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The 2 cents I can afford to give you...

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Maya, 

 

You are about to start high school. Your high school academics will impact your future in a variety of ways. The better you study, the better you will perform in class, the better grades your grades will be. Better grades lead to advanced courses and advanced courses will lead to a college going future. As I’ve shared with you before, higher education is one of the best ways to get out of the cycle of poverty. It worked for me and I know it will work for you. I hope you trust me enough to apply what I share with you in this letter. As boring as this letter may be for you, this may be the best knowledge I pass on (my kind of wealth advisement). What I have below is a snippet of what I want to say, but if I make it too long, you may not read it. So, here go my 2 cents… (I give you 2 cents and you invest that in your future…catch my drift here??)  =) 

 

Cent 1: Take your time (space out your studying). 

 

Previous research shows the most effective learning habits are the ones that seem to take longer. Trust me- learning and retaining information “is deeper and more durable if it’s effortful” (Brown et. al., 2015, p.3). What seems to take longer? Studying a little every night for exams that are weeks away. What shows better results? Studying a little every night for exams that are weeks away (this is called spacing). Yes, cramming for an exam the night before got you good grades this year, but after you took the exam, could you recall the info? If you space out studying for each class, you will retain the information for a longer period of time (Rhodes et. al., 2020, p.160). The more you retain, the more foundational knowledge you have, and the easier advanced classes will be!

 

Cent 2: Highlighting your readings and re-reading doesn’t work. You must elaborate.

 

If you must highlight, you must think of it as just one layer of the studying. Do something more than highlight. Take what you highlight and put it on flashcards, create graphs, mind maps, write a paragraph in your own words, connect it to something you know etc. In doing so, you will learn the material in different ways and will be able to explain it, which goes beyond memorizing the text (this is called elaboration). If you only re-read what you highlight, you didn’t learn the content, you memorized it (Brown et. al., 2014, p. 202).  So, the next time you highlight something, remember you need additional tools to really learn the material. Highlighting is just a layer on the text, and you need to layer your learning with elaboration. 

 

Ok, I can go on and on, but as a life-long learner, I’ve learned to be aware of my audience. If you don’t remember these .2 cents, call me and I will remind you. More importantly. “we are born with the gift of our genes, but to a surprising degree our success is also determined by focus and self-discipline” (Brown, et. al., 2014, p. 163). Much like investments, learning takes time, effort and discipline. Work with these 2 cents and I promise the gains will come. -caro

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