NAME_____________________________________  CLASS_______

 

7th Grade Social Studies Homework Assignments

Due Wednesday, January 24, 2007

 

Your Midterm Exam is on Wednesday, January 24, 2007

I.  Complete your Exam Review Sheet

You have been given a four-page exam review sheet with this homework sheet.  You must complete it by Wednesday, January 24th, but the sooner you do it, the sooner you will have it to study.  You do not have to answer the questions on loose-leaf paper, but it might help you to remember the information - writing information has been proven to help students memorize it.  You may turn in the study sheet itself for credit on Wednesday, January 24th, so that you can work on it and study it until then.  Below are some studying and test taking tips.

 

II.  Don’t Put Off Studying!

  1. Motivate yourself to work on a task with thoughts such as “There is no time like the present,” or “Nobody’s perfect.”
  2. Put the tasks you have to do in order by which ones are most important to least important.
  3. Commit yourself to completing a task once started.
  4. Reward yourself whenever you complete a task.
  5. Work on tasks at the times you work best.
  6. Break large tasks into small manageable parts.
  7. Work on tasks as part of a study group.
  8. Get help from teachers and other students when you find a task difficult.
  9. Make a schedule of the tasks you have to do and stick to it.
  10. Eliminate distractions that interfere with working on tasks.
  11. Set reasonable standards that you can meet for a task.
  12. Take breaks when working on a task so that you do not wear down.
  13. Work on difficult and/or unpleasant tasks first.
  14. Work on a task you find easier after you complete a difficult task.
  15. Find a good place to work on tasks.

Above all, think positively and get going. Once you are into a task, you will probably find that it is more interesting than you thought it would be and not as difficult as you feared. You will feel increasingly relieved as you work toward its accomplishment and will come to look forward to the feeling of satisfaction you will experience when you have completed the task.

III.  Using Acronyms to Remember Information

Forming an acronym is a good strategy to use to remember information in any order that can be remembered. An acronym is a word that is formed from the first letter of each fact to be remembered. It can be a real word or a nonsense word you are able to pronounce.

Here is how to form an acronym.

Write the facts you need to remember.
Underline the first letter of each fact. If there is more than one word in a fact, underline the first letter of only the first word in the fact.
Arrange the underlined letters to form an acronym that is a real word or a nonsense word you can pronounce.

“HOMES” is an example of an acronym that is a real word you can use to remember the names of the five Great Lakes: Michigan, Erie, Superior, Ontario, Huron: In HOMES, H is the first letter of Huron and helps you remember that name; O is the first letter of Ontario, and so on.

“Telk” is an acronym that can be used to remember the following animals: tiger, lion, elephant, kangaroo. “Telk” is not a real word, but you can easily pronounce it. You could also have used “kelt” as an acronym. Notice that in this example, you cannot form a real word using the first letter of each fact to be remembered.

 

IV.  Guidelines When Taking Multiple-Choice Tests

Here are some guidelines that will help you correctly answer multiple-choice items.

  1. Circle or underline important words in the item. This will help you focus on the information most needed to identify the correct answer choice.
  2. Read all the answer choices before selecting one. It is just as likely for the last answer choice to be correct as the first.
  3. Cross out answer choices you are certain are not correct. This will help you narrow down the correct answer choice.
  4. Look for two answer choices that are opposites. One of these two answer choices is likely to be correct.
  5. Look for hints about the correct answer choice in other items on the test. The correct answer choice may be part of another item on the test.
  6. Look for answer choices that contain language used by your teacher or found in your textbooks. An answer choice that contains such language is usually correct.
  7. Do not change your initial answer unless you are sure another answer choice is correct. More often than not, your first choice is correct.
  8. Choose “all of the above” if you are certain all other answer choices in the item are correct. Do not choose “all of the above” if even just one of the other answer choices is not correct.
  9. Choose “none of the above” if you are certain all other answer choices in the item are incorrect. Do not choose “none of the above” if even just one of the other answer choices is correct.

Knowing how multiple-choice items are constructed and using these guidelines will help you improve your score on a multiple-choice test.