Back to School for GrownUps

Biggest thing on my to-do list this weekend is to type up a whole bunch of practice questions about pest control techniques for hubby.

I made him write the questions - partly because I didn’t have time and didn’t much care to read  his textbooks quite that closely, and partly because I figured that it might help him study and retain the material better. 

He is more than a little stressed about this whole examination thing! 

He is 57 years old and hasn’t been in school for a very long time, and, he insists, even when he WAS there, he didn’t do all THAT well. 

Now he has to write two multiple choice tests - and not only that, but the mark he has to get on each to pass is not 50% … or even 60%…but 75%!!! 

He is SO not looking forward to it. 

I made a testbank for him in MS Access… so he can practice with all the questions we’ve come up with …I did write some for him when he first got the books. Now I just have to get all of the new questions he’s written typed up for him, so that he can spend a couple of days practicing using that.

Hopefully it will help …. but he is going to stress about it till it’s over; that is clear. 

The thing is that everyone he knows who has taken it didn’t pass both tests on the first attempt…and if he doesn’t pass, nothing really bad happens…. he would just have to study some more and try it again - and could work in the meantime. 

But I think tis a point of pride…and I really, really hope he does pass it on his first attempt. 

You probably already know that people do not all learn the same way. Some of us tend to be more auditory; some are more visual, and some people learn by doing…and all to varying degrees.

Knowing where you fit can be helpful - not just in terms of helping you to DO what you need to do in order to learn effectively, but also in making decisions about the type of program or course to take, or what sort of learning situation, in other words, you should look for. And, of course, in figuring out what sort of career you might do well in, as well.

If you are strictly a hands on type of learner, you are probably going to be frustrated as all heck in course that is all lecture. Most profs SHOULD have enough sense to know that in any class groupings they are going to have students who learn better in each of the areas - but not all subjects lend themselves easily to all styles of learning …and not all profs are skilled at finding ways to change it up to accomodate everyone.

There are bunches of online versions of tests to tell you your learning style - but chances are you already have a pretty good sense of what works for you.

Those of use who are more hands on tend to be bored by lectures; those who fill their notes with drawings and diagrams are propably more visual than others, and so on …

There are a number of different inventories and measures available… some that are more detailed than others - and some online sites that are clearly more interested in selling you stuff than in actually telling you anything useful about your learning styles. Here are a few that seem more useful than some:

• Abiator’s Learning Styles Inventories Tests - the ones I tried were straightforward - no registration required.  Information provided for both teachers and learners.
• Learning-Styles-Online.com also includes information and tests - their tests differ in that they offer a graphical, detailed representation of where you fit. You are required to register to get your results, but while they would like you to buy full access and a manual, they do provide you with the basics with the free membership.
• Dr. Richard Felder is a prof at North Carolina State U, and his site, while rather academic and uh… plain (as in visually B O R I N G) does include bunches of information about learning styles, especially the Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model (go figure ). The inventory itself is here , and no registration is required.

So - what is your learning style? And what strategies do you use to make it work for you?

So …. how neurotic are you?

About marks, I mean?

Me, I tend to place somewhere toward the high end of the scale…. maybe just a ~few~ degrees past it

I like feedback. I like to know what my mark is. On courses, on assignments… whatever! On all of it!

I thought our marks would be up last Monday - like the undergrads.  A couple of profs had mentioned that they had to get marks in at the same time those of us teaching/marking undergrads did.

Logged into see my marks last Monday afternoon and got a message saying that they were being processed and would be available this Monday.

Except that they were not.

Still not a single blessed mark showing - and nothing back from profs - and I am getting increasingly antsy.

I don’t know that I actually want my fiction/nonfiction paper back, actually - although a final mark for the course would be most welcome. But I am really, really impatient about the musical. I want to know what he thought of it - and what mark I got.

And I do not want to wait any more. 

Seriously - I cannot imagine making my students wait this long for  marks - ever. But then, I tend to ‘cheat’ … rather than spend half my life marking, I set things up to be easily marked in class as student’s finish up. I tell them their marks on the spot, and plug it into the already set up to calculate itself online gradebook.

Yeah, I’m just lazy like that

But my students do appreciate that they generally never wait long at all for their marks. At least in my computer courses - and when I can, I do it in my English seminar groups as well…. speaking of which, my last straggler’s essay # 2 came in (in readable form) late last night… suppose I should mark it and send it back to her.

Don’t you just love the whole test-taking and exams thing?

Just when you were starting to feel comfortable in your back to school as a grownup role, some prof has to come along and ruin it by announcing that there will be a test on ______________ ACK! You’re not alone - most people experience some anxiety about the whole testing thing … even the young’uns.

As on of my profs said not so long ago - “It’s supposed to be hard”

If school was all easy, everyone would do it and completing your degree successfully wouldn’t mean squat.

So - you cope with the anxiety as best you can, and you write the tests and do your best.

There are strategies that can help you to improve your test-taking skills, though - and there are tons of resources online. It can be well worth your time to visit a few of them, and especially, to look at specific strategies for specific types of tests.

If you know that you’re going to be doing a bunch of multiple choice tests, for example, try googling “multiple choice test stategies” and you will find some tips that can be very helpful.

Or you can stop by any of the following sites and have a look:

• Study Guides and Strategies
• Glendale College Strategies for Test-Taking
• MIT Online Test-Taking Strategies

You might also check for workshops or help from your school’s student support department.