Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Welcome to the study skills ac
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workshop.
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We're gonna be going over different things to
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consider when you're studying for your exams.
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Uh Just some general tips, tricks and strategies.
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First of all, we're gonna be going over three important areas
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to get you into better study habits.
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So you don't end up like uh zoo me in the picture here.
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So things like tools, skills and how to deal with things like stress and fatigue,
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the basics.
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So
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you want to know if your exam is gonna be
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physical or digital and also
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what method that works best for you for studying. If you like
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physical hands on note taking, you might wanna have pencil pen paper,
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you might use note cards, you might use highlighters,
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you might use page flags to mark parts of your book.
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So for your, if you're more of a digital person,
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you might
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have a phone or tablet,
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you can do things like
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make notes on Microsoft Word on Google Docs
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on note taking apps like color note or pages
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if you'd like to be more digital and a lot of this stuff, if you're like,
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I haven't heard about this or I would like to do it, but I'm not
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sure about all the uh
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features and apps that might be helpful for me.
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You might want to check out our note taking digital literacy workshop.
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OK. So
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now you got the tools, either you have physical tools or digital tools,
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we look at how you actually use them.
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So note taking strategies
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uh note, taking
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exact notes and turning those into more focused bull
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point notes is one way to approach things,
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just write down everything that you need to know. And then you can kind of
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uh
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go from there and start being more concise.
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So you if you're working with a textbook,
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you might do things like highlight your textbook
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or use page flags to mark important things,
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different types of studies techniques.
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Once you actually write your notes,
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it might be a good idea to rewrite your notes to make them more focused,
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to make them more effective,
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pair them down and do more concise notes so that you have less to study.
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If you maybe took eight pages of notes,
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that's gonna be a lot for you to study.
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Um If you can shorten it to four or two pages with just like
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like the best of bullet points,
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that's gonna be a lot more helpful for you and a lot easier for you to study.
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You might annotate your notes
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where you will highlight key phrases of vocabulary, you might circle examples,
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you might underline definitions these are just
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ways that you might approach these things.
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Some people like to color code their notes. So like maybe
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yellow is for main ideas, green is for vocabulary.
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Um
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and whatever works best for you, you might also use note cards.
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Note cards are really good for things like wo cab.
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They're really good for like little examples of different types
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of questions or different types of examples of math problems or
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um formulas or anything like that.
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Um
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You might think it seems odd to rewrite your notes,
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but it's been proven that rewriting your notes helps as you study better.
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You might also benefit from working in a small group.
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You might organize a study group.
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You can use a room in the tutoring center, you can use a room in the library,
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meet with a small group and go over some of the things
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that might be on the test quiz each other on things.
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Uh kind of pretend like it's a mock test and see what your
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classmates might be able to fill in where you might have some blanks,
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example notes.
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This is a way that you might approach note taking
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here our notes from page 12 of writing life by Anne Dillard.
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So we have the exact text on the left side
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where it's exactly the notes that were in the book.
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Um
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Then we take that and in the middle here,
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we revise the notes into bullet points to be more concise
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what exactly happened
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um without any extra info.
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Then the next part we have uh taking it
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as a note card
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or problem vocab and concept focused.
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We're gonna start taking the notes that we do have and trying to use that
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to answer a question or make some new information.
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So it's like,
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OK, now we're gonna take what's,
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what's the core of that section that for this
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one he was talking about how to find honey.
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And then we list the steps to find honey.
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So
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we might connect it to say how in the end it said be catching is like writing a book. OK.
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So how do we describe that? How do we make that connection?
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Whereas if we just read from beginning to end,
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someone might say, I have no idea how bee catching is like writing a book. The
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the section from it did not tell me.
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So I'd have to think about it and say, OK, what elements of that
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are shared between those two things? How can I
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make new information? How can I make that connection?
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And a lot of times
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you, you might find that
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in your notes, you can make new connections that you were,
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you didn't think were possible once you rewrite them or go back
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and annotate them and start asking some of these more critical questions.
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And if you ask those questions,
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you're probably gonna make stronger connections and remember your notes better.
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So
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there is a few things to keep in mind when studying.
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Make sure you aren't cramming. So, cramming is a word that students like to use a lot
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you might say, oh, I have so much to study for, I need to spend hours and hours studying
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up until the test.
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So I can remember everything.
