Get BETTER Grades in 30 DAYS!
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I have earned four college degrees in my lifetime using the study
and note taking techniques in this book. These techniques worked for
me and they will work for you! - Ralph E. Wilson
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As part of recommended study techniques, Part Two of this book also
discusses taking notes in class. Part Two introduces techniques for
note taking using shorthand methods that teach you to quickly
summarize important facts and concepts. If you cannot get the
important facts and concepts of the lecture down on paper, then you
are not going to do well when tested on those facts and concepts. No
teacher or professor ever explained how I could make my life easier by
using a system of study techniques to help me remember course
material. Nobody taught me how to take class notes efficiently either.
It was clear that in order to do well, I needed to develop my own
system. I began working on that system in high school and continued
developing and refining it in college. Allison has refined it even
further and the result is an easily understandable note taking method
set out in Part Two of this book.
My system works. The techniques described are for students who want
to do well in school without the constant insecurity of not being able
to remember important facts and concepts. The tips and techniques in
this book can and will bring results for any student, from grade
school through graduate studies, regardless of age. These techniques
will reduce study time, freeing up time for other activities. Your
success will depend upon the extent to which you put these techniques
into practice. The study techniques are not a substitute for your
ability to understand the subject matter and course concepts; they are
simply intended to help you remember the facts and concepts necessary
to do well on quizzes and tests. If you want to spend less time
studying and more time participating in after school activities,
including playing sports, using the techniques in this book are a
must! Achieve better grades in 30 days!
The concepts and techniques described in this book are those that
worked particularly well for me. The “memory joggers” are things
that are easy for me to remember. You do not have to follow my methods
exactly; it is the concept behind these methods that is important. You
should be prepared to tailor these techniques to your interests and
learning style.
School did not always come easy for me. Students usually are expected
to memorize facts, figures, and material, but with my involvement in
sports and school activities, I found this too difficult and time
consuming. I had to come up with a method of balancing sports, fun and
studying, or risk failing.
I realized in high school that an effective study program required
four key ingredients:
* THE ABILITY TO TYPE
* THE ABILITY TO READ
* STUDY TECHNIQUES
* NOTE TAKING SKILLS
The first ingredient is the ability to type. Most kids today have
familiarity with a computer keyboard, but I’m not talking about the
“hunt and peck” method of typing they develop on their own; I mean
honest-to-goodness typing, using all eight fingers and both thumbs. I
took a typing class in high school and practiced at home every night.
Before long I could type seventy words per minute. That ability
allowed me to prepare term papers faster and do outlines of my courses
with speed and clarity, not to mention neatness. If you don’t know
how to type, I recommend that you learn as soon as possible.
The second ingredient of a good study program is the ability to read.
Every student should spend more time reading. If you think you’re
already reading a lot, read more! Reading is a key to better grades.
It is important for students to be exposed to a reading course that
teaches speed. The idea of speed-reading is not to say each and every
word to yourself as you read it, but rather to scan the sentences and
paragraphs for key concepts and to identify themes. Think about it:
when you read you are normally saying every word to yourself as you
read it. This slows you down and makes it difficult to read fast. I
took a speed-reading course when I was in high school. That course
became invaluable to me later in college when I was taking seven
classes at a time and each course required reading several books. I
was a history major and a political science minor as an undergraduate,
so you can probably imagine the number of books that I had to read for
each class. Using the speed-reading techniques I learned, I was able
to complete all of the course readings with ease. Check around for a
speed-reading course in your area and enroll in it.
The third ingredient of a good study program is to use study
techniques to help you remember important facts and concepts you will
need to know for quizzes and tests. Part One of this book covers
several recommended techniques.
The fourth and what I consider the final ingredient of a good study
program is the ability to take down notes efficiently using some form
of shorthand. Somewhere in your academic career you will take a course
that is totally new. For me, it came when I was a college freshman and
took my first philosophy course. I had no idea what philosophy was
about. Besides presenting a lot of information unfamiliar to me, the
professor talked so fast that I could not take notes fast enough.
Without question, I felt I was doomed to fail the course. Think about
it: if you don’t understand the subject matter that the professor is
teaching, and you can’t take notes on what’s happening in class,
you may quickly feel overwhelmed. Get better grades in less time! This
book will teach you study tricks and techniques for better grades.
Allison M. Wilson, B.A. is the daughter of Ralph E. and Linda D.
Wilson and lives with her parents in Middletown, CT. Allison is the
Managing Member and Chief Operating Officer of AMW Enterprises, LLC,
the owner of this publication. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College
where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and is presently
attending Cornell Law School.
RALPH E. WILSON, B.S., M.S., M.I., J.D. is a practicing attorney who
owns his own law practice. Before becoming an attorney Ralph was a
Middle School Social Studies and History teacher. Ralph has earned
four college degrees: a Bachelor of Science in American History, a
Masters in American History, a Masters in Insurance, and a Juris
Doctor degree in law from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic
University of America in Washington, D.C. Ralph lives in Middletown,
CT with his wife Linda and daughter Allison.
Copyright (c) 2009 makingthegradetips.com. All
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