Learning Tips and Study Habits

The OK4R study method:

Overview:

Read the headings, introduction, table of contents, and summaries to get a general idea about what the text is about.

Key Ideas

Go over the text again and look for key ideas, usually found in the first sentence of each paragraph and in diagrams and captions.

Read

Read the material. This is frequently the only step that students perform.

Recall

Close the book and immediately try to recall the main points of what you have read. This will help solidify the information in your mind.

Reflect

In this step, try to relate what you have read to things that you already know. Try to find significance in what you have learned.

Review

At a later time, go over the text again to review material and refresh your memory. If you notice anything that you have forgotten, study those parts again.

The advantages and disadvantages of homework

Most K-12 teachers assign their students homework assignments. By homework assignments, I do not mean reading assignments. Homework assignments include problems, short essays, worksheets, and projects. Some teachers assign homework assignments on a daily basis while others may only assign it once in a while. In general, college instructors tend to assign homework more rarely. There are both advantages and disadvantages to assigning homework assignments.

The main advantage of assigning homework is that homework assignments help a student review the material covered in class. There is an old saying that "practice makes perfect." Also, homework assignments allow the teacher to cover some additional material that he or she did not have time to cover in class. In order for the homework assignment to be effective, it has to be well crafted. For example, writing an essay would be far more effective than doing a crossword puzzle. Some students often learn best by doing; these students would benefit a lot from homework assignments such as research projects on a specific topic.

On the other hand, homework assignments are often viewed as "busy work". The issue is that homework can be very time consuming and stressful for some students. Teachers often assign an excessive amount of homework to their students. Also, many teachers can assign homework assignments in the same time period. Homework can also interfere with students' test preparation time. Homework tends to be disadvantageous to students who have a good understanding of the classroom material and to students with poor organization skills.

Often, the problem is not the homework assignment itself but the excessive length of the homework assignment. Students may benefit from completing 1-10 conceptually different math problems each night; however, a problem set of 100 quadratic equations may be excessive and counterproductive.

If you are a parent who thinks that your child's teacher is assign poor homework assignments or excessive homework, talk to the teacher and try to address the issue. Many parents have raised concerned on the issue. The article, "Summer homework may burn out honors students", provides a good example.

A homework help tutor can help students build a homework schedule and improve his or her organization skills.

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Disadvantages:

-Many students travel over holidays - If some students already have their time committed to something else, they would be unfairly penalized by having to do the same work in less time.

-Having to do school work over break may mean that students are still tired of school when they come back from break, as opposed to being refreshed and ready to start learning again.

-Assigning a big project with no chance for checking progress along the way can be tough for some students. If a student decides to do the totally wrong thing with their project, they won't know until after they turn it in.

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The disadvantages of increased homework loads

By Etta Kralovec and John Buell

Increasingly, students and their parents are being told that homework must take precedence over family and community activities. But what effect is this having on our children?

As the homework load increases (and studies show it isincreasing), family priorities are neglected. Yet belief in the value of homework is so firmly entrenched that most families accept the sacrifice necessary for their children to complete this nightly ritual.

Time spent on homework has increased significantly for six- to eight-year-olds, for example, according to a US study, which compared children's schedules in 1981 and 1997. Yet other studies conclude that there is no link between the amount of time spent studying and grades or test scores. And some experts suggest that homework at the primary level may even be counterproductive. They believe that much of the mindless work of homework is simply not useful. In contrast, more complex homework seen at higher year levels often demands supervision by trained educators - not by parents, who may be limited in their ability to help their children complete assignments, which can lead to confusion and stress between parent and child. Teachers, often overburdened themselves, may assign as homework whatever is left unfinished at the end of the school day. Homework of this sort transfers the responsibility of education from the school to the family.

4-First of all, you get a zero on the homework assingment, second is that it could affect your overall grade ofr the class. BUT! you will be happy because you didn't do any homework

Learning how to follow directions is an important part of school. Here are some tips to help you do a better job:

• Read over all the directions first, to be sure you understand what should be happening in the situation. Don't try to do anything - just look over the whole list and get an idea of what you're going to be doing.
• At this point, if anything seems confusing, ask your teacher to explain that step! The time to ask for help understanding the wording is before you wade in and start trying to do something. If there is a word you don't understand, look it up in your textbook before you start.
  
• Gather any materials you may need before you get started - check the list of directions and make sure you have not left anything out.
• Take it step by step! Just do Step 1 first - do whatever it says to do, just like it says to do it, and don't try to do any other steps until you have done Step 1.
• Take it Step by Step Part 2 - once you have done Step 1, move to Step 2 and do it - do whatever it says, just like it says, and don't try to do any other steps until you have finished it. Repeat this with each step until you are finished.
  