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Well, if you do that and you don't sleep
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or if you do that too many hours in a row,
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you could actually lose information. You could be too tired.
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You're gonna waste all your energy
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and you're just gonna end up taking the test to being exhausted.
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So, what you wanna do is pace out your studying.
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So you might,
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every hour take about 10 minutes
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to maybe get up, walk around,
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stretch, maybe get a glass of water
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and at least every hour try to take a 10 minute break
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and you don't wanna
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spend a whole day studying.
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So I would recommend
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no more than a couple hours at a time
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and make sure you rest every hour
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between studying and make sure when you get up in the morning
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that you aren't studying right up into the test from the time that you get up because
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that will just exhaust you as well.
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So just pace out your studying,
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take good notes
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and come to the test ready to work.
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So this is how you might go about
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working on a study schedule.
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So here we have in this situation,
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it's a Monday and you have a test next Monday kind of
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pacing out how you might study how you might set your week.
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In this case, we're looking at
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going over and using a couple hours to write
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notes, possibly rewriting them, making them more useful.
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And then another day
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using a different type of studying technique, annotating the notes,
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terms, phrases, underlining them.
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Um and maybe making note cards.
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Then the next day you take what you, what materials you already made, study those
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a little bit at a time.
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The following day,
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you can review your notes and maybe even refer to the textbook
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and then the next day study in the morning before the test a little bit.
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So you see here, we do have quite a few hours that are dedicated to study,
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but we vary the types of ways that we're studying.
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And we also
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vary the length of time that we're studying for
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and keep in mind that we should be taking breaks
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and it might look different for your subject depending on what we're talking about.
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If you are, for example,
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you are mostly remembering the terms and you're gonna be able to have
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to recognize a lot of different things and put labels on things,
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then you're probably working with a lot of note cards.
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If you're working on,
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for example,
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a math class where you're going to have to use a lot of different formulas
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and
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answering a lot of different types of questions, then you want to be familiar with
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those types of formulas for each type of question.
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And so you'll be studying those maybe doing sample problems,
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maybe reviewing the formulas here and there and then seeing
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different types of problems for each type of formula.
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So the test cycle.
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So this is an idea of
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uh how it might look like when someone is going to be taking a test.
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Uh A lot of people get nervous before a test,
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they kind of avoid it
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and they end up cramming really close to the test
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and then they get really tired, they don't do so well and then they regret
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their whole test taking cycle.
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So
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as we mentioned before,
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it's a good idea to start set early if you can
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in
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uh work through different ways of studying. So your brain can
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uh better adapt to the information
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work on making your notes better, not just looking them over multiple times.
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If it's uh for example, if it's a really long test and it's over multiple chapters,
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you probably aren't gonna get a whole lot just by reading
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one chapter to the next chapter,
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you probably need to focus on.
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What is, what are the main things in that chapter that I need to learn?
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How can I adapt them to my notes? How can I study them effectively?
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So once you're actually done with studying,
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then we need to start looking at ways to destress you can exercise,
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you can, uh, work out your muscles like stretch,
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you can,
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uh, repair some of that sleep debt. A lot of studies have shown that
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if you get poor rest during the week,
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you can make up for some of that during the weekend
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perhaps.
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Um, also a quick nap is a good way to get a little boost of energy,
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but you don't want to just
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take naps all the time.
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Um Also,
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nutrition is important in your water intake in terms of your body's recovery.
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Um If you have been doing a lot of strenuous activities,
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then electrolytes are also a good thing to help um
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regulate your body and get you moving again after a long test period and
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hours of studying.
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So some people work well, when they have a reward system in place,
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after a stressful stress test, you might decide to treat yourself.
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Um Some people, they might get a cup of coffee, they might get a bowl of ramen,
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they might relax and watch one of their favorite shows or maybe read a book.
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So we have workshops and study groups available to
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all of you students.
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You can form your own study groups. We also have
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uh ones designated for different subjects, for example.
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Um We might have one for chemistry
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or biology.
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Um You can also feel free to use any of our rooms in the tutoring
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center or in the library if you want to form your own study group.
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So
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there's other resources that can help you give
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you some idea about ideas about study tips.
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Like University of Lynchburg
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also crash course has a lot of good resources
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and
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uh there are some things from Education Corner as well.
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Here we have our work cited for
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this presentation
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and
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that all in all is the study skills workshop. So good luck on your next test.