There Are Many Pieces to the Puzzle by Jessica

There Are Many Pieces to the Puzzle by Jessica - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

Being a senior in high school, I have been studying for a very long time. Being a post- secondary student athlete made my time very crunched and made me have to study the things I needed to very efficiently and I couldn't waste any time. I will finish this year with a 3.7 GPA because I developed many great study methods that I love and still use for class and to keep up my Spanish. My methods are very simple and help me learn very quickly. All I do is make myself flashcards for all the words and definitions I need to learn. With math, it’s a different situation. With math a problem, it’s all with repetition. You need to be able to read a question and now exactly what it wants you to do. That takes a lot of scrap paper, a lot of practice, and a lot of patience. You need to be able to sit and concentrate and use your time wisely when you do math. Flashcards you will get it if you look at it enough and keep doing it, however, you can do math all day long and without having some idea of what you are doing you aren't going to do well on the test.

With flashcards, I will take my book, colored pens, and all my flashcards to my room. I turn on some music and make the flashcards, because when you are making them, it’s okay to relax and just copy your notes or your book depending on what your teacher instructs you to do. Then, when they are all copied, I turn the music off and get started. If I know the words and I’m just reviewing, I will do a whole chapter or the whole tests worth, but if I am just starting, I will take chunks out and memorize the chunk. When I am done memorizing one chunk, I memorize another chunk. After I have two groups memorized, I put them together until I can go through the two groups put together very smoothly with no problem. Then I take a third chunk to memorize then add it to the group and so on and so on until I get all the cards done for one subject.

With math, you need a notebook, pencil, your calculator, and your notes. I take one problem in my notes and I copy the question down. I try to figure it out all on my own with what little I remember, then look at the answer in my notes. Usually it is way off, so then I look at what I did wrong, maybe rewrite the steps so maybe I can remember them for next time and start again. I keep doing this until I get the right answer. Then I go on to problem two, which is the same kind of problem as number one, but different numbers. I don’t look at my notes and just keep trying to solve the problem then I look at the answer when I get mine. I keep doing this until I understand what I am supposed to do each and every time I see one of those problems asked to me.

When I’m doing flashcards, I use colored pens because it is easier make associations when trying to remember things, so if I can remember the ink it was written I can maybe remember the card had written on it. Also, with flashcards and any other subject other than math (in my opinion) is easy to grasp ones brain around why something is how it is, but with math, it’s sometimes hard. So with math, repetition is one of the best things because it hard to associate math with anything else.

Some other tips to keep in mind are that you need to study in the same environment as you will take the test in. That helps your brain recall information easier because it makes associations with the things in the room. You also need to study the things you know the least or need to know more at the beginning and the end of your study session. I learned in Psychology that one normally forgets things in the middle of a group of words or objects, so when studying you need to review in the middle and actually hard core study in the beginning and the end. It is also hard to take in information if one is tired and hungry. Before studying eat something and drink something that will give you energy. I also learned that tuna stimulates the mind.

I use these tools to study and my 3.7 GPA and my spot in National Honors Society must show that they are apparently working. I also would never pass them on to someone if they didn't work for me. I hope whoever reads my essay gets some good tips and hopefully this essay helps them achieve the grades they are shooting for. All I know is that they helped me achieve my goals, so hopefully they do the same for someone else.