Newsletter: GED Study Tips
Hi! Leonard Williams here. In our survey, the thing people were most interested in was tips on how to study well. I’ve just published a good article about that that you can read, called Top 5 Study Secrets.
But let me give you some more study advice:
Don’t Try to Learn It All at Once
You’ll learn better if you study a little bit at a time. Go at your own pace, but break up the studying into small chunks that are easy to do in one sitting. After you’re sure you’ve got it, move on to the next thing.
Do I Start with Something Hard, or Something Easy?
Some people want to get the hardest subject out of the way first, and some people want to do something easy. Generally, I say, start with something easy! After you take the practice tests, work on the subjects that you’re almost ready to pass. Why? It’ll motivate you, and after your success, you’ll be better able to tackle the harder topics.
Start by Studying Something You Already Know a Little Bit.
Why? You’ll have some background to build on. You already know a little bit, and you’ll build up some more knowledge. Then, you can move on to the next topic… maybe something not so familiar… with even more knowledge. The idea is to make it easy!
If Something Is Way Too Hard, Skip It.
You don’t need to know EVERYTHING to pass the GED. You just need to know enough. I tell people this about algebra. If there’s a part that’s really hard, and you just don’t get, don’t sweat it. Maybe there will be one or two questions about it on the test. Give yourself a break. You can miss one or two questions. The trick is to pick your battles… you can’t skip everything, but you can afford to skip ONE thing. (By the way, if you go back to it later after studying other things, you might find that it’s easier now that you’ve learned more!)
Track Your Progress.
Here’s a handy form to use each week, so you can check your own progress to see how you’re doing:
Week 1 Study Schedule Goal: 1 hour per day
Amount of time studied:
Monday _____________
Tuesday _____________
Wednesday _____________
Thursday _____________
Friday _____________
Saturday _____________
Sunday: Rest!
What did I study this week?
___________________________________________________________
How did I improve?
___________________________________________________________
What study techniques did I use?
___________________________________________________________
