IdeaJones

Tag: tutor

  • Learning Tips From A Tutor — Don’t Get Married For The Wedding

    Working with a friend who is seeking his GED, we talked about how he came so close when he took the GED test before, and what he can do differently this time. He was within a point of getting his GED when he took the test, a heartbreaker, and I respect him for trying again.

    When we talked about how he prepared for the test last time, I realized that he had concentrated so hard on the test, as though that would be the end of the process. He’s also studying to become licensed as a truck driver. I helped him study and pointed out that he was so fixed on the test itself, he’d lost sight of the real goal, a career. The license is necessary but the exam, and the license, isn’t the goal. Those are steps to the goal, which would be the career that followed. “You’re studying for the test,” I told him, “but the test is just to show that you know the information you’ll need when you’re doing the job. Don’t study for the test, study for the career, so you’ll know this stuff and be able to use it.”

    He blinked at me. “That’s what I do,” he said. “I study for the test. I did the same thing with the GED. I didn’t study to understand it and be able to use it — I studied to pass the test. This time I’m studying for understanding more than for the test, so I’m remembering more.” It’s true. His English has improved so much in the past year. He’s worked hard, and it shows. He hasn’t just memorized things; he’s understanding concepts. “It’s like when someone gets married for the wedding,” he told me. “A wedding isn’t about the wedding. It’s about the marriage and the years and the life that follow.”

    And learning is about understanding. Yes, we need to pass the tests, but the tests are to show that we understand and can, hopefully, make use of the information. My friend has stopped studying for the test, or, as he puts it, getting married for the wedding, and he’s really learning.

  • Learning Tips From A Tutor — Change It Up!

    I’ve been a literacy tutor for years, both formally (paid professional) and informally (volunteer), and have picked up a few tricks for learning, which I shared with a friend who came here from another country and is studying for both the GED exam and a work exam that could mean a better-paying job. For both of these, he needs to master information so he can recall it and use it under stress (exam pressure and being timed).

    The work test is a licensing exam to drive “big rigs,” tractor-trailer trucks. He needs to master a pre-trip checklist that he’d perform for the licensing test, and again before each driving assignment. When we saw each other last week, he was feeling some anxiety about the test and remembering all the items on the checklist. I suggested he try some methods for increasing retention, including this one, which he found helpful:

    When trying to learn a list, whether it’s a list of words, a list of names and dates, or a list of operations you have to perform, change up how you learn the list. Just as the nose gets accustomed to a scent that doesn’t go away and stops noticing it, the brain can get bored with repeating the same thing over and over and largely check out of the process, so while you’re repeating it, most of the brain is ignoring it as something that isn’t changing and therefore doesn’t need attention.

    Change the list. Try it from the last thing backwards to the first. Then from the first item to the last. Then find a point in the middle and go forward from there, or backward. In his case, instead of going through the checklist from the front of the truck back to the tail lights, he began starting at the tail lights and going back until he finished at the headlights, or starting in the middle at the front of the trailer, doing the list for the trailer, then going through the checklist for the cab. Changing it up forced his brain to continue to notice it. It was always slightly new, and therefore couldn’t be done on autopilot. His brain had to pay attention.

    This is a lumpy, awkward process the first time you try it. Your brain wants to get through something and be done with it. It doesn’t want a thing to keep changing. So expect this to feel like trying to start off walking with a different foot than you usually start with, or use your left hand when you’re right-handed.

    He reported back that his retention had improved a lot. He now feels readier for the test, and if the examiner gets a phone call in the middle of it, interrupting the flow, my friend is ready to continue on from that point after being interrupted — something that throws people who learn a list from beginning to end in only one way.