exam

How to Study Effectively, Part 3

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Besides evaluating your level and identifying your learning needs, reading and taking notes, there are three additional aspects to consider to study effectively.

  1. Concentrate
  • Avoid distractions that can waylay your progress to your target TOEFL goal. Avoid day dreaming by focusing in on the task at hand. Put all your brain juice into whatever skill you want to perfect in that activity. Concentrate on what you are studying.
  • Take a few minutes break after 25 minutes, or have a 10-minute break each hour to give your brain a rest from your study task. Research, such as the Pomodoro technique (http://pomodorotechnique.com/,) shows this will help you concentrate. The best way to take a break is to stand up, stretch, move around and face away from your desk, computer, books. Avoid staying at your desk looking at your book or surfing the web on your computer or phone. The physical movement of standing up and moving around will help stimulate better thinking as the blood circulates throughout your body.
  1. Understand what you are learning

 

  • Understanding the directions to activities, paying attention to stay on target with the task, asking yourself what the main purpose of your task is, taking notes of key ideas, jotting down new vocabulary, and being proactive to ask questions to your instructor for feedback when you do not comprehend something. Take an active role in learning to improve your understanding and be better at recalling information.
  • Take notes on the passage or lecture writing in short noun/verbs, abbreviations or symbols. Spelling is unimportant, but content is key.
  • Summarize a reading passage or listening/lecture in your own words. When you summarize, it should be short and to the point, addressing all the key points.
  1. Revise

 

  • It is normal to not recall everything in the English language; however, if you want to have a better grasp of English, keep reviewing constantly so that your memory retains more information over the long term and you can progress to an advanced level.
  • Revise information soon after (the next day) you learned it. Aim for reviewing once a study session or every two or three study sessions. Go over older materials that you need to recall; it will refresh your memory.
  • Reviewing and revising daily or every other day will save you having to re-study a topic all over again. Be sure your calendar schedule has “review or revision time” blocked into your study timetable. Refer to your summaries or note-taking or notebooks to help you review.

Study tips to prepare you before the TOEFL:

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  1. Make sure your study time is well-organized. Use a wall calendar or your phone calendar to create a timetable that will help you make the most of your study time by dividing the hours you have available for studying into what you will learn, practice, and strengthen for separate skills. Figure out which schedule works best for you to study during the weekdays and on weekends. Some individuals need to wake up early since they are early birds and want to study early in the morning (before work), and others may be night owls and feel it’s best to study later (after work.) Once you select a study time, keep to your schedule and be rigorous about studying at those designated times so you will not procrastinate.
  2. Designate your quiet study spot: select a place to study where no one bothers you as any noisy distraction can make it challenging to focus. It will affect the amount of information you recall.
  3. Drink water or tea while you study to rehydrate you. It is known that using the brain uses energy and dehydrates the body, so not taking into enough liquids can affect your concentration. It may even make it harder to recall or retain the information you study. Shoot for having a glass of water every hour.
  4. Eat a healthy snack prior to studying. Since food–particularly fruit or vegetables which have natural sugar rather than a cup of caffeinated coffee–feeds the brain energy, you can focus better for intensive periods of time.
  5. Take breaks while you are studying. For instance, if you take a few minutes break after a 25-minute activity, the affect will be better on your brain retention. Or, resting five minutes each hour to walk around and stretch out, the movement you do will circulate the blood to the brain, making it better to recall what you studied. It will also keep your juices flowing to help you focus on more study time if you have an intensive 3-hour session, for example.
  6. Be sure to comprehend what you study. Do not memorize it, rather understand the meaning to apply it to your next practice and real exam.
  7. Ask a native coach or a peer who is fluent for help if you find something difficult.
  8. After you study, review again the next day to go over what you studied so you can recall the information within 24 hours.
  9. Take practice tests: you need to simulate exactly as the exam is on the test day, and there is no better way to get ready for a real TOEFL exam than taking practice tests on a regular basis. You will be able to learn the vocabulary language you need to be familiar with on the exam, and you will also familiarize yourself with the type of exam questions for each section and practice strategies that will help you be more comfortable and hence more confident on the actual exam day when you confront the real test.
  10. Participate in a study group or work with a native-speaker to get insight and feedback into your weaknesses to strengthen those. For example, if you have instructors, friends, peers, colleagues, or classmates who speak fluent English, join with them in a group to practice your language skills. It will help motivate you to study more often.