Here's a High Five for Your Five!
Study now and relax later!!
The Right Path to Success
The main thing to remember about success is that it takes time to reach your ultimate end goal. It may be days, weeks, months, but with hard work everything you've imagined accomplishing can be done with:
- Motivation
- Courage
- Inspiration
- Incentives
- Determination
Motivate yourself to do better! Believe that you are capable of setting your standards high and accomplishing them one at a time. Your courage may be derived from looking where you are now and looking at where you want to be in the future. Find sources of inspiration that will lead you to want to work harder. Whether that be your parents, relatives, peers, teachers, etc, find it and go for it! Reward yourself occasionally as well. Lets say you study for a few hours over the course of 5 days. Take that extra day of not studying and reward yourself with some ice-cream or candy. Remember to also stay determined. Your grades are what will ultimately reflect your effort put in so make sure you keep your head in the game at all times!
Study Tips- Form Mnemonics
- Chunking- group vocabulary words that are most difficult to remember in categories you believe will help you recall them on the test later on!
- Acronyms- create a word that will help you remember specific terms or concepts! For an example, if a teacher asked you to state the 5 traits of conscientiousness, would you be able too? Nope! So create an acronym such as CANOE. Each letter will stand for a specific trait so come test time, you will be able to determine the five traits instantly!
Participation
- During lectures in class, take notes and write down any information you believe is important. If your teacher uses a PowerPoint, don't copy down everything. Write what you believe will help you study later on when preparing for quizzes and exams.
- Pay attention and engage in conversation when the teacher asks questions and has open discussions. If you are unsure of anything, ASK! Unanswered questions will lead to even more unneeded confusion.
- Keep your textbook out for reference during class. If the teacher is going over concepts that are difficult to understand, resort to looking at the modules in the book. Sometimes hearing and reading information twice makes the information sink in a lot better.
Electronics are helpful too!
When you are out and about, no worries! You still have the ability to study! Most of the digital devices we have today allow us to download apps and access websites that enable us to study even when we don't have our flashcards or textbook with us. Quizlet is a highly effective app that will not only allow you to make your own flashcards, but it will also help you access other people's flashcards too. If you are a visual learner, you can paste pictures next to the vocab words. Play games, mix and match, and practice tests are some of the many features Quizlet offers its users.
Use the Internet!
When all else fails, resort to looking up practice tests on the Internet. Many psychology teachers post tests that have been successful for their former students. The more you research and the more you do, the better recall you'll have of the information come test day. You can also find games that will help you memorize the words faster. The faster the better!
Communicate!
When nothing is making sense, talk to your fellow peers. Maybe they might be successful in explaining it to you when you don't understand. Studies have proven that when you repeat information to others, the better you are to store it in long term memory. Especially, around AP exam time, form study groups that will help reinforce important concepts. It may only be for 30 minutes everyday, but with distributive study techniques, success will be just around the corner. Remember, anything is possible!