Learning New Material

New material will be absorbed more readily if you study when you’re
comfortable and your mind is fresh. Try getting up a little earlier than
usual in the morning to study while you have fewer distractions.
New material stays in a certain part of your brain—a kind of holding
area—for only three days or so. To ensure that you cement it more
permanently in your memory, review the material as soon as possible.

KEEP FOCUSED

Before you start your science project or begin to study for that test, decide
how long you want each study session to be. Can each be 20 minutes
long? That’s about how long most people can stay really focused on the
task at hand. But perhaps it’s less for you—maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Or
maybe it’s more like 25 or 30 minutes.Whatever you find is best for you,
try to stick to it.

Practice Tips

In the text you’re studying, or in a newspaper, find a word you don’t
know. Cover that word. Look at the rest of the sentence and decide
what the sentence could mean without the word you covered. If the
sentence isn’t clear on its own,write what you know for sure about the
meaning of the sentence. Try to draw a picture of the sentence, or to
make sense of it in any way that suits your learning style. Now, ask
yourself what you need to know to make the sentence clearer. Write
down your questions or record them into an audiotape.
Then go back to the original sentence and choose a word or phrase
that could replace the unfamiliar word. Check to see that your word
or phrase makes your picture clearer. You made a definition based on
what you knew—the words around the unknown word—to find out
what you didn’t know.
Now look in the dictionary and see how close you came!







google.com