Setting Goals

Short term: pass this test with the score you need
Long term: graduate with the degree you want

Time management

Own your schedule, own the clock.

Be selfish with time, parsimonious with every quarter-hour of your day.

Time is now your most precious resource.

Don’t allow time-thieves near your treasure.

“—my life is so busy, how will I find the time?”
Begin inside out. Put the study time first, build the rest of your life around study time.

This is your life, and when it is successful, the people who need you now will be much better off also. So, demand their cooperation.

Explain how your success works for them.
This is a short term goal necessity. Insist on it.
You cannot afford their lack of cooperation.

Own your time. Do not share it. Essential time is your most precious possession on this journey.

Finances

You have to survive; you have to pay bills.
And, you have to prepare for this test.

Accumulate the funds for this test and invest it in the best purchase that will prepare you to reach the level you need.

TestCircle’s cost comparison shows real value.
Not only very inexpensive, it often comes with discount coupons.

Identifying Resources

Mentors, family members, teachers who have encouraged you, employers, truly good friends, those who really show you love--these human resources are invaluable. Collect and protect them. Reward them with your best effort.

Information, lessons, exercises, practice tests, support, a virtual classroom, portability, epeatability, tips, tricks, tactics and techniques, vocabulary vaults and glossary resources are what you need to have in your studies. TestCircle packages all of these for one price. Evaluate this academic resource.

Intelligent Use of Resources

Get help, get support early. Don’t hesitate. Work the entire trove of resources. Don’t over-estimate yourself or underestimate the challenge. Allow ample test preparation time.

Skills for Problem-Solving

Breaking down complex to singular tasks, isolating facts and being accurate, and proving answers are skills which must be acquired.

Calm, simplification, patience and flexibility are key to problem-solving in everyday challenges and also needed for analysis and solution of test questions.

Control of Environment

Wherever you are studying or going to study, you must be the master, in control, not reliant on the ooperation of others. If that area is in your home, you must have solitude.

You need a sanctuary of quiet.
Libraries are wonderful. Headsets help isolate you. An office, empty before hours or after hours, is often excellent.

Distractions

External:

There are external distractions that come with life.
Avoiding them is crucial to a successful person.

Distractions are usually there in your life every day
—people, routes of transportation, lines of communication, lack of assets, your living place, health issues, discomfort in your study area.

Knowing them, listing them will lead you to act to mitigate them. Do not ignore the cause of the distraction. Act to avoid, evade, terminate or redirect these distractions.

Internal:

Internal distractions are all about you—boredom, fear, hunger, worry, energy and focus levels.
These psychological impediments clear out when you take charge of all the external factors and begin a process of self-management.

Accurate Self-estimate

Setting goals:

You must have a plan to reach a goal.
Do you make reliable plans to reach realistic goals?

Priorities:

Priorities are must-do items in logical sequence, not the easiest or most pleasant first, but the most essential first.

Known obstacles:

People, places, things.
People who don’t get your goals, who don’t cooperate easily, hinder your progress.

Places that disrupt you, that distract you, limit you.

Things that interrupt, distract, diminish you. Phones, slow or unreliable internet connections, loud noise, nearby foot traffic are such things.

Commuter transportation is the biggest time-waster in modern life. It drains time, money, life force each day.

Time is Gold:

Use of time is a skill to be treasured, and a treasure to acquire. Work at the skill of time management. It does not come easily, but it will be worth the effort.

A daily calendar with the hours listed enables tasks to fit a schedule. Study being the first and most essential thing to achieve success on your daily schedule and managing all the other most essential things coming after, you have the beginning of a skill that will repay you with great rewards.

Persistence:

Even if you are deficient in all of the above, persistence will carry you to your goal. Never quit, never give up or give in, and you will succeed.

Frequent self-examination:

Measure your progress at least weekly, if not daily. Without examining how far you have traveled, or how well you have done on the continuum of your life, you might find yourself off-course too late or miss the opportunities to reward yourself for milestones along the way.

Correct behavior:

Repay favors, thank benefactors, share generously, assist others, work diligently. Karma is the currency of life.

Tough exterior shell:

You have an inner gyro to keep you on course. Do not allow anyone to re-direct or miss-direct you. Be self-protective like a turtle.
Smile at the naysayers, the doubters.
Success is the best payback. That inner gyro, your will to succeed, will keep you moving forward.

Motivation:

Stay in touch with your goal, then your stress will dissipate. Your short term goal is fuel for your actions. Keep your goal readily available; post a visible, daily reminder of it everywhere.

Goal:

A goal must be an object of passion.
If you have a goal that does not excite you, you may not reach it.

The excitement of, the anticipation of, the attraction of a goal is what ignites action.

