[nabs-l] study techniques and reading

[Rania]

good topic. I also miss the high school days when I had things brailled. I 
struggle to remember things too. I also look over my notes and use the books 
from RFBD but like you said I can't just skip the things on the pages that 
the teacher told us not to wery about because if I go to another page then I 
miss what information is on the page that I need to know. I also have 
trouble with getting the spelling of some wirds because some times when the 
spelling of a wird is in the book it is spelled to fast and other wirds are 
not spelled at all. I try to make up my own study guides if I know what is 
going to be on the test and try to make up my own test questions. Another 
thing I do is I record the class and play it back and I even have a friend 
quiz me on the material. Any other tips will be helpful.
Rania,
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:07 AM
Subject: [nabs-l] study techniques and reading


> Hi all,
>
> I may have asked a similar question; but with new people here there may be 
> more ideas.  As a student with lots of dense matterial to learn and 
> multiple classes its overwelming.  I miss the high school days when I had 
> braille texts and audio books from RFB; I used both and this made me 
> retain info better.  Right now to study and read matterial I do this:
> 1. Take notes while reading.  If with a reader, ask them to highlight some 
> info and I can review the highlights later with a reader.  Repetition 
> helps.
> 2. I read over notes.
> 3. I go over the points in the summary if the text has one as well as bold 
> words with a reader; my reader skims for them.
> 4. Occassionally the text has a website with practice questions.  If 
> accessible, I'll use it.
>
> The challenges i face without seeing and the benefit of skimming are many. 
> First I cannot look up concepts independently.  What if I forget something 
> and wish to look it up since its unclear in my notes, I can't do this. 
> For instance today I wanted to look up family systems in my abnormal child 
> psychology book.
> Second, I don't know how to spell some words.  I try and ask a reader as 
> we go along or if electronic text, listen to it, and copy.  But since i'm 
> focussed on the matterial, sometimes i forget.  Third, tables and charts 
> are challenging.  Sometimes my readers read it well.  Depends on the 
> complexity; those with boxes and arrows are harder than reading tables 
> with text in columns.
> Fourth, unless I'm reading with someone live its harder to skip over 
> irrelevant info.  Texts can be redundant giving you multiple research 
> studies for the same thing.  So I read all of it taking longer.  A sighted 
> student will skim and skip for highlights.  I consider myself a good 
> student and wish to do well.  But it takes longer doing it auditorily and 
> that can be annoying.
>
> So any ideas you have for study and remembering would be good to know.
>
> Ashley
>
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