Being Successful in TE 150

One of the things that I think helps the most in terms of learning comprehension was reading the assigned reading and taking notes on it before. These don't have to be written notes- but at least go through and make a mental checklist of the main points, jot down a few terms perhaps, and assess where you are at with understanding it. Obviously, reading is assigned for a purpose and should be read; the syllabus can tell you that. But most people(if they read) have the tendency to simply skim the reading briefly and just leave all the learning to class. This is a way to pass the class for some, but in the end it makes studying before the exam harder. This is because class time is meant for questions and an OVERVIEW of the topic. This is college-not high school. If you approach the class with the tactic of setting up your own framework of a concept, it makes it easier to study a little bit over the course of the unit. If you understand the topic, then the powerpoints in class will make the connections you need to remember it and fill in the gaps. Moreover, if you do not understand something then it is easy to directly ask the question that day in class instead of frantically reading everything ever assigned, surfing the web the night before the exam, and/or emailing the professor last minute to clarify a confusing concept.

Next, for the exams one strategiy I used with studying was filling out the study guide a few days before and going through every bullet point and explaining the concept and making sure that I had all of the material collected in one place. In preperation for the essays, it was good to think up a couple of examples for the theories of abstract ways of using them. This cut down thinking time on the exam and all I had to do was crank out my examples that applied to the prompt and refine them. Don't go into an exam without ammunition-know your stuff as best as you can.

In addition, another tricky thing about the exams was memorizing the stages of theories such as Piaget and Erickson. Don't worry though, the questions concerning them are not ridiculous. Rewritting the stages over and over again helped me to keep the stages straight. Don't just look at it and say you have the general idea...recall is a lot harder than just recognizing it in a multiple choice or matching problem, and you will need to make sure that you can do both. That is why writting them out again and again helped me because I could see what I was forgetting and find a way to remember it.

All in all, this class is not overly difficult, it is very appropriate. Studying is important and you will have to do the reading to be successful but it is not a crazy amount of work like some of my other classes. Just stay on top of what you're learning and you'll be fine in TE 150.