Action:

Just do it is good advice.
Focus on it.
Do it in sets.
Do it as exercises.
Do it repetitiously.
Once you have a goal and a plan, do it.
Action relieves stress.

Cognitive over feeling:

Your plan must be a product of cognition, not emotion. While the stirring of your goal ignites you, planning is cognitive.

Be calculating with your plans. Save the emotion and feelings for self-motivation and self-rewards.

Plans are the architecture of your life. Facts are not feelings. Logic is not love. Planning is not a sentient process. It is a cognitive, rational process

Family:

Your parents, your siblings, your spouse, your grandparents are great support group candidates. They all are family stakeholders in your success. Involve them in your support. They can sustain you, encourage you and enable you to succeed.

Teachers, instructors:

Teachers who have encouraged you, instructors who have guided you are wonderful support group candidates. Stay in active communication with them.

TestCircle support team:

Our mission is your success.
Our instructors and support staffers will do whatever we can to support your study efforts.

Financial stakeholders:

Parents, grandparents, scholarship and grant organizations all want you to succeed. Keep them informed of your progress and consult with them for your long term goals.

External sources:

Employers are often a source of support.
Church groups, associations, unions, schools, colleges, universities all function as empowering organizations. Use them in your career.

Know your values:

How you identify yourself internally is very important to your behavior on the journey to success. Knowing your values and how they match up with your goals is invaluable in the quest for success.

Talk to yourself correctly:

Encourage your basic values. Positive vibes should come from you first. A good job, a task done well, or little steps taken add up to daily moments for self-encouragement Be generous with yourself.

Put yourself first on all your schedules:

You must come first in your short term plans.
It is not selfish. It is strategic.
Later, you can adjust to others.
For now, short term, no one is more important than you.
You cannot wait in a cue.
You must stand first in line.

Pamper yourself psychologically:

Never belittle yourself.
Uplift your spirit with the conviction that you are special and deserving, talented and intelligent. Stay close to those who love you unconditionally. Communicate with those who are positive reinforcers.

Reward yourself for diligent work:

Create a reward system for small milestones.
And plan a nice reward for achieving your short term goal. Diligent work deserves rewards.

Environment for Study

The room you study in must accommodate uninterrupted concentration.

Your ability to review, repeat and interact with the study materials must be paramount.

An online computer course, with troves of videos and vaults of answers and proofs for questions, presenting copious explanations and exercises, offers an ideal focus point for effective study.

Context

A course of study should be organized using effective methodologies. Your needs should be met in the interface, depth of material, clarity, rganization and ease of access. Multisensory reception will enhance your study results.

Memory

Memory is the mental ability to store, retain and recall information, Three properties of memory are:
encoding information as it is received; storing information in a permanent record and directory; and retrieving or recalling, or recognizing the information on some cue for use in some process or activity.

Short term:

Short term memory means limited items in short chunks, typically, three elements, and in groups of 4-5.

Usually, acoustic information is better recalled than visual data for short term memory.

Sensory memory is short term unless there are repetitions of the experience.

Short term memory is dependent on the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe. These are areas of transient neuronal communication, which is less stable, less permanent.

Long term:

Archived information in long term memory is retrievable indefinitely because of how the information is processed when received.

If the information is handled more, if repetitions are processed, if organization into categories is more extensive, then the information is retrievable indefinitely.

Qualities of information distinctiveness, and information difficulty where effort is required, and information elaborateness are features of information that is held in long term memory.

Information in long term memory is processed in the brain at night during sleep and distributed across several areas of the brain.

Improving memory:

Daily aerobic exercise and good sleep are essential to good memory. The brain needs increased supply of oxygen all day long and the body and mind need good sleep to complete the process of permanent record keeping by the brain. Eating more, but, smaller meals and getting aerobic exercise outdoors are habits of good memory maintenance.

Study Methods

Build a Study Guide:

(My Notebook helps you build your review notes)

TestCircle is enabling students with the ability to build a study guide that is personal and fits their own needs. Using My Notebook, a feature exclusive to TestCircle courses, is a daily study guide that will help you with a digital and a print out potential.

SQ4R Method of Study:

The initials are linked to the process of this method.
S: Survey or preview the text material and develope the meaning of the text
Q: Questions should generate from reading the text. Note vocabulary that is new.
R1: Read the text with the purpose of finding the answers to the questions.
R2: Write a summary of key terms and ideas.
R3: Recite your answers to your questions, even write the answers.
R4: Review all your notes, discuss your view points,

Taking Notes:

Organize with a heading, subject, topic, title, number.
Identify Main points and ideas.
Reduce to key words that cue points and ideas; key phrases, and key uestions
Use words and pictures to capture the points and ideas.
Make an outline or mind map of the material.