory which is what A-star students do.This technique is very suitable to study Biology, Chemistry, History and Physics. In fact, this is the technique my ex-student is using now. Shes a first year medical student at IMU. Tons of thick medical books to remember!5 Time Management Tips for Students

byepitome|Motivation,Tips and Techniques,Video Tutorials|0 comments

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HELP! I have so much to study but so little time! How???

1)Relax, Breathe-You cant accomplish anything if youre anxious and stressed up.

2) Use a veryeffective techniqueI call BLOCKING TIME.Click here to learn more about this technique.

3) Do yourmost difficult subject firstthing in the morning or at whatever time you feel freshest. if you dislike physics, then study that first. If you leave it till later, very likely you will procrastinate and put it off totally.

4)Set a targetof what you want to complete revision everyday. VERY IMPORTANT :- Dont be a hero and set unrealistic goal. I wanna study Physics chap 2 Form 4 today! And 2 Chapters of Bio and maybe Sejarah also (Unless you have excellent reading and comprehension skills, you wont achieve this goal)

5) Make yourdaily goal small and realistic.Example if you have only 4 hours to study today, then you can do 1 chapter of Physics ( the shorter chapters) and another chapter of chemistry. Use Time Blocking Technique to study effectively.

Stick to this few methods, do them consistently and you will get lots of studying done effectively.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you thinkHow to use TIME BLOCKING to study Effectively

byepitome|Motivation,Tips and Techniques,Video Tutorials|0 comments

Our life is so full if distractions. It is extremely difficult to study effectively when you have SMS coming in every 15 minutes, facebook updates, your mom calling, your brother making noise, your own mind wondering away when you are trying to understand what on earth is ambiguous case in a triangle.

As an adult, and a teacher, I myself are subjected to these distractions as well. When I wanted to make video tutorials or write a post here, I have to focus and remove distractions as well.Heres a technique I use and find it to be very powerful and effective.

TIME BLOCKING1) Before you start studying, plan your time first.

2) Lets say you plan to study for the next four hours,block of your time into small chunks.30 minutes is good. Then leave 10 minutes in-between for break. so you should have 30 min study 10 min break 30 min study 10 min break. Then take a longer break after 1 hr study to reward yourself.This is just an example. You can do 45 min study, 15 min break etc. Do whatever works for you. If you find yourself nodding off (almost falling asleep) then its time to take that break.

3) During that 30 min study time, be absolutely ruthless with yourself!No phones, no SMS.Tell whoever who keeps calling or smsing you to get lost and come back after 30 min. Your future is at stake here! Better still (TURN OFF YOUR PHONE!)

4)During the entire study period including the short breaks,DO NOT go online. I promise you wont die if you dont check your facebook updates for few hoursI also promise your friends wont die if they dont hear from you for a few hours

5) What if its your family disturbing? Not friends? Cant tell mom or dad to get lost right? Yup, cant do that. Well, most parents wont disturb their children if they are studying.

If you cant get peace studying at home, then go to the library or stay back in school. Or better still, wake up early 5am, or stay up late and study when everyone else is sleeping. You may have to take afternoon naps if you do this, otherwise lack of sleep will make you all blur.

6)Set a realistic goalfor each study time block. Example :- next 30 min I will do 10 add math question from SPM 2006 paper 1. Set small goals to make them easily achievable.

Try these methods leave me a comment and tell me what works for you. Or leave a comment if you use other methods to study effectively. Happy Learning!

Tips for Studying Last Minute

byepitome|Tips and Techniques|0 comments

Exam is around the corner, time is definitely running out but you have not covered revision for half the syllabus yet? What should you do?Thats right folks, the clock is ticking unbelievably fast and you are starting to panic. You wish you could convert your brain into a sponge and soak up everything directly off the books but alas, that is purely wishful thinking! So, the next best thing would be to roll up your sleeves, switch on that studying mode and start studying in earnest! Fret not, many out there are just like you, so here are some useful tips to help you gear up for that dreadful but all-too-important exam :

1)FIND YOUR PRIME TIME (Are you an owl or a lark?)

