Notecards, Notecards, and more Notecards by Haley

Notecards, Notecards, and more Notecards by Haley - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

Children in schools across the country are taught from a young age, "You have to study or you will not do well." In third grade, a young student would not even imagine challenging this statement; they believe it to be true. In middle school, teens start to question and criticize; “I don’t need these notecards, I have photographic memory.” I know that I have used that exact excuse, along with many other students. But in high school, college level courses and exams as long as the Harry Potter books act as a wakeup call to slacking, procrastinating students. Studying is important; studying is the key to earning the best grade possible, and without it, the information about the Cold War just given to you second period, will be forgotten by Friday night’s football game.

Throughout my high school career, I have struggled with making time for studying and figuring out what to do once I find the time. It was one of my four AP teachers that finally enlightened me to the secret; notecards, notecards, and more notecards. I am not talking about little flashcards with a vocab word on the front and a sentence definition on the back. Like one of Gatsby’s parties, my information-stuffed notecards are incomparable to anything else. Filled with excitement, music, all you can eat buffets, dancers, and confetti galore. Yes, this is over exaggerating a bit considering the fact I am describing an inanimate piece of paper, but my excitement for these flashcards is overwhelming. In these fun-filled, hand-made notecards are four things; a vocabulary word, a descriptive definition, an example of the word, and an application of it in real life. My AP Psychology teacher requires these notecards to be completed and turned in on the day of the chapter test. I resented these notecards in the beginning of the school year because there were many of them and they took a big chunk out of my sleep schedule. After a few chapters though, I began to warm up to the notecards and now I cannot imagine life without them.

This study method of writing and reciting notecards has been the most effective in improving my test scores, and has also proven to be the most beneficial in helping me with other subjects. Although filling out these endless notecards is tedious work, it pays off in the end when I get that big red “A” on my test and that rare smile from my teacher that speaks louder than words. In past years, I thought studying was skimming over the notes taken in class and reading the same paragraph over and over again in the book until the image was burned into my memory. I now know that studying is applying. Applying the subject material to your life or relating it to something you already know. This can be difficult with classes like Calculus and Computer Science (both of which I take) but is not impossible. In AP Psychology, notecards are required, but I find myself using them in all of my other classes as well. I have seen such an improvement with not just my test scores, but my work ethic as well, that it would be stupid of me not to use this study method in the rest of my classes.

There are many different studying techniques used in high school, and I have tried almost all of them. These Gatsby-extravagant notecards have proven to be the best way of learning and studying the material I learn in my classes because they are more than just tools for memorization. Regurgitating definitions back to my teachers might earn me a B+ on my final report card, but will it prepare me for college and the road ahead? Different study habits work for different students, but there is an essential part to studying that will make the difference between memorizing and learning; caring. Caring about school work and caring about the material that you learn will take you from the level of mediocre, average student, to a level of excellence. These notecards are game changers and will help you learn the material and understand it so well, that by the Friday night football game, you won’t be stressing about the big test on Monday. You are going to ace that test, no Felix Felicis required.