Blog Topic #3: Test Prep

What has been your experience with test preparation in the past? 
Usually, my test preparation involves wanting really badly to start preparing ahead of time, but just getting bogged down with the day-to-day and the due-tomorrow and the cleaning and dinner-making and everything else that fills up my time... so I don't have much time to study for the test until I make time starting about a week ahead of time.  Then, I try to go to review sessions or study with a group or something because, 1). These strategies help me understand and retain information better, and 2). They give me motivation to get the studying done.  I try to have gone over things before I meet with the group, and then I study with them for a while, and may meet with them once or twice more before the test to go over things more... and then I study a lot by myself.  


What are you doing now to improve your study habits? 
I am trying hard to start studying ahead of time.  This particular time around has been tricky because I have been learning about test prep and feeling motivated during the semester and feeling really pumped up about doing it... but then my computer broke and it's been in the shop for a long time.  It kind of threw me out of whack.  Almost none of my notes are actually on my computer - that's not why it threw me off.  I had a program that I was going to use to help me create "wikis" for each subject, where you can link to the different subjects and easily read all the info you've taken notes about any given subject.  I thought it would help because I would be going through all my notes as I was typing them into the program (I take written notes in class), and having such an easy-to-go-through, well-organized database with the information separated by date AND by topic would be really nice to have, too.  I kept thinking my computer would be done soon, so I kept putting off starting studying by a day, and now it's been more than a week and I'm just starting... yeah, not the best idea :P


One thing I am though, is using my husband to help me stay on-task.  He's really good about helping me keep on my homework until it's done.  I also have been working hard to have the "there's homework every night, even if it's just studying" mindset.  It's been tricky because I'm not used to it, but I'm getting better.  :)


Why is it important to develop good study habits?
It's so important!  High school was always easy for me, so I never developed very good study habits, and now I almost feel like I was gypped out of a crucial lesson!  Good study habits are the core of succeeding in school, in one's testimony of the gospel, in anything one might want to learn about.  They teach good concentration, self-discipline, organization - these are so important to success!  Without having developed good study habits, it would be impossible to get things done in a manageable amount of time, without procrastinating and then stressing out like crazy.