Education

Test taking is a fact of life for students of all ages. From elementary school spelling quizzes to college level exams, there is no way for scholars to avoid taking tests. The earlier your son or daughter starts practicing effective test taking strategies, the better his/her chances of excelling in school.

Preparation and Test Taking Strategy
In many cases, the difference between a good test taker and a bad one is the level of anxiety involved. Tests are scary. There is usually a tremendous amount of pressure put on kids to perform well on tests and get good grades. Students who approach an exam with a tremendous amount of anxiety arent likely to do very well. That is why it is important for parents and instructors to teach kids to approach test taking with the right attitude.

Good study habits and effective test taking strategies go hand-in-hand. Preparation is essential in test taking. The more prepared the student, the more confident he/she will be about taking the exam. Flash cards are a great resource for test preparation and are something that kids can do at almost any age. The same flash card system my mother taught me as a kindergartner is the same one that helped me ace my exams in college.

Sometimes, however, it doesnt matter how prepared a child is before taking a test if and when he/she suffers from anxiety. If this is the case, you might want to get some outside help. There are many professional tutors and summer camps that specialize in test taking and the accompanying anxiety. In the end, the sooner you identify your childs problem and take steps to solve it, the better his/her academic career.

Exemplary students are often identified by their levels of reading comprehension. Research indicates that students that exemplify good reading skills often go on to enjoy successful academic careers. That is why it is so important for parents to help their kids to establish effective reading skills at a young age.

Improving Your Childs Reading Skills
Reading is more essential to academics than any other subject. If a child is unable to comprehend the written language, he/she has little chance of excelling in any other field. In my opinion, there are two factors that children need in order to become excellent readers: the desire to advance and the discipline to practice.

Effective reading skills are not inherent; they are learned. Quite often, children whose parents are avid readers are usually good readers themselves (and vice versa). A child who watches his parents and/or mentors enjoy the process of reading and gain from the experience is often driven to do the same. Parents who arent avid readers would be wise to engage in the process of learning good reading habits with their children.

Once your child is excited about improving his/her reading skills, the next step is to establish a practice schedule. Quite often, children are reluctant to practice reading because they dont have anything interesting with which to practice. A good rule of thumb to remember when encouraging a reluctant reader is this: the more interesting the subject, the more interested the student. When first establishing good reading habits, it is perfectly fine to allow your son or daughter to read a magazine or newspaper. Once their reading skills improve, you can move on to harder mediums.

Creative writing skills are similar to many specialized physical skills. If not practiced regularly, they tend to fall by the wayside. The more discipline a writer puts toward his/her craft, the more the craft improves.

The creative writing process should be a purely artistic one free of restriction and persecution. At the same time, great practice should be taken to ensure that if and when a creative writing project is required academically, the writer can deliver without a great deal of anxiety. In my experience, some of the best creative writing drills are those that do not involve publication. Sometimes, the best writing comes from nothing.

Improving Your Creative Writing Skills
Creative writing is as much a skill as it is an art. Quite simply, the more you practice the better you become. In order to be lucrative, creative writing drills should be free of judgment and/or expectation. As a writer, the more you can free yourself from the idea of perfection, the more your art will advance.

One terrific drill that I wholly endorse is to write a 500 word description about your bedroom. Make the decision ahead of time that you will not show this description to anyone; this will free your style. Dont spend any more than an hour on this essay. Another drill is to scan the newspaper for an interesting article, then develop a character based on the person in the article. Once again, dont put any pressure on yourself, but practice similar drills each day. Youll be amazed at how drastically your creative writing skills improve in a short amount of time.

Mind maps are charts and/or diagrams designed to represent the connection between the mind and how it interprets learned material. Although similar to typical study notes in content, mind maps differ in appearance and structure. They are designed to mimic the specific manner in which the brain perceives information.

The Benefits of Mind Maps
Developed in the late 1960s by British psychologist Tony Buzan, mind maps are diagrams that are designed to give individuals an overview of a particular subject by utilizing images, colors, logic, and special awareness. When people try and recall information, they tend to think in key words and images. Mind mapping capitalizes on this by utilizing visual cues as opposed to pages of language.

In order to create a mind map, draw an image that best represents the subject matter you wish to map in the center of a piece of paper. Next, branch off of that image and create sub-images that relate to the subject. Consider, for instance, the way in which the various branches of government are often depicted: The White House is in the center, and various subdivisions stem off the sides.

Mind mapping is effective in that it uses visuals to stimulate memory (as opposed to page after page of written language). As they would a photograph or piece of artwork, individuals are better able to recall mind maps, and are therefore better able to remember the subject matter on which they are based. Mind maps are used by millions of individuals all over the world and are hailed by numerous educators and psychologists.

There are many ways in which individuals can improve their memories. Similar to specialized skills, good memories are not intrinsic so much as they are learned. While some individuals are more prone to memory preservation, just about anyone can learn to improve their recollection skills with practice.

Improving Memory Through Visual Cues
They key to memory improvement lies in association. The mind tends to perceive information vis-à-vis images and/or key word cues. Think about it: when was the last time you remembered a section of a book simply by recalling the page? Memory simply doesnt work that way. Instead, you remember the way in which your mind painted those words into its own visual cue.

Memory improvement techniques work using a similar structure. Lets say, for instance, that you need to remember the following list of words: United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, and Peru. Starting with United States, try and develop a personified relationship between these words. The United States is neighbors with Canada and Mexico. Panama HATES (Haiti) Jamaica. Poor Peru is all alone.

A word or subject that doest not trigger a strong visual image or relationship will be difficult to remember. The same goes for studying vast amounts of information. Rather than pouring over pages and pages of notes, you might want to consider charting a mind map. Using a variety of images to represent the subject and sub-subjects, start with a central image and then branch off. The visual map will be much easier to recall than will a bunch of written words.