4. Stick to your plan.Make sure you have yourplan written on paper and post your plan where
Week 7
Study social studies. Focus: national
you can see it. (Don’t just keep it in your head!)
history.
Look at it regularly so you can remember what
Week 8
Study social studies. Focus: world
and when to study. Checking your plan regularlycan also help you see how much progress youhave made along the way.
Week 9
Study social studies. Focus: geography
It’s very important that you don’t give upif
and economics. Take practice social
you fall behind. Unexpected events may inter-
studies GED.
rupt your plans. You may have to put in extratime at work, you may have to deal with a
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S T U D Y S K I L L S
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Stay Away from Cramming!
By creating a study plan, you can avoid cramming—trying to learn everything at the last minute. Cram-ming can make you very nervous, and for good reason. If you wait until a few days before the tests,chances are, you won’t be able to learn everything. And if you stay up all night trying to get everythingdone, you will be too tired to study effectively. Create a study plan that spaces out your learning goals. Give yourself plenty of time to learn and timeto review. Learn at a pace that is comfortable for you.tests are one good way to measure this, but there are alsoproblem at home, or you may even come downwith the flu. Or, it might just take you longer toother ways.get through a task than you planned. That’s okay.One of the best ways to measure how well you knowStick to your schedule as much as possible, butsomething is to see how well you can explain it to some-remember that sometimes, “life gets in the way.”one else. If you reallyknow the material, you should beFor example, if you have a family problemable to help someone else understand it. Use your learn-that’s keeping you from concentrating, you maying style to explain it. For example, if you are an auditoryneed to postpone your studies to resolve thatlearner, talk it out. If you are a visual learner, create dia-grams and tables to demonstrate your knowledge.problem. And that’s okay—as long as youreschedule your study time. Better to study laterRewrite your notes or make up your own quizzes withwhen you can concentrate than to waste timequestions and answers like those on the exam. Provide an“studying” when you are unable to focus.explanation along with the correct answer.So if you miss one of your deadlines, don’tHow do you know what you don’t know? If you feeldespair. Instead, just pick up where you left off.uncertain or uncomfortable during a practice test orTry to squeeze in a little extra time in the nextwhen you have difficulty explaining it to someone else,few weeks to catch up. If that doesn’t seem possi-you probably need to study more. Write down all of yourble, simply adjust your schedule. Change yourquestions and uncertainties. If you write down what youdon’t know, you can focus on searching for answers.deadlines so that they are more realistic. Just beWhen you get the answers, you can write them out nextsure you still have enough time to finish every-to the question and review them periodically. Notice howthing before the exams.many questions you answer along the way—you will beable to see yourself making steady progress.
H o w D o Yo u K n o w
If you are avoiding certain topics, it’s a good sign that
W h a t Yo u K n o w ?
you don’t know those topics well enough for the exams.Make up your mind to tackle these areas at your nextOne of the keys to successful studying is knowing whatstudy session. Don’t procrastinate!you know, and knowing what you don’t know. Practice
Trouble Getting Started?
Sometimes, it’s just plain hard to get started on a big project. If you are having trouble getting going, startwith an easy task, such as creating flash cards for review. That way, you will be able to accomplishsomething quickly and easily. And that will motivate you to move on to harder tasks. Or, try starting yourstudy session by reviewing or copying your notes from last session. This way, you will better rememberwhat you have already learned while you ease into study mode.
C H A P T E R3 Learning StrategiesONCE YOUhave created an effective learning environment and adetailed study plan, you can begin to review the material that will betested on the GED. But how can you remember all that you need toknow? This chapter reviews several key learning strategies, includingeffective note-taking, outlining, and memory techniques.H
ow successful youare at studying usually has less to do with how much you know and how muchyou study than with howyou study. That’s because some study techniques are much more effective thanothers. You can spend hours and hours doing practice tests, but if you don’t carefully review youranswers, much of your time will be wasted. You need to learn from your mistakes and study what you don’t know.The best method is to use several of the following proven study techniques. They can help you make the most of yourlearning style and store information in your long-term memory. A s k i n g Q u e s t i o n s
Asking questions is a powerful study strategy because it forces you to get actively involved in the material you wantto learn. That, in turn, will help you better understand and remember the material. And there’s another importantbenefit—asking and answering your own questions will help you be comfortable with the format of the exam.For example, when you are reading a short story, you can ask yourself questions like those you might see on theGED, such as:
