Tips for Studying for Exams: Flashcards
The exams in this course are primarily testing your ability to remember facts. While there are a variety of memorization tools you might use to help you study, the most efficient for studying the materials in this class would be flash cards.
My advice is that each of you print out the study guide. Then as you read the text and find information that the study guide identifies is on the test, make out flash cards. Once you have some flash cards made, follow the procedure outlined below to study.
Since you won't be putting a large amount of information on each card, it is helpful to take a 3x5 card and divide it in thirds on the long side so that each 3x5 card becomes three 1.66x3 cards.
Flash cards can be used for all kinds of information and are one of the most effective memorization tools. Use flash cards for vocabulary, foreign words, dates and events, facts about people or things, arithmetic, math and science formulae (formula on one side of card, explanation on the other), the value of constants (for instance, the symbol Π for pi on one side of a card, and the value to be used on the other side of the card--my high school teachers required us to know pi to four decimal places--3.1415), and so on. Do not put too much information on a card. Flash cards work best with connecting two pieces of information. So, instead of one card that lists Zeus and his Roman name, sphere of influence, and symbol, use three cards:
Front of card
Zeus
(Greek name)
Back of card
Jupiter
(Roman name)
Front of card
Zeus
(sphere of influence)
Back of card
God of the sky
(Greek)
Front of card
Zeus
(Symbol)
Back of card
Lightning bolt
(Greek)
It is easier to learn three cards with limited information than it is to learn one card loaded down with information.
The most effective way to use flash cards is not to try to memorize them one at a time. Instead make out the cards. Run through them for five minutes looking at both sides and just reviewing (you may even want to say them out loud as you do--the more senses you use when memorizing, the easier it is to remember). At the end of five minutes, test yourself, sorting the cards into three piles--those you know, those you know but aren't sure of, those you don't know. For five minutes review the ones you still don't know, then test yourself again, sorting into piles. Repeat this process a third time for three minutes. Put down any cards you still do not know--you are done studying them for the moment. Pick up the ones you said you knew and run through them, testing yourself. Sort them into the three piles: know (still know them), hesitate, don't know. You are done with those for the moment. Take the hesitate stack and run through it three times in review, then test yourself and sort them into the three piles. You are done with this set.
Repeat this process with every set, every day until all cards are in the Know stack.
Large Stacks of Cards
As the Know stack gets larger, you might want to divide it up into five stacks that only get reviewed once a week instead of once a day (You will now have four sets of cards--Weekly Review Know cards, Daily Review Know Cards, Daily Review Hesitate cards, and Daily Review Don't Know cards. When it is time to prepare for an exam, review ALL stacks daily.
Divide into three groups: (1) those you know well, (2) those on which you hesitate, and (3) those you don't know. Review group 1 once each day, group 2 three times a day, and group three six (or more) times each day. As a card is mastered, move it up a group; if it begins to fade, move it down a group.
Using this method you spend the most time on what you don't know. Another advantage is that you do not need large blocks of time to study. Memorization with flash cards works extremely well when you only have a few minutes to study: waiting for class to start, waiting for the bus, sitting in the doctor's office, and so on. It is also easy to carry around a stack of cards.