How to Improve Study Habits and Get Better Grades

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How to Improve Study Habits and Get Better
Grades Exam-Taking TipsExample Questions
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Motivation Organization

• MOTIVATION
• Focus on the Goals
• Study Groups
• Self-Rewards
• Creating Routines
• EXCEPT--no reading the text in bed!!

• ORGANIZATION
• buy the books
• prepare a timetable--work, sleep, play
• set a specific time for studying each course
• benefits of distributed practice versus massed
  practice
• physical activity as part of routine

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In Class

• 80 of success in life is showing up
• Confused???
• Ask - 10 other people will thank you
• Asking Questions
• Taking Notes
• record concepts and key terms
• not verbatim notes--LISTEN to Learn

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Before/After Class

• Read the text--systematically actively
• including the headings, tables, focus issues
• Take notes--avoid the highlighter
• Review your lecture notes
• Check for the overlap between text notes and
  lecture notes--hint, hint, hint
• Read the text--again.

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Memory Tips

• Encoding
• understand first, then easier to remember
• Focus - reduce distractions
• ask questions (either your own, or from Study
  Guide)
• use mnemonic devices
• chunking
• use different encoding techniques
• self-referencing

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Aids for Improving Retrieval

• Number your points
• Visualize the material
• Use other information to jog retrieval
• Free-associate
• Link to the things you do know
• State-Dependent Learning

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Exam-Taking Tips(In part based on Pfeifer
Ogloff, 1991)

• Study/Come with the tools needed.
• Have a strategy.
• look at the weight of the different
  sections--apportion time appropriately.
• read any essay questions early, the rest of the
  test might have retrieval cues.
• skip questions when you are unsure of the answer,
  later questions might have retrieval cues.

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Test-Taking StrategiesMultiple-Choice Questions

• try to answer question without looking at the
  alternatives
• but, be sure to read all alternatives
• contrary to popular belief, research suggests
  that changing answers to mc questions more
  often results in a change from incorrect to
  correct

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Test-Taking StrategiesMultiple-Choice Questions

• remember, you are trying to select the best
  possible answer
• look for alternatives that are clearly incorrect
  discard (cross out)
• relatedly, if a question has an alternative like
  all of the above and at least one alternative
  is wrong, eliminate that answer

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Example Multiple-Choice Questions

• Dr. Smith is a psychologist who is interested in
  studying aggression in sports. For her research,
  she attends high school basketball games and
  records the number of aggressive acts which she
  observes. Dr. Smith's research is best viewed as
  meeting the ____ goal of psychology?
• (a) understanding
• (b) description
• (c) prediction
• (d) control
• Ans Description

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Example Multiple-Choice Questions

• To study the population of superheroes, Superman
  chooses to study Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and
  Spiderman. Thus, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and
  Spiderman make up Superman's ____ in this case.
• (a) sample
• (b) random sample
• (c) representative sample
• (d) population
• Ans Sample

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Recall Questions - Essays

• Use an OUTLINE to organize your thoughts.
• Answer the question being asked.
• (Read the question carefully, answer all
  aspects/parts of the question.)
• Do not provide information not requested.
• (Do not waste time and space repeating the
  question or padding.)
• Resist the temptation to guess.
• (Including your confusing material will likely
  confuse your marker!)
• Complete all components of the question.
• Keep track of time.

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Essay-Style Question - Marking

• Correct Content--All relevant points.
• Correct use of terms and concepts.
• Relevant examples.
• Integration with related content.
• Clear and concise writing--grammatical!

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Essay-Style Question A

• Design a simple experiment to investigate the
  effects of television violence on childrens
  aggressive behavior, being sure to identify the
  independent and dependent variables, and the
  experimental and control groups.

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Essay-Style Question B

• What are the relative weaknesses and strengths of
  non-experimental/ correlational research methods
  as opposed to experimental research methods?
  Under what conditions would a psychologist choose
  one method as opposed to the other?

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Exam-taking Tips

• Have a plan
• check that you have all the pages
• put your name on everything!
• read all instructions--CAREFULLY
• Plan your time
• (allocate by value of questions).

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Multiple Choice Answer Sheets(need to use a
pencil)
Complete Personal Information
Fill in circles completely
Fill in special code
Completely erase changes
3 3 3 3
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Short-Answer Essay

• Use Outline
• (if you have time)
• Limit essay to space provided
• Circle the question youve chosen to answer
• Write your name, ID and your TAs name on the
  top of the essay page

Jane Student
399999999
Bob the TA