51 WAYS TO BETTER YOUR GRADES

HOW TO READ A TEXTBOOK
1. Scan textbook before you go to class.
2. Read both for ideas and for details.
3. READ your assignments.
4. Look for main ideas
5. RECALL the material by asking yourself questions about what you have read.
6. REFLECT by transferring the information you read into practical knowledge. (i.e. "Why is this point important?).
WHAT TO DO IN THE CLASSROOM
7. GO TO CLASS. . . .  Every lecture is important.
8. Think about the subject before you go to class so that you can anticipate what is going to be discussed in class.
9. Pay attention the entire time you are in class.
10. Concentrate on the lecturerer, not on how many holes are in the ceiling.
11. Focus on what the speaker is saying--tune out the speaker's mannerisms, voice quality, appearance....
12. Listen with your mind not your emotions.
13. Listen for important word cues that can reveal the professor's emphasis: most important, in addition to, on the other hand....

HOW TO TAKE NOTES
14. Take complete notes.  Abbreviate words and craft a shorthand; leave out vowels (stdy hrd) and  use g for ing (wrkng).     Use other common symbols such as:

THIS SYMBOL	REPLACES
&	and
w/o	without
	therefore
2	to, too, two
?	question
etc.	and others
ch	chapter
p	page
#	number
b4	before

15. Get the facts down right.
16. Keep one notebook for all your notes in one subject.
17. Review your notes.  Read them over after class to fill in the blanks.   Review before class to  remember what you've
covered and to anticipate what will come.

TAKING THE EXAM
18. Read all the questions first.
19. Answer the easiest questions first.
20. Underline the important facts and key words in each question.
21. Always take 1 or 2 minutes to think and organize your thoughts before writing.
22. When taking a a multiple choice or ture/false test pay attention to absolutes.
23. Answer the questions you are sure of first.
24. Don't spend a lot of time on any one question.

SOME IMPORTANT CAVEATS
25. Don't study for a test while eating dinner.
26. Don't study while straining to hear a football game down the hall.
27. Don't pull an "all-nighter."
28. Don't study while sleepy.
29. Practice taking tests to improve your performance.
30. Turn in your homework on time, neatly done and edited.
31. Practice memory strategies
32. Stay fit and eliminate bad habits.

TIME MANAGEMENT
33. Keep a daily "to do" notepad.  Put tasks in order of priority. Be realistic.
34. Schedule work demanding high concentration, such as reading and taking notes on a text in 50-minute periods.
35. Always allow enough time for library research
36-51 Get some sleep and repeat stepts 1-35.