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Explanation of special skills to help doing homework faster and easier to get good grades. Also refer to speed reading, comprehension, understanding, memory, highlighting, outlining, Ron Kurtus, School for Champions. Copyright © Restrictions

Special Homework Skills

by Ron Kurtus (12 May 2001)

Homework usually consists of reading material in your textbook and doing written assignments. Sometimes you must do outside research on a subject. You want to be able to read the material rapidly, understand what you read and remember important points. Then you must answer questions, solve problems or write out reports. You want to go through each area quickly and efficiently. In some areas there are skills to increase your effectiveness.

Questions you may have include:

• How can I read faster?
• How can I understand what I read?
• How do I improve my memory?

This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson.

Read faster

It is worth your while to look into ways to increase your reading speed. Why plod along, when you can go through your homework reading twice at fast?

Methods to increase your reading speed include skim reading before you do serious reading and clumping words together instead of reading one word at a time. At the very least, simply concentrating on reading faster will help you improve your speed and comprehension.

(Check out the lesson on Reading Faster for detailed tips and methods.)

Understand what you read

Most textbook material consists of important points followed by details and examples. If the material is very difficult to read, you may have to read it over several times.

Use highlighter

Some students use a highlighter to mark what they feel are important points or sentences in the book. I never liked to do that, in case I marked the wrong sentence and in case I wanted to sell the book at a later time.

Write important points

I feel that writing out the important points works better, because you remember what you write, and you can add other comments or thoughts. Also, writing can help the understanding process.

Experiment with what method works the best for you.

Improve your memory

People with what they call "photographic memories" are supposed to be able to remember everything they see or read. A good memory would make things a lot easier when it comes time to answer questions in class or when taking a test.

There are methods and tricks to improve your memory. One of them is to be observant and notice things around you. Another good technique is to make associations with familiar things you can visualize.

Writing down key points helps the memory for some students, while verbalizing the material or explaining it to friends ingrains the material for other students.

Again, you can try different ways that work best for you.

Summary

Using techniques to read faster, to improve comprehension and to improve your memory will help in getting your homework done quickly and effectively.

Answers to Readers' Questions

Use tools and techniques to help you do the job

Resources

The following are resources on this subject.

Websites

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper - Listing of over 600 homework-related sites. Impressive, but almost too much information

Homeworkhelp.com - Provides some free lessons but also charges for better information

Homework Help - Homework tips. Can post questions and get answers

Good Grades Resources

Books

Top-rated books on Good Grades

Miscellaneous

Mini-quiz to check your understanding

1. Why try to increase your reading speed?

2. Why write down important points?

3. How can you improve your memory?

If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a Champion in School. If you had problems, look over the material again.

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