The Link System

I always have a hard time remembering certain words and concepts for different classes. I either get words mixed up or even completely forget them. I needed a system that will help me with BIO 123 and my sociology of health and illness classes. These are the two classes I need to know the most amount of terms for. I found out that the Link System would be the perfect way for me to address the terms I need to know in each of these classes.

The use of the link system for biology 123 has already started to help me learn terms in a better manner. For example I need to remember what peristalsis is for biology. The meaning of the word is basically waves of muscular contraction. According to the link system an image or word that can be pictured and looks like or sounds like the abstract word or concept need to be created. The word I chose to represent the concept was parrot because even though it doesn’t rhyme it has the same first beginning sounds of the word and parrots contract their muscles to fly. This trick has helped me fully remember the meaning of the word peristalsis.

For Sociology of health and illness we have many terms we have to memorize. One of which is the Genie Coefficient, which is the gap between the rich and the poor. I remember this by using the word genie and imagining the genie from Aladdin and how he helps poor Aladdin become rich. The meaning of the genie in the movie Aladdin has helped me to remember what the genie coefficient is.

The Link System has helped me to remember many meanings of concepts and words. Because I can relate the meaning of each word to the image or other word, I have been able to easily memorize each concept meaning. Visualizing absurd pictures intersecting the images has helped me an extreme amount and i will continue to use the same method to remember concepts.

Link System

I used the link system this week to help me study with Spanish. I had an exam for chapters 10-11 which included over 50 terms for me to know. Before using the link system, I found it very hard to study for Spanish because I never had an actual connection between the terms and definitions. I tried to study straight terms, but I always forgot many definitions. The link system helped me significantly because I made connections between terms and definitions that stuck in my head. For example, the word autoprista means highway in spanish, and Iremembered this because it made me think of an automobile with a person driving on a highway. "Auto" reminded me of an automobile, and prista rhymes with "mista", so this helpedme remember the term. I used this strategy for all of the terms I had to study and I found it very successful for my spanish exam.

I also used this strategy for my SOC 355 class which I had to remember definitions and statistics. For example, I needed to remember that 30% of the adult U.S. population is obese. To remember this I thought of a kid on my high school football team that was really fat and wore the number 30. I know this is an absurd way to remember the statistic, but it really helped me remember. I will continue to use the link system in both my spanish and sociology class because those are the only two classes I have most my

terms and definitions in. Overall, the link system has allowed me to get a visual image of the term or definition I am study, and helps me retain the information much better.

Link System

A big part of learning is first remembering the information, i,e. Your memory. When dealing with a lot of terms or concepts it can get hard to remember not only the term or concept but what it is actually dealing with. A great strategy for improving memory skills is the Link System. The Link System is simply linking a word to an image or another word that looks or sounds like the word you need to remember. Doing this helps recall the word and possibly what it is about. I recently used this method in my PHI 107 course and the concept of Nature of Knowledge. The term Nature of Knowledge also sounds like the word College, which is ironically a "nature of knowledge" to some degree. I then just simply envisioned our own SU campus whenever i thought of the term Nature of Knowledge and it helped me remember the term easier.

The concept Nature of Knowledge are composed of the ideas Truth, Belief, Justification. Backwards, the initials of these ideas are JBT. A couple months back I was turning through the channels on TV and there was a music special on the artist John Butler Trio. When doing the Link System I immediately thought of the group when I saw the three ideas and linked them to the music group. Here's a picture of the group:

ARM-RS

This semester all my courses are writing and reading intensive, I have hardly any exams. Because of that, I needed to practice using some strategies to help organize my readings and put me in the mindset of building key components of my papers while doing the readings; ARM-RS did just that. I chose to use this strategy in my PHI 107 course for my next paper due next week. The topic question for my paper was (as chosen) Is Knowledge true justified belief? as you will see later. The main emphasis of this strategy is, as Dr. Blumin stated in her book It's All About Choices, "is forcing you to continually focus on the topic of the paper and read for that purpose"(p.136). The strategy is set up in steps as follows: 1.) Clarification of the paper topic. Make sure you understand what the paper asks for. 2.) Read with your paper's purpose in mind. Annotate and make markings for later reference.

3.) Go back to the assignment requirements and evaluate your progress toward the paper. 4.) Continue to read(in chunks) until you have enough information for the paper. 5.) Create an outline to organize your thoughts for writing the paper.

After this strategy was accomplished It was very easy for me to just simply follow the outline and work toward completing the paper. What I liked about this method is that its short and simple and, with me, those are elements of success!

