Smart Practices: 3 Threes of Practices
Smart Practice: 3 Threes
Practicing questions doesn't make you perfect; only smart practice can make you perfect!
Your practice should have at least the next 3 features/criteria:
1. Advantages of Practices: 3 Advantages
Your practice should enable you to get the next 3 key scientific advantages of practices.
1.1. Strength and weaknesses indicators:
- This is one of the key scientific advantages of practices.
- Your practice should enable you to identify your strengths and weaknesses; then, based on that improve your weaknesses!
- Practicing questions before exam enables students to be familiar with the coming exam questions!
- This will enable the students (to get at least, 3 thigns):
- to know types of exam questions!
- to adjust study based on types of exam questions!
- to avoid /minimize fear of exam (exam anxiety)!
The third key advantage of practicing questions before exam is enabling students to get deep understanding (of a given topic).
- The more you practice exam questions (on a given topic), the more you master that topic!
- This (practicing questions before exam) is one of the smart study techniques that enable students to get deep understanding (of a given topic).
- Your practice should enable you to get deep understanding (of a given topic).
2. Stages of Practices: 3 Common Stages
Dear students, the second criteria that your practice (smart practice) should full fill is that your practices should pass all the next 3 common stages of practice.
2.1. Practicing/doing questions by writing:
While practicing exam questions, consider yourself as if you are taking real exam!
- You should practice/ do the questions by writing your answers on a piece of paper just like exam!
- Set time/follow the given or allowed time and stop as soon as the given time is over!
2.2. Getting Correction:
Getting correction is the second key stage of smart practice!
- After you complete answering the questions (by writing your answers of paper), cross-check your answers with the given correct answers!
- Unless you get correction, you will not be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses!
2.3. Taking Actions/Measures:
Taking the necessary actions is the third key stage of smart practice!
- You should take necessary actions/measures to improve your weaknesses and/or strengthen your strengths based on your performance!
- If you don't take necessary measures (based on your practice result), you will not be able to improve your weaknesses and/or strengthen your strengths!
3. Types of Practices (Source: Dunlosky, 2013)
To achieve/get the above mentioned 3 key advantages of practices, there are 3 types of practices that are scientifically proved. These are briefly summarized as follows based on Dunlosky (2013)! Each of these has its/their own purposes!
3.1. Mass Practicing:
- Practicing many questions that deal with specific topic/sub-topics at once. (e.g. On tense: Entrance 1995EC upto now).
- This enables students:
- To understand/get detail information about a given topic/sub-topic.
- To see the given specific topis/sub-topic or topics/sub-topics from various angles.
- Practicing different questions at different interval or more times: repetition/repeating practice so that forgetting will not happen.
- Practicing one or two times couldn't be guarantee!
- Practicing more times is very essential because human mind is not computer; there is forgetting.
3.3. Interleaving Practicing:
- The third type of practice interleaving practices: practicing general questions that deal with various topics at a time!
- Practicing different questions that cover different topic/sub-topics (Grammar, Writing, Passage...).
- Mixing different topics at a time (For example, Grades 9 and 10 Maths topics) to evaluate overall (general) understanding. Practicing Model/ National Exams.