NAME_____________________________________ CLASS_______
8th
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! (Fight
Procrastination)
- Motivate yourself to work
on a task with thoughts such as “There is no time like the present,” or
“Nobody’s perfect.”
- Put the tasks you have to
do in order by which ones are most important to least important.
- Commit
yourself to completing a task once started.
- Reward yourself whenever
you complete a task.
- Work on tasks at the times
you work best.
- Break large tasks into
small manageable parts.
- Work on tasks as part of a study
group.
- Get help from teachers and
other students when you find a task difficult.
- Make a schedule
of the tasks you have to do and stick to it.
- Eliminate distractions that
interfere with working on tasks.
- Set reasonable standards
that you can meet for a task.
- Take breaks when working on
a task so that you do not wear down.
- Work on difficult and/or
unpleasant tasks first.
- Work on a task you find
easier after you complete a difficult task.
- 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.
- Circle or underline
important words in the item. This will help you focus on the
information most needed to identify the correct answer choice.
- Read all the answer
choices before selecting one. It is just as likely for the last
answer choice to be correct as the first.
- Cross out answer
choices you are certain are not correct. This will help you narrow
down the correct answer choice.
- Look for two answer
choices that are opposites. One of these two answer choices is likely
to be correct.
- 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.
- 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.
- Do not change your
initial answer unless you are sure another answer choice is correct.
More often than not, your first choice is correct.
- 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.
- 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.