Not everyone can study at anytime of the day some find their minds fresher and function better in the early mornings, some just the opposite; whatever work that needs to use their minds can only get done at night. Prime time simply means the most effective time of the day where you are most productive. It could be 1, 2 or 5 hours a day, (but for your own sake, if this is a real last minute thing, please stretch it for as long as you can!).

You may think that sitting on your desk staring idly at your books 24 hours a day, sacrificing meals, tv and sleep, will solve all your problems. Right? Wrong! All it does, in actual, is just to alleviate your feelings of guilt for not studying enough so that even when/if you failed your exam, you can tell yourself that you have tried your best. You will actually be surprised to find that studying in pure focus for just 2-4 hours in your most productive timeframe will produce much better results.

So, find that unique timeframe of the day and reserve those few hours for concentrated studying. (No, dont waste your best hours on TV or computer games, they will just suck your energy and leave you too exhausted for studying afterwards.)

2) DONT STUDY HARD (HUH??)

As opposed to popular belief, studying more may not necessarily mean better results in your exams. Thesmarter way to study is, study the right thing. Selective studying means you dont have to read and memorize the entire textbook. You will only have a brain-traffic-jam of facts and figures, which will only confuse you further, and makes you forget whats really important.

Study the important parts textbook explanations may be lengthy and to some extent, irrelevant. They may be useful for learning the first time, for deeper understanding of the subject. Not, however, for revision purposes and especially for last minute studying.

Make it a habit to practice picking out important points when you read a textbook. You may create your own short notes or cards that you can refer to at a glance and remember easily. You may create acronyms for long lists of words that you need to remember in a certain order. You may highlight different colors to separate categories in your books, for example, yellow means formulas, orange means short summaries, green means important names of people or places, blue means important dates; etc.

Some can even just read all the titles and subtitles (and skip the body) to jog their memory of the entire chapter. Its sort of like mind-mapping. This technique, however, can be applied only after you have earlier read and understood the chapter thoroughly and it has to be done in pure focus so I might say, may not work for everybody.

Find your own way of selective studying. What works for others may not work for you. Once you have found a way that suits your own, stick to it and use it often.3) PAST YEAR QUESTIONS (PYQ)

The most conclusive way of making sure you are studying the right stuff would be to attempt past year questions (PYQ). Get your hands on as many past year papers and exam papers of other schools and states as you can. There are a few benefits of doing this :- PYQ often repeat similar patterns over the years so you can observe the way questions are being asked, the structure of questions and how they are mostly applied. So after that when you look at the book, you know what exactly to pick out in a long paragraph of facts. This will make your revision easier if you know what the questions want.- You can observe the marking scheme in detail, so you know the correct way of answering a question to get full marks. (Many students think they know the answer but make the mistake of not answering them correctly, or conveniently skip some important steps required, thus losing marks unnecessarily).- Practicing PYQ makes you familiarize with the flow, format and style of the exam questions. Thus eliminates the surprise factor and makes you more comfortable and less nervous in the real exam.- You can observe the popular topics and subtopics that came out so you know what to focus on in your revisions. (Spotting topics is not really an advisable way of studying so do this only as a last desperate resort, if you literally have been sleeping in class for the entire year!)4) STAY AWAKE

I really want to study but I keep falling asleep once I open my book! How??As mentioned in point #1, you should always study at your prime time, i.e. the best hours that your brain is at its most fresh, clear, and focused state. Only then you can ensure that you do not fall asleep while studying, thus wasting all your efforts. However, if that is not possible, you still need to set aside some time of the day for quality study. In this time, you must by all means, stay awake!Many students fall asleep while studying because they choose to study just before bedtime, or they sacrifice sleep for the past few weeks just for last minute studying. In any case, how do you solve the problem of falling asleep while studying? The answer is :DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARRY!!Some will find themselves fresher after they wash their faces; some prefer to go for a jog. You may cycle around the park, watch a sitcom, play a computer game, play with your dog, you may even pinch yourself awake! The point is, you can do anything; do whatever you have to, but bear in mind, you must have the discipline to stop doing whatever you like and go back to focus on studying after that.5) STAY AWAY FROM DISTRACTION

Distraction varies from TV, cell phones, computer games or social networking websites, to family environment, social functions or even mood swings. Research shows that Malaysian children spend an average of 19 hours online every week. (Source: Norton Online Family Report 2010).Now how do you expect to have time for studying if you spend 3 hours a day online? This is only an example. Not to mention the endless social functions you have to attend almost every weekend, the oh-so-exciting-TV series that you cant miss, the twice weekly football game with the guys, the girlfriend who throws a tantrum if you dont call her up to chat an hour a day, the daily afternoon nap that will get you cranky every time you miss it. Oh, and what about the mom who keeps nagging and the baby brother who never stops crying? And after everything is done and quiets down, you find that you are either too tired or simply, not in the mood to study.The keyword here is : CONTROL.

Whatever the distraction is, keep it under control !! BAN yourself from Facebook / Myspace if you have to.Discipline is of utmost importance to achieve this task. Nothing can distract you if and once you set your mind to it. I dont have to elaborate further. You know what you need to do.Well, I hope at least some of you desperate students out there would find these tips useful to your last minute studies. However, one important point to note is that the No.#1 factor in making last minute studies successful is DETERMINATION & EFFORT. As the old saying goes, where theres a will, theres a way (and I will add this : where there is no will, there will be procrastination and delay. In other words, a million excuses.) Sad to say, if there is no determination or effort to start with, no amount of useful tips in this world will be of the slightest use to you. All your efforts in searching for the magic tips to study last minute and articles such as this, would be nothing but futile.So, hang in there folks, and make the best use of the remaining time you have ! Good luck, yall! Ganbatte ne!!Is Giving more homework the way to help Students in Math?

byepitome|F4 Add Maths,F5 Add Maths,Quality Education|0 commentsMath is all about practice My son/daughter is lazy, they just need more practice. Just give them more homework, Im sure they will improve!Thats what parents always tell me.

I tend to disagree. Yesterday I asked my student who consistently scored 95% and above for Add Math, how much extra work did he do for Add Math and Math. Surprise! surprise! Virtually none for Mod Math, and only about20-30 Questions (Paper 1) for Add Math every week in my tuition class for 1.5 hours.

Heres what I think : Math is not just about practice Its more about HOW you Practice.There are generally 3 types of Add Math or Math students:

1) The As and Bs students= These are the ones who need the practices the least but they are the ones who will do extra work.

2) The Cs students They need the extra homework, they will try to do them, but most of the time they struggle through the extra work (10 Questions for Add Math, 5 is done correctly, the rest half done or wrongly done)

3) The Ds and Es students They NEED the extra homework the MOST. Unfortunately Math homework is a CHORE to most of them. Its a stress and they have to slog through just 1 question. As a result, most of them just do half-heartedly and said I tried, its just too difficult Most homework turned out to be less than 50% correct, and I believe even much less than 50% of learning and understanding went into their mind.

So whats the solution then?

The answer is probably in thisMath is not just about practice Its more about HOW you Practice.Next article HOW to practice Math?

What to do when youre stuck Practicing Add Math?

byepitome|F4 Add Maths,F5 Add Maths,Tips and Techniques|1 commentRecently I wrote an article on how to Practice Math and Add Math. HeresPart 1of the article. And heresPart 2.I realized that students who do practice or those who try to practice on their own, often got stuck and they dont know what to do, or dont know whats wrong.

So whats the solution? Wait for tuition class to ask Miss Ng. Hah! What if you dont have the privilage of a private or small group tutor?

Here are some tips on what to do when youre stuck at a question.1) Read through the question again and make sure you copied it correctly! Then make sure you understood the question correctly.

2) Check through your workings again. (many students check through their workings and couldnt spot their own mistakes!) So my advise is this, re-do the question on a fresh page. Then check your new working against the old.