It helps a lot to understand what kind of learner you are. For instance, I don't remember verbal instructions. As you might guess, that leaves me in hot water a lot. So, I write step-by-step lists and use them until I understand what I am doing. Even so, copies of documents with markings as to what they should look like (visual) help me, too.

In order for people to learn best, you need several things:

• Comfort. The learning area should be a comfortable temperature, with comfortable places to sit or move around depending on what is being learned. Uncomfortable people have a hard time focusing.
• Few Distractions. The learning area should have as few distractions as possible. It should be quiet, or have soft and non-vocal music playing in the background (if it is loud enough that people are humming or singing along, it's too loud). There should be as few distracting movements as possible - it's harder to learn when things are moving around you, because you want to see what's going on. If there are pictures or posters on the wall, they should pertain to what is being learned.
• Interest. People learn best when they feel connected to what is being learned. There should be an effort on the part of the teacher to show the student how the material pertains to the student's life.
  

There are several causes of poor study habits:

• Ignorance - many students don't understand how important education will be later in life, and they don't think they need to work hard to succeed
• Distraction - many students think they can "multi-task" and study while they listen to the TV, videos, or music; while they chat; or while other things are going on
• Poor Planning - many students don't plan ahead, and don't leave enough time to study properly
• Ineffective Studying - Many students try hard, but don't understand how to study properly

Here are some links to help you study better, too

• If you perceive it to be silly or stupid, then yes, it is, however, if the person asking the question genuinely does not know the answer than no, it is not silly to ask that question.
• Yes there is a such thing. If you ask a question that you could have answered yourself just by thinking about what you just said, that's pretty silly. For example, my pharmacy has a phone answering system that says "Thank you for calling your local 24-hour pharmacy" and I constantly get people saying "What time do you close?" - that's a silly question.
• A question about something you do not understand, or that you'd like more information about isn't silly, even if you think everyone except you must know the answer - in class, if one person asks a question, then there are at least another five or six people who wanted to ask, but were too shy. Asking a question when you can easily find the answer by looking in your book or on a search engine like google or dogpile might be lazy, but it isn't stupid.
• In some cases a question can be considered a stupid question! If you are just starting to learn about something...then there are lots of questions to be asked...because you have never learned about the subject! Those questions are generally not considered stupid.

1. fit into a group
2. make people laugh
3. seem cool
4. look cute
5. impress someone

Reading may be improved by anyone. The best way to be a better reader is by practice! Here are some other ways to be a better reader: * Try to read harder books - if you don't know all of the words, get out the dictionary! * Read for information - read about things you are interested in, and learn more about things that you don't know * Read "The Classics" - find out why books like War and Peace are considered masterpieces of literature * Improve your vocabulary - the more words you know, the better your reading skills will be * Talk - discuss books that you are reading or have read with your friends - putting what you read into words will improve your understanding, and it might make your friends decide to try that book themselves! I agree with all the above except the first ("Try to read harder books" and "get out the dictionary").

Whether it's you or your child, don't choose books that are difficult to read. You get better at reading by reading. So choose books that are interesting and not too difficult. Then you can read them quickly and easily and your reading improves. If you come across the occasional new word that you don't know, you can hazard a guess from the story. Don't stop and reach for the dictionary. You have some idea of what the word means. If it's important to the story, it will appear again soon, and you'll get a chance to refine your understanding of it. By the end of the book you'll know what it means.

As you read more and more, you'll find after a while that you can read all the books that you thought were "difficult" last year. Nice work!

• Recognize your responsibility - own up to what you do and how that affects the world around you; don't try to shift the blame or get out of something you did - and think ahead of time about how what you're going to do or say is going to affect things!
• Take the consequences - accept what comes from your actions or words; if you're punished, take what comes instead of trying to lie or get out of it
• Take responsibility - take on tasks or chores that you know you'll be able to do, and gradually work your way up to harder things
• Keep track - get a calendar or planning book and make sure you can remember what you're supposed to do and when to do it - don't just put a note into your smartphone because you might not hear the little alert noise! The idea is to have things in plain sight where they'll remind you
• Talk it over - when deciding what tasks are whose responsibility, it helps to talk things over and make sure everyone is "on board" and willing to help out; if you're a kid, think about what chores need to be done and volunteer to do them so you can prove you're responsible to your parents
• Ask for help - if you're a kid, get your parents to help you learn how to be more responsible; if you're an adult, get your friends and family - everyone can benefit from having a little help reminding them of what's to be done

It would depend on the homework received.

WikiAnswers is not going to help you cheat by giving you all the answers. We WILL help you with harder questions that you can't find by using your textbook. Just ask those as a question and wait to see if anyone else knows the answer.