How Good Student You Are?
Before reading further about the various conditions that you can manipulate and control to increase study efficiency, it is helpful to appraise yourself. The following questions allow us to differentiate between efficient and inefficient students. Read the questions and answer each one "yes" or "no" as honestly and accurately as you can.
- Do you have several definite, strong reasons for going to college?
- Do you have several good reasons for knowing the material in each course you are studying?
- Do you have difficulty in finding time for study?
- Do you have a daily study plan or schedule of work?
- Do you adjust your study time to the difficulty of a course?
- Do you usually spend time trying to be as relaxed as possible when you study?
- Do you frequently strive to analyze your work and try to find out just where you are weak?
- Do you frequently use the facts learned in one course to help you with the work of another course?
- In preparing for an examination, do you try to memorize the text?
- Do you often write the answer to a question, only to find that it is the answer to some other question on the examination?
- Do you take your notes in class just as rapidly as you can write?
- Do you sit up late at night before an exam studying?
- Do you usually skim over a chapter before reading it in detail?
- When you find a word in the textbook which you do not know, do you usually look it up in the dictionary?
- Do you usually skip the graphs and tables in your textbook?
- Do you stop at the end of each session of study material and review in your own words what you have read?
- Do you usually study every day in the same place?
- At the end of an assignment, do you quiz yourself in a fashion similar to that used in quizzes in class?
- Do you read rapidly, always seeking the main ideas, and without speaking the words to yourself.or pausing over words?
- Do you make frequent use of artificial memory aids?
Analyze your responses and make a summary of your weak points. Doing this will make it apparent why a particular habit or attitude is undesirable.