3) Try to think if youve done questions that are similar to the one that youre stuck at. Many questions in SPM are a repetition of the same type. Only the numbers are changed with a slight variation. Refer to the previous similar question. Most of the time you can solve it with the same method.

4) Look for a similar question in the reference book examples and see how it is solved. Understand the concept and try to apply the same method to solve your question.

5) Always look for a pattern in the different types of questions asked. Find relationships between variables and form equations. Math is almost always about finding relationship and forming equations to determine unknowns.

8) The Final Solution ask your teacher. This should always be the final step. Try all the above steps first. If the dont work, then only ask someone. Why? Because it is great to achieve the solution on your own! It feels fantastic to know I solved it on my own.

What to do when you finally found your mistake and gotten the correct answer?1) Dont rub away the old workings with mistakes! This is also something many students do. They will rub off their workings which are wrong, and write the correct one. How are you going to learn from your mistakes if you need to refer to this in the future? Never rub off your mistakes. Just write with another color pen with the correct workings next to it.

2) Make sure youre very very clear of your misunderstanding and why you made the mistakes earlier. Many students just complete the question, and move on to another question without pausing to think through the question. This is why I believe, many students practice Add Math but are still unable to answer many questions when it comes to exam. They practice without having a clear understanding of their work and mistakes.

SPM PMR Crash Course : Tips and Techniques for Self Study

byepitome|Getting Started Guide,Quality Education|4 commentsReport Card Day has come and gone for most schools. Students sitting for SPM PMR would have gotten either praises J or scolding L from their parents.

Heres some study tips for those of you starting to panic, worry, sweating, pressured etc etc.

First KeyFocus 100% on only 1 thing at any given time.Concentrate fully on that task for that time. DO NOT allow anything to distract you, and that means NO sms, NO phone calls, NO chatting.

Lets say you decide to learn Chap 3 of Form 4 Physics Pressure for the next 1 hour. Then please commit to Focus 100% on that for 1 hour.

Most people (and that includes adults too) live through distraction the whole day. The world is getting more and more ADD, probably due to more and more distractions in our lives. Therefore, many people do not realize the POWER and EFFECTIVENESS of focusing 100% on something, even though its only for a short period of time.

Second KeyUse Time Budgeting Technique.Budget a time for your lesson. Lets take the example of learning Chap 3 of Form 4 Physics Pressure. Lets say you decide to allocate 3 hours to complete the chapter, then stick to the 3 hours. Meaning you dont give yourself excuses and do something else in that 3 hours. (toilet break is acceptable J)

It doesnt matter whether the time allocated is enough or not. What matters is you learn the habit of FOCUSING 100% on a given task. I guarantee after FOCUSING 100% for 3 hours, youll definitely see significant improvement of understanding in that Chapter.

Please stop after 3 hours. Dont over shoot your budgeted time. Learn to be disciplined.

You can be flexible but please understand that if youre always flexible with your time, youll not have enough time to finish your syllabus. Learn to balance flexibility with discipline.

Third KeyChunk Down your lessons.Slice your budgeted 3 hours into smaller lessons. Preferably complete the lessons within a day or 2. Maximum 3 days if the chapter is long.

For example you may decide to study 1 hour each lesson. You can study 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour in the evening and then another hour the next morning. (Remember to give 100% FOCUS to the subject matter in that 1 hour)

Fourth KeyDont sit.Thats right, you heard me the first time. Stand up and look down at your books on the table, or hold the book up with your hands and read it standing over your desk. Do that periodically over your lesson time I suggest to stand for 5 10 min. Or better still, hold the book or your notes and pace a while around your table.

Why? Youll be less sleepy this way.

Fifth KeyCreate a study environment that you like.If you like music, then study with music. If you like to munch snacks, then study with snacks. If you like cold, then study with the air-cond blasting. (BUT please make sure youre giving 100% FOCUS to your lessons and not your snacks!)

Try it out Youll be amazed with the Power of 100% Focus

G.P. Veloo\Addmath Tutor\Tel:019-4057065 & 017-2880796