[Mabs] Study Tips

Wed Oct 26 17:21:50 UTC 2011

Hi.

I have the same problems when taking notes off of audio.  Maybe you
could try taking notes as you listen.  This is what I have to do in
order to stay awake.  I have jaws in one ear and I have my stream next
to me.  I've actually gotten to the point where I can write notes as
the narrator is reading the textbook to me.  RFB&D books are very
slow, so I find that I only have to pause the book occasionally to
finish writing something.

Now I've been told by others that this strategy doesn't work for
them...  But it has always served me well.  In this way I actually
prefer using audio books when compared to braille books because when
using a braille book, I need to stop occasionally and take notes.
With the audio, I can just breeze along.

If you are assigned a chapter to read, take notes on that
chapter--good notes, and then you can just use your notes to study
rather than going through the entire book again when it is time for
the final.

Spelling is a pain.  Using google can help along with a dictionary.  I
always find myself misspelling the names of composers, so google is my
friend for that.  If you are taking notes and don't know how to spell
a term, spellcheck will sometimes help, but google has always been my
best tool for that.

Good luck!

On 10/26/11, Gary Wunder <GWunder at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hi Todd. If you are using one of the newer Daisy players, learn how to use
> what they call their bookmarking features. This is roughly equivalent to
> underlining in print books. These Daisy devices--Victor Stream, BookSense,
> Plextalk--also allow one to record notes with voice.
>
> I have always found rewriting something helps me to remember it, so I will
> read something and then try to write what I've read. This will either reveal
> that I understand it or show me that I can't explain what I thought I knew.
>
> The main drawback in using audio is that sometimes I don't get the spelling.
> Having a print copy of the material is helpful and using a reader
> occasionally can be very beneficial. If you have a dictionary you can use,
> this can help with spelling. If you use some of the speech-recognition
> software, it may reveal the spelling if you pronounce the word in context.
>
> The problem I had to work hardest to overcome was falling asleep.  If
> something I was listening to had a plot, it kept my interest.  If it was
> political science or sociology or some difficult to read piece of
> philosophy, there was no plot and paying attention to the material was much
> harder.  I learned to actively listen, to periodically ask myself if I was
> understanding what was being said, and sometimes even introducing a pause
> every so often just to make sure that I was still awake and listening.  Some
> products such as the Kurzweil 1000 have this feature and can stop reading
> after 1 min., 3 min., or 5 min.  Some of the portable book players have
> settings which are actually intended to help you go to sleep and their times
> are significantly longer as in 15 min., 30 min., 45 min., or an hour.  I
> really used to confuse sitting in a chair for three hours with a book
> running with study.  I didn't have the problem in using braille, but the
> fact that the voice will keep on whether or not you are paying attention
> really does make staying awake more difficult.
>
> The last observation I would make is that people who read audio don't always
> pronounce names correctly.  I was in an educational psychology class and
> reading about the theories of Gonyea.  I won't vouch for the accuracy of
> that spelling, but I remember having two different books discussing his
> educational theories and two different readers narrating them. One said
> something that sounded like Gonyay. The other told me about the theories of
> Gagney.  I was told that our first test would involve comparing and
> contrasting different theories of the educational psychologists we were
> studying.  For the life of me I could not do a good comparison contrast of
> Gagney and Gonyay.  As I tell the story now, it seems like it should have
> been obvious what was happening, but I had to fail a test to realize we were
> talking about the same person.  I wouldn't have made that mistake had the
> textbooks been in braille or even if I had read them using synthetic speech.
> Knowing what I know now, I would have ascertained the spelling of both names
> ahead of time, knowing that I would be required to spell them when I was
> dictating the essay.
>
> I hope some of this is helpful.  I'm about 35 years from my last college
> class, but I still have dreams about coming close to the end of the
> semester, finding a rumpled class schedule in my briefcase, and realizing I
> signed up for a class that I haven't attended all semester.  I've probably
> had this dream at least 10 times, and it always makes me sick inside when I
> realize it is far too late in the semester to drop the class and the time is
> too short for me to do it justice.
>
> Warmly,
>
> Gary
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mabs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:mabs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> Todd Orlowski
> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:41 AM
> To: mabs at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Mabs] Study Tips
>
> I was wondering if anyone had any study tips for taking notes and studying
> for tests if your blind. And your books and materials are in audio format.
> Or any other kind of format. I was wondering what strategies people had that
> worked for them
> Thanks
> Todd
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-- 
Julie McG
 Lindbergh High School class of 2009, participating member in Opera
Theater's Artist in Training Program, and proud graduate of Guiding
Eyes for the Blind

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life."
John 3:16