School study skills

[Anonymous]

Thank-you Laura- I’ll certainly make good use of your suggestions

K

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[Anonymous]

Flashcards always help me alot. I write very short answer questions on each card, breaking the information down into very small chunks. Sometimes the chunks might seem “too easy”. However, the beauty is that I can give/recite the whole answer before I look at the back of the card to see if I am right. (Otherwise, I might just think I know it, just by virtue of it seeming familiar…then when I take the test, or need the info later, I find out I didn’t know it as well as I thought.)

I tend to make a slew of cards, because each one has such a little bit of information on it. Then, I will quiz myself on a small (10-20 cards) stack. If I get a question right two times in a row, I put it aside and add add a new card to the stack. However, I never start with a bunch of cards that I don’t know at all. So, if it is really new, difficult stuff, I will start with a stack as small as 3 or 4, get them right, add one, get them all right, add one more. Do this until I get 10-20 cards pretty consistently. Then, I go back to the take one card out, put one new card in to the study stack method.

I left grad school the first time because I couldn’t complete the thesis…just never could get to the end. However, I forced myself to go back a few years later and was delighted to find that the school now had a non-thesis option…a comprehensive test was part of it. This method worked very effectively. I ended up with a huge box of flashcards (think hikiing boots), but kept a few with me all the time to practice.

Good luck!

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[Anonymous]

Dear Kate,

Thank-you for your suggestion regarding flash cards.

K

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[Anonymous]

richierich, you’ve learned to respond to signals as an EMT. You get the signal/call and you immediatley swing into action. Since you mentioned you’d be doing much of your study as a ‘distance’ student/online (am I right in this?) it might be troublesome to get yourself to the task.

When I’ve got an ugly job ahead of me (= difficult) I’ve always struggled to get going on it. Just about anything else could easily capture my attention. Every bathroom in my house would suddenly need to instantly have the bathroom cleaned! Procrastination an issue for anyone else here? (heehee)

When I’ve got an important, but ugly and mentally taxing task ahead of me, I set a signal for myself that gives me the jump start to get working. It might be something as simple as when the next commercial comes on the TV, when a show ends, when I finish the chapter of the book I’m reading, when the dishwasher/washer/dryer ends its cycle.

They’re all ‘silly’ little signals but once I’ve set the signal, I won’t ignore it when it occurs. Almost like a signal at the old firehouse that would instantly set all the firefighters into motion. Once I’ve set a signal, it becomes non-negotionable! It happens and I’ve got to immediately get up from whatever I’m doing and get to work because there is a very important task waiting for me.

Doing a lot of the study from home might cause some problems for you but maybe having a non-negotional signal to begin work might help you out, especially since you’re already used to responding without fail to signals.

Keep us posted to let us know how you’re doing! Good luck!

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[Anonymous]

i find that trying to sit still and focus long enuf to get the material into me is difficult. i just finished my masters – unmedicated! (would have been easier medicated, but i have no insurance, you all know how that goes…) i recommend…..lollipops. i found that if i sat and chewed on a lollipop while in a lecture or while trying to write, i was calmer. no idea why (could be why i kept the binky till i was almost 4? self calming? i wonder if that could be a diagnostic thing?)

another thing that works for people is tangle toys. no, no the disney movie tangled. tangle. they are designed for people who fidget.they are all twisty and mesmerizing. i have the one for stress, but there are lots of models, and you can get them small enuf to keep in a pocket. i highly recommend them. you can play with it in your hand and listen or read while you play with the tangle.

https://www.tanglecreations.com/categories.php?ID=2

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