Study Skills and SAT Prep: Perfect Together

Here at Think Tutoring, we know the importance of Lon Watters’ assertion: “School is a building with four walls and tomorrow inside.” Developing good study skills early will lead to learning efficiencies later on.

At www.soarstudyskills.com, for example, it’s noted that improving performance on school subjects helps prepare students for “high-stakes tests and exams.” And while the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) may be years away from your child’s current level in school, what he learns now will serve him well when he begins studying for those tests.

Our tutors work to develop good study skills in order to optimize the investment you, your child, your child’s tutor, and your child’s school are making in education. Here are Grecian Formulas you can do at home.

Steal a Memory from the Ancient Greeks

For thousands of years, people have used this room-of-the-house tool for recalling important information. Help your child to visualize your own house or apartment. Jot down the rooms you would encounter as you go through the house.

Example: Foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, bathroom, first bedroom, second bedroom, third bedroom. The example has nine separate locations. Using this number, you and your young scholar would divide the material he has been studying into nine main points, trying to capture each point with a single word or short phrase. Then, ask your child to think about going through the house, using each word in its own location. Make an association—the weirder, the better, between the words and the places.

To illustrate: if your child has been studying the Civil War, she will recall the facts more easily if she imagines Abraham Lincoln in the foyer, juggling balls numbered 1, 8, 6, and 3 (the year of the Emancipation Proclamation). As your child moves into the living room, she would encounter the Confederacy President Jefferson Davis, doing some juggling of his own with photos of West Point, his alma mater.

Continue in this way with the other rooms, using distinct images align with knowledge-points.

Borrow from the Greeks Again - Go Mnemonic

ThinkTutoring SAT Prep tutors know that studying is only one part of the learning process. Learners have to recall what they have studied. And so, we use mnemonic devices—whether we are reinforcing basic skills or getting read for the SATs. You can do the same at home.

To illustrate, if your child has to learn the names of the states that make up New England, you might use this mnemonic: CRY, “M….M…New Ham in Vermont!”

The “C” represents Connecticut. The RY stands for Rhode Island. (This is a wee stretch, but remember that “Y” and “I” often have the same sound.) When you’re hungry and then spy a tempting ham sandwich sitting on the kitchen counter, you might say, “Mmmmm.” The next two “M’s” represent Maine and Massachusetts. And then, finally, this cry comes forth from the hungry person’s mouth, “New Ham in Vermont!” New Hampshire and, of course, Vermont constitute the final set of New England states.

Depending on the material your child has to study, you can make up the corresponding mnemonics. Just remember—the sillier they are, the easier they are to remember.

You’ll find additional ideas inside some e-walls, such as those at www.studygs.net. There, you’ll find study guides and other resources. But whether the learning walls are in cyberspace, or here at ThinkTutoring or in your child’s school or even in your own home, your child’s tomorrow will be brighter if she is honing her study skills today.