Tthe Improtance of Note Taking

What is the best way to study effectively? Is it reading the text repetitively until a comprehension is reached or is it to read and then self-quiz in order to ensure an understanding of the studied information? Sometimes students put a lot of time and effort into preparing for an exam only to be unhappily surprised when they do not perform as expected on the test. The reason a student scored badly on an exam that they did in fact study for would be influenced by their studying techniques.

Joan Didion's tone in her essay "On Keeping a Notebook," is explanatory and a little sarcastic. She wasn't so much explaining how to keep a notebook as she was explaining why she kept hers the way she did; which made the reader interested in reading it. Didion's sarcasm comes from her explanation.

In Michaela Cullington’s essay titled, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” the author tests the ongoing question of how today’s youth handles the effects of texting in the education system. Using successful evidence from both sides of the argument as well as participating in her own experiment, Cullington is able to fully demonstrate how texting does not interfere with today’s students and their abilities to write formally in the classroom.

In some circles, failure to plan is more often than not likened to planning to fail. As I have already pointed out in the introductory section, preparing for tests should begin way before the actual exam or test taking period. Indeed, in the opinion of Gardner, Jewler and Barefoot (2008), "believe it or not, you actually begin preparing for a test on the first day of the term." According to the authors, all the assigned readings as well as lecture notes should constitute an important part of this very preparation. It is however important to note that although having well-organized lecture notes and completing all the assigned readings before sitting an exam does not guarantee an individual success in the same; it surely does give one a head start prior to the exam period.

Michaela Cullington’s essay “Texting and Writing” explores the possible effect of teen texting on formal writing in school. Cullington lists three different hypotheses scholars pose about the cor- relation between the two: those who criticize texting for its negative impact on writing, those who believe texting is actually a beneficial exercise in writing, and those who see no relationship at all. Cullington begins her analysis with the first theory, quoting concerned teachers, citing the shock- ing statistic that “only 25% of high school seniors are ‘proficient’ writers” (90), and adding testi- mony from two of her former teachers. Cullington then explores the second take on texting and writing by providing contrasting testimony from other teachers who believe that texting is a bless- ing to their students’ writing. Cullington retrieves support for these two opposing views from inter- views and previous studies. To explore the theory that texting is irrelevant to formal writing, how- ever, she performs her own research, gathering results from seven students, two teachers, and an analysis of students’ written work. Despite the testimonial evidence against and in support of tex- ting, Cullington’s own results show that texting has “no effect, positive or negative, on [students’] writing as a result of texting” (95).

Another strategy, is reviewing your notes. I find that it’s easy to forget what we have wrote down. Reviewing your notes allows maximum recall of the material you write down. Recording the general main idea and details can be more useful than verbal notes. Notes serve to record information for recall and should show the main points of the lecture in an organized manner so that the relationship between points and details are easy to tell apart.

The research article “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking” was written by Pam A. Muller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer, and published by the Psychological Science in 2014. The article focuses on a series of previous research on the topic and studies with the goal of providing evidence to answer their two main questions. The first question is which one the two note taking strategies works better and increases academic performance longhand note taking or laptop note taking. The second question is how verbatim overlap (word for word) affects our learning. In the article, three studies were conducted similarly but as the studies were made something new was added to explore new aspects of learning.

“Does Texting Affect Writing” is about Michaela Cullington, the author, comparing two opposing perspectives. The perspective is whether texting hinders the formal writing skills of students or not. Millennials are a population that cannot go a day without looking at their phones so, due to the “increasing use of mobile phones, concerns have been raised about its influence on their literacy skills. No matter if it is sending or receiving a text or checking social media sites, technology has taken over the lives of the young generations. The essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in They Say, I say exposes how the significant action of texting and using textspeak, i.e. abbreviations and symbols, may be hindering the writing skills of teenaged students. People communicate using textese to “more quickly type what they are trying to say” (Cullington, 2017, p. 361). Textese is a “register that allows omission of words and the use or textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever” (Van Dijk, 2016). When these people use textese often, it can become habitual and transition into their school assignments. Michaela Cullington constantly repeats words and uses comparisons and abnormalities for the concerns about textspeak, the responses to the concerns, methods and the discussion of findings on the topic to be analyzed.

          The test taking tutorial taught me different strategies for different types of test. For multiple choice test I have learned to eliminate options that are unrelated to the question. I learned to do that because I would sometimes just pick what sounded good and not really read the rest of the choices available. I also had a problem with essay test. One strategy I would use that is to check my answer for grammar, spelling, and completion. I used to not do that because I felt rushed, but when I would get my test back it would be all marked up with corrections that needed to be made, resulting in a bad grade. On matching test I learned to single out the correct answers by going down the left column and figuring out the questions that I knew and leaving the ones that I wasn’t to sure on, and that would make It easier to single out the right answers.

I could do this by reading more and working on it much quicker so I am used to answering questions time efficiently when undertaking a test. I could also improve by drawing up diagrams and pictures if possible to help me answer the worded questions as I am a visual learner. For my literacy, I can improve by looking at similarities and differences between the literary sources and to understand the definition of contrast. And also working on various formats and understanding the different tones used and writing and reading many stories or books with a wide range of tones such as solemn, gloomy, argumentative, bitter, direct and

In this modern era, it has become commonplace to try and accomplish as many tasks as possible as quickly as possible in order to be more efficient. With the help of technology, many believe that multitasking is becoming a required and helpful skill. Multitasking is actually a detrimental habit. Multitasking divides a person's concentration in order to attempt to complete multiple actions. Even though in the end the tasks are all finished, the quality of the finished task and the time required to finish all the tasks makes multitasking very inefficient. In addition, this division of concentration is causing many people to not pay attention. For most, multitasking is a disadvantageous skill that should not be encouraged as a valid

I would suggest flashcards as I said before and also going back and using the study tool for each of the Learnsmart assignments that we have done. I also think writing out terms makes me remember

Fourth, study throughout the course; do not wait till the last day before the test to sit and cram your notes. In order to follow your course material schedule, you will have to decide approximately how many hours you will need to study for tests. Get a calendar and clearly mark off the hours each week that

One other class's aside from college prep writing that I plan to use some of the study strategies that I learned about after the quiz will be in Algebra 2 math and I feel will better prepare me for future test that I will have in that class. One of the ways that I can plan to put some of the strategies to use will be during class while taking notes, I will sit closer to the front of the class that way I can better focus and visually see what I teacher is doing so that I can learn and

The written rehearsal strategy device I used was concept cards. I took a couple of steps to fully understand this specific rehearing strategy. First, I scanned chapter 3 of the biology textbook and I looked for words I thought that would have a huge impact within the chapter. Afterwards, I wrote down the word down on an index card. I wrote the definition of the words, I mostly looked up the word so I could get the official definition. Then, I rewrote the definition but I wrote it in my own words so I could have a better understanding of the concept. Next, for each word I would try to think of a memory trick I could use to remember the definition of the word. It would mainly consist of breaking down the word and finding words that could correspond with the definition. Next, I wrote down where the word was found and I transferred the exact sentence from the textbook into the note