| Managing
Process |
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| A Few Words About Process |
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everything you do, there is a corresponding activity in your
brain. Your brain is constantly processing information that you encounter,
building information into structures and associations. It files
all you see hear, say, do, or receive in any other way into these knowledge
structures; associations within these structures help you recall what
you need to know. |
| Process Functions |
| There can be
no processing without input, therefore input operations begin the
processing functions. Once the information for study is obtained,
the material must be processed. For learning to be sufficient and
lasting, additional processing activities are necessary.
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| Self-management |
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We all manage ourselves
with varying degrees of success as we conduct our daily lives. We
are constantly making decisions about our direction (where we
want to go or what we want to do), our plan (how we will get
somewhere or do something), our implementation (the acting out of
the plan), and our evaluation (judgments about how well we have performed
or if the activity was worthwhile). Effective self-management
involves:
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| Time management |
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Time management is the
key to successful study management. The essential problem is
making the most of down time so that time is available not only for
study, but for social, athletic, and work commitments. For you to
manage your time well, you must know how to:
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| Concentration |
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Concentration is needed to perform
any conscious act. Even acts that appear to be entirely physical
require considerable concentration. The mental components a wide
receiver must use to catch a football are at least as important as the physical
components he must exert. Concentrating is even more critical for
mental acts such as listening, reading, note taking, test taking, and
other forms of academic effort.
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| Managing your learning |
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Managing your learning requires you
to perform specific actions that affect the way you process
information. Methods for managing your learning include:
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| Managing your memory |
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The main problem most students have
with memory is one of recall--the ability to retrieve information
from memory when you need it. Intention alone improves recall;
simply intending to remember will improve your concentration, your
mental processing, and therefore, your ability to recall the
material. In addition to having proper intentions with regard to
your studies, you can employ specific techniques designed to enhance
recall and improve your performance on academic work:
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| Class Participation |
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The primary processing operations
exercised during class participation improve your recall of information and increase
your learning during class time. These mental activities also
help improve listening and note taking skills:
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| Test Preparation |
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The central problem most students
face in their efforts to achieve good grades in school is committing facts
and ideas to memory so they can be reproduced on tests. Not only
must you understand the information that you have taken in, it must be
processed and filed in your memory in such a way that you can retrieve
it when you need it.
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