Link system can be described as a word linked to an image that looks like or sounds like the word making it easier to remember and recall the meaning of a word or words. Recently in psc 121 we have been discussing the idea of federalism. The word federal is right in the word, as in federal government. Which is what federalism focuses on, a strong central government. To add to this i then visualized an image of old presidents from many years ago who stressed the idea of federalism to keep this country from tearing apart.



I also used the link system for my history class. A famous trial in the united stated history known as the Scopes Trial was a term i was struggling to remember. Scopes was accused of teaching evolution which was against the law at that time. Scopes to me sounds like microscope, which can be related to evolution in that we study things through microscopes. The image i created in my head was a crazy professor a.k.a. Scopes, looking through a microscope finding out new things about our past. Using the link system really helped me to remember key terms i needed for my classes better than if i just tried to remember them by repetition or continually reading them over.

This was the closest image to what i saw in my head of a professor studying through a microscope.

Sam's Ants R Quick

This past week during spring break travels i used the reading strategy Sam's Ants R Quick in my political science 121 class as well as my history 102 class. For both of these classes a lot of reading is required by the professors. There is no grade for this but doing the readings really help to get a good grasp of the information being taught in the course. Sam's Ants R Quick is a reading strategy that would be good for visual and kinesthetic learners, because not only do you brief the information before reading it, it also requires you to write down key terms and create test questions.

For my political science class using this strategy, the first thing i did was the survey. This part of the strategy requires me to read the introduction, objectives, summary and the questions/terms at the end of the chapter. This allowed for me to get the idea of what the readings were about before i started. The next day in lecture, the second part of the strategy, i attended class lecture with my ears open for the information that i noted in the survey. Then i read the required text as well as wrote down key terms in the margins to keep me engaged. Finally the last part of this strategy, question, i then created test questions using the key terms in the margins and reviewed them every couple days, this gave me a very good grasp on the key information in the readings. Here is the test questions i created. (I dont know how to do the documentation the right way)



In my history 102 class i also used the Sam's Ants R Quick strategy. I incorporated the four parts into reading for this class. These parts as i said earlier are the survey, attend, read, and question.I feel using this strategy really helped me understand the reading more than when i usually read just to get it done.



This is an example of the reading part of this strategy where i wrote down and explained key terms on the margins while i read.

SU/Cornell Note-Taking System

This semester my courses are very writing intensive and pretty much no exams so strategy topics such as Test Preparation and/or Note Taking were a little difficult in the sense that the notes I would take in my courses weren't conducive to bettering my understanding for exams, because I had none. I still tried Note Taking methods in efforts to help my writing and to help portray my understanding of ideas in my writings. The best method of Note Taking, for me, was the SU/Cornell Note Taking System. As stated in Dr. Marlene Blumin's book It's All About Choices, "this system forces you to do an ongoing review of your notes and it gives you a review of your notes and it gives you a review tool for test preparation" (P.99). I tried this method in my REL 103 course and it proven successful.

The steps for using this system are as follows: 1.) Draw a vertical line 2.5 inches from the left side of the paper. This creates a Recall column. 2.) Trace the first horizontal line at the top of the paper. The top box made creates your Summary Box. 3.) Record all notes in the right, third box. Here is an example of my finished SU/Cornell Note Taking System:

After class, in the left most column, or the recall column, my job was to establish key words or terms that help me recall the information. Now as I took the notes and before I elected to do this system, I realized I had already done that within the notes therefore in the recall column I simply just put arrows pointing me to those key terms or words. At the top in the Summary Box, I wrote summaries of what the notes were about underneath it. After this is done, I just looked at this once a week until I was ready to apply it. I think I am a pretty organized note take but this strategy makes me take an extra look at my notes and by having to apply them to different sections and columns, it helps me see it more and learn it easier with that constant repetition.

Su/Cornell Note Taking System

This past week i used the SUCornell note taking strategy. Note taking is something that most people do, but how they do it is what really matters. Before this class I would sit through class taking notes without any real organization or pattern. When it came time to study, my notes were hard to read and what i could read of them didn't make sense to me. Using the SU/Cornell note taking strategy made it easy for me to go back into my notes, easily understand them and know where in my notes to find information. The SU/Cornell note taking strategy is beneficial for kinesthetic and visual learners. The way the notes are organized and rereading them as well as a summary of the notes is what makes this true. The first class i used this in was math 221. In math there is a lot of notes, and sometimes i find myself just writing stuff all over the paper trying to keep up and pay attention. This past week using the SU/Cornell notes was very beneficial in this class. I started by drawing the format on paper, this consists of a vertical line 2.5 inches in from the left which is called the recall column, then a line across the top a couple inches in, which leaves a large box on the right side of the paper called the summary box. Then during the week i recorded as many notes as i could in the summary box. After each class i reviewed my notes and reduced them to key terms and ideas and wrote them in the recall column. The next day i summarized my notes in the top part of the paper, so when i look back at the notes i have a summary of each page. The recall column and summary box provide efficient ways to review and think of test questions.


