The dictionary is still the best place to look at a word, the pronunciation, the many different uses, the parts of speech, the origin, the comparisons, the affixes, the root word, the synonym--Proper name parts of the word, if any--Photos, drawings, and maps related to the word. There are visual dictionaries, sound dictionaries, sign language dictionaries, on-line dictionaries, pocket dictionaries, electronic dictionaries.
Learning about words is still the best studying strategy for standardized tests. If you know words, you are hard to stop! Reading is code breaking.
March to the 13th Test Drummer: Routine Beats Time Shortage
a) For the March 13 test, you have time to use the test date as the focus of a plan that is narrowing to the routine: to recall the purpose of the test and the reasoning behind the questions to predict and to review what you know. Words assemble into accessible units according to categories
Add vocabulary already tagged as the cards are pinned to word walls, diagrams, or timelines:
from the glossaries of your textbooks,
from the questions and answers of the practice questions,
and from the books and articles you read and discuss.
The SAT test is to measure your aptitude for learning:
- If you practice solving problems and designing questions in the style of the questions on the test, you will see the solution cues quickly.
- If you organize your practice in the sequence of soving the problems, your brain will follow these patterns during test-taking.
- If you visualize the words you are seeing now within the corrected formats of the practice questions and answers, the strategy of connecting what you know with what you need to know will operate.
Find a time period each day to complete the Question for the day at the College Board Site, to review a section of the practice questions immediately at the College Board site, to follow up at this blog, http://www.coolrocketschool.org/ and then to follow up on your U.S. History Time line, word wall, and section of Princeton Review.
c) Portfolio: Keep more than one storage backup of all of your study materials. These materials will be useful later..
Keep all materials in your own portfolio, with printouts, and copies on your USB portable drive.
d) Resources, Materals, Supplies, Links: Build your index and 'box' of related work from the additional games, videos, blogs, help sites, and books (No Sweat Math and Princeton Review quizes) and Powerpoint flash cards And the U.S. HISTORY TIME LINE ON THE WALL and the WORD WALL!!! Keep posting on your inventory list where everything is located. (P.S. When you do take the timeline and the words from the wall, roll up the paper and store them. These are review tools for other times.)
e) Body of Knowledge. From now until March 13, you have enough time to learn as much as some people learn in years. Some of what you are doing is remembering. Some of what you are doing is reconstructing, and some of what you are doing is learning for the first time --using the parts that you did understand before.
All you have to do is pay attention to what you already know,
what you know you are expected to know (prediction about the questions and the style of the questions), and what helps you to review:
practice,
visual images,
sound,
video,
interaction with others,
flash cards,
word wall,
time line for U.S. History and American Literature.
If you know words, and if you play with them: hangman, scrabble, crossword puzzles (especially ones you make), http://www.lumosity.com/, http://www.pbs.org/
Sesame Street! Yesterday's word was brush. You brush your hair (verb) and use a paintbrush (noun), an art brush.
As you walk down the Sesame Street clicking your camera on brushes, you make a line of photos at the bottom of the page. Then, you use your arrow keys and/or mouse to move those photos into an album. Word Search pages from the Disney site included: herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, explorer, Magellan. Today, go to http:www.bjpinchbeck.com. There are so many links on this site that you merely need to link to which content area you need some practice for 'homework helper.' This site was originally planned and implemented by a nine year old and his dad. Years went by, and links were added. The site won awards. BJ is in college now and recently (2009) won an award from National Geographic for a film. He is a photography major.
BJ Pinchbeck's site has articles for college students now, and the reference books and homework helpers are still excellent. I still have particular links to use for certain things. One of my educational sites besides this one (http://www.coolrocketschool.org/) is http://www.coolrocketschool.com/
When you go to http://www.coolrocketschool.com/ to visit, be sure to click into the coolrocketschool section in the services page. That's where my Thinking Outside Your Socks articles are.
Do register at the College Board site right away if you want to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) on March 13. 2010, the next test date. If you are taking the test in May, you should go ahead and register, as well. While you are on the College Board site, http:www.collegeboard.com , go ahead and put the Question for the Day feed on your computer.
Check with my blog after doing the SAT Question for the Day. Do the practice questions, too. You can see the results right then. That's excellent. When you finish everything correctly, look at the question with the correct answer checked and make a mental photograph of the way it looks. This is the style of some of the questions you will see again.
Visualize a study plan as you look at the calendar. You have time for a strong plan before the May test.
For the March 13 test, you have to narrow your focus right away. You need to have a copy of the Princeton Review 2010 'Crack the SAT' and the 'feed' of the SAT questions for the day.
Strategies One and One and One: Know why your strategy is a top one; know how the questions are asked long before the test; and know more words.
Learn shorthand code Pay attention to the reasons for the strategies. Number one strategy for the SAT has always been to increase your use of vocabulary and terminology. Now, knowing the style of the questions is an equally helpful strategy. They tie, in my opinion.
The more words that are familiar to you the better you will do on the SAT, so some strategies are purely to train your eyes and brain to 'know' some words well and to 'know' some words well enough to use them in figuring out meaning by the time you take the test.
Come to this site to read the past columns, and write to me for advice about the best ways to make use of your remaining time before the March 13 test.
For example:
Think about what you already know that will be within questions on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Make predictions and then review those things by writing your own questions and answers in the formats (ALL OF THE FORMATS) used on the test.
Know how to do questions about mean, median, and mode without hesitation. I like these questions. What are these measurements called? They are used in statistical evaluations. When you write an example for yourself, use a list of grades you made in a class (make them up) to find the mean, the median, and the mode of your grades in jitterbug dancing. Let's say you made five grades.
You need to know how to do questions with two blanks--without hesitation except in considering the possibilities. In short, the style of the questions should all be familiar to you. If they are not, all you have to do is practice the question for the day every day and come to this blog--and do the Princeton Review practice tests--in sections now, checking your work, and in whole tests soon.
Continue to predict and to practice what will be on the test.
You need to know how to do a problem relating to ratio.
Make up one of those questions that are about how many chances there are to draw the name of a senior if every senior's name is in the lottery three times and there are three hundred seniors, every junior's name is in the lottery 2 times, and there are 200 juniors, and every sophomore's name is in the lottery 1 time, and there are 100 sophomores. (See the past Questions for the day. There is one like this in the Official SAT questions for the day.)
Hint: On this one, you would triple the number of seniors (900), double the number of juniors (400) and just add in (one time) the number of sophomores (100) to get the total number of names in the lottery (900+400+100=1400). What would your answer list look like for the possibilities of drawing the name of a senior? (300x3=900 out of 1400 or 9/14).
In your 'possibilities,' you should probably include the wrong answers of 5/9 and 5/14, as these would be answers to other questions related to the same material. That would be typical of a standardized test maker, not as a trick, but as an evaluation of your ability to recognize the question. You are not supposed to choose any old available answer to a possible question. You are supposed to be paying attention to the particular question and to look for the specific answer to that question.
You need to know how to do problems with attention to Order of Operations.
PREDICT 20 things that a Scholastic Aptitude Test Writer would ask.
Write them like this in different question styles of the SAT. Follow with the explanation.
1. Which of the following is the same amount as 1/4?
a. .20
b. .25
c. .15
d. .05
e. .10
The answer is b. The decimal .25 is equivalent to the fraction 1/4 and the percentage 25%.
Make flash cards in PowerPoint with images for as many concepts as you can accomplish each day.
Do twenty more questions each day and one section of a practice test (and check it) from the Princeton Guide.
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You can also do a more traditional dictionary style of typing the word in an interesting font, indicating the correct pronunciation and the etymology (origin) of the word, typing in some information about the part of speech and usage.
I suggest that you do different types of explanations about words.I like to see students compare the different ways words are used. For example, the word 'coordinate' is used as a verb to mean putting together an event. I will 'coordinate' a party for the book club.
If you look up 'coordinate' in your math glossary, you may find that it is a noun and one of the places where you plot a point on a graph ('plot' used here as a verb when it may be in your literature book's glossary as the story line for a literary work).
As you examine the word 'coordinate,' you will find that it has yet another meaning in physics! Knowing what 'co' means as an affix and what 'ordinate' means as a root can help you to recognize the word in these other contexts, but the meanings are quite different in the different content areas. This is the reason glossary study is another connection study in my tutorials.
If your U.S. History timeline for studying is visual and colorful, you can tack up words to remember and even some cards full of information to take down to study when you are looking at the timeline. The visual should have pictures of clothes, vehicles, planes, advertising...newspapers, products...things to visualize the times when different things were happening. **(Note: See other blogs for more details and specific entries to use on your U.S. History Timeline and Word Walls.)
Put each state on the timeline with the date of entry to the union and the capital of the state. You can find a copy of the flags and the states with the capitals marked with a star. Make copies and cut out the outlines of the states and put them on the timeline in the order they became a part of the USA.
Then, below the timeline, put another copy of the United States with the states all back together.
Look at the map of the United States and look at the rivers and mountains. Look at the description of the regions and which states are considered to be in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest...Where is everything? Where are the deserts? Where is the highest mountain peak? Where is the longest river? How many time lines are there in the USA? What are they called? What is the difference in time, say, between Atlanta and San Francisco?
Use a glossary and index from a U.S. History Book to remind you of some entries to put on the chronology time-line. Don't forget things like the Bill of Rights, women's suffrage (the right to vote), and which states are agricultural, which manufacturing...and which were the original states. Start at the beginning, and look at the things about the Native Americans, and move forward in time, put Washington on as the first president and realize that there were important events on the time line before that...Put on loads of literary elements (Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg...and some of the famous speeches and poems ...)
Use the timeline in your American Literature Book! Some of the quoted material will be from American literature, so your entries on the time line will help to keep you familiar with some of the quoted material. The timelines will probably be in the front pages of your American Literature book. They are in mine. Load them onto your chronology.
Continue to make flash cards in PowerPoint and to do some games with them with other SAT test takers, if possible. Use the words from the glossaries of your textbooks--all textbooks: science, social studies, literature, and U.S. History. This would be great to do with your SAT book club.
The SAT questions are rich with 'content.' They are likely to have the names of recent astronauts and the telescope that has been adjusted by mission in space. Questions are likely to quote from famous writers and from famous people and from elegant texts. The questions on the SAT are NOT likely to include misinformation, except for the incorrect part that is supposed to be corrected as part of the test.
judiethcarol&rocketcat February 2010 c.
