What Can help me study better to acheive the grades that I want?

Question

Im a Middle Schooler In 8th grade And i have not been doing the best that my parents or Myself want i cant seem to study. I can read the same book a million times but I wont remember a thing.

Plz HeLp

Answer 1

All three of the answers above mine are good ones.

I would also add this: When studying a subject, it is important to UNDERSTAND the subject meterial, not just MEMORIZE it. Schools often place a heavy emphasis on memorizing things, and this is very counter-productive to actual learning. This is especially so in math, science, and history where often you are told to memorize huge volumes of information without really understanding how all the information connects together.

The problem with memorization of facts is that if you forget one or have it wrong, you won't know until it is too late. But if you understand how the whole subject fits together, you will be able to "re-construct" any missing knowledge. You will also be able to spot when you are making a mistake, because your brain will suddenly think "wait a minute that can't be right, lets look at this again..." Unfortunatley some times in the public schools (and probably in private ones as well) a teacher is assigned to teach a subject they don't really care that much about, so they can't help much in truly LEARNING the subject -- these cases are where you need to ask a lot of questions of people who DO know and enjoy the subject. Right here on Yahoo! Answers is a good place to ask such questions.

Secondly, constantly go back and re-test yourself on the sections you already have learned. This helps in two ways: It shows you foundational concepts that you don't have a good grasp on, and it helps you better understand WHY you learned those foundational concepts. Often times it is hard to tell WHY you are learning something, because you don't know how it fits into the whole puzzle. But once you are further down the road, you now see more of the puzzle so when you go back and look at the earlier sections of the subject you will see imprtant elements of them that slipped past you the first time through.

Answer 2

Don't keep doing the same thing. Try taking notes *while* you are reading. Do it as you're going along, writing down the important things on a piece of paper. Do not underline or highlight - writing it down will make you remember it better. If you can't do it at the same time because it's too distracting, do it after every section in your book.

It might seem like it's taking a long time but reading and taking notes once will take less time than reading and re-reading.

Answer 3

Well, you need to move your short term memory into your long term memory. First things first, don't just read the entire book if you are going to forget it. Instead read each chapter or a certain amount of things, then stop and try to review what just happened without looking back into the book. If it helps, try and write things down, then do the same for the entire book. Just make sure that you take your time and don't rush yourself, and also devoting a certain amount of time each day to do homework is a good habit. Also, try not to do your homework while watching tv or playing on the computer, its distracting.

Answer 4

get a tutor - a classmate who is very good with their memory. Ask if they can help you take notes on your reading. Also, talk to your parents about this...you might have a learning disability, but your parents would have to give permission for you to get evaluated for the special education program at your school.