I also used the SU/Cornell strategy in my political science 121 class. In this class the professor goes pretty fast so i tend to scribble and write sentences that don't make very much sense. So using this strategy really helped me. Like i described earlier i created the format for the notes, which includes the summary box and the recall column. After class i reread the notes and put down key terms and ideas in the recall column. Following that i summarized the notes the next day, this goes in the top part of the page known as the summary box. Then i reviewed these places in my notes at the end of the week.

1 plus 3 Notes

Taking notes never used to be good enough for me to learn from. Sometimes looking over my notes I would forget how to use a concept because I lacked an example to explain it to me. My MAT 285 class especially was difficult at times because I had equations and formulas that I did not know how to use very well or might have been confused on. I also was having trouble with my BIO 123 class because I would have the definitions of most biological concepts but I did not have a way to organize the information into a neat organized manner. My Sociology of health and illness course also needed to be organized in a way that I could see statistics in one column and written information in another. I needed a type of note taking method that included examples of questions in order to understand equations for math and an organizational view of concepts into a neat chart or table.

One plus three notes were the perfect way for me to complete my note taking skills. They are the one type of method that helps all of my weaknesses in my notes. The first thing they do is combine class notes with outside test preparation. One side of the notebook has the class’ notes from that day. The other side of the page includes definitions and terms, a chart or graphic organizer to help study the information, and questions in order to apply the information. This type of notes is perfect for my weaknesses because of they are forcing me to become more organized and helping me review my information from the day.

For my MAT 285 class I used the 1 plus 3 notes in a very effective manner. During class I only took notes on one side of the page. I knew I had to go back and insert all the organized information and example questions later on. When I went back later that day to use the 1 plus 3 notes for the first time, I started with putting formulas in one section of the page that I went over that day. Putting all my formulas down would allow me to see all the new concepts we learned that day instead of flipping through my notes searching for every new thing we learned for the class. The next thing I did was put an example question for each type of formula listed on the side of my page so I would be able to see how to use each equation. The last thing I included was example questions because after seeing the formula and learning how to use it with an example problem, I would be able to apply the formula to a different problem and understand how to use it.

For my BIO and SOC classes I did the one plus three notes a little differently. Instead of putting equations and such on the other side of the pages, I put the terms and definitions, graphic organizer or chart, and then example questions. These helped me learn the information in a more productive manner. The notes actually worked in a way that helped me remember more information for my classes.

I know that some of my friends have been struggling in these certain classes also so sharing my new types of notes with them have also helped them to learn the information better. The one plus three notes have not only helped me in my note organization, but they have also been a help to others.

1 plus 3 Notes:

1 Plus 3 Note-Taking Method

This past week I used the 1 Plus 3 Note-Taking Method for my SOC 355 class. We didn't take many notes in class, but because of the limited notes we took I was able to fit it all on one page. This was very helpful for me because it allowed me to focus on only a page of notes and I only will concentrate solely on these notes. I chose to take my notes on the right side of the page because that felt most comfortable for me. I took notes of definitions, examples, and statistics. When I got done with the notes I came back to my dorm and set up the 1 Plus 3 Note-Taking Method.

In section A I listed all the key terms and concepts I felt I would need to learn from the notes I took. I wrote down Biomedical and Medical Sociology, two theories I would need to define and know examples for. Next I wrote Economic Inequality because I need to know the differences between the U.S. and other nations around the world. Lastly I labeled 30 yr. span because I need to know how our economy has changed in the last 30 years.

In Section B I labeled the Economic Inequality because this is something our professor said we would need to know for the test. I underlined 13x for the U.S. because that is the largest economic inequality for the top 20% vs. bottom 20% in the world.

Lastly, in section C I wrote some questions I thought my professor would ask on an upcoming test or quiz. Because of the lack of notes, I was only able to come up with 3 solid questions I felt the professor would ask. I know she likes to have us define terms for quizzes so I wrote 2 questions about definitions.

The 1 Plus 3 Note-Taking Method really helped me comprehend the notes I took in class. This was very successful for me and I will be sure to use this more in my classes.