Maximize Your Time Jaime s pre-right Notes activities for organizing your time, making Super Amazing Flashcards and laying the foundation to become one smart cookie. First: Organizing a Study Plan The challenge You really want to improve your TOEFL score. After all, you ve bought Right Notes. I know that everyone has potential but I also know that you re busy with life. Even if you really, really, really want to improve without a concrete plan, you will probably get behind with Right Notes assignments and studying. Even students who are studying with me get behind. Yes, I have definitely seen it before: A student with lots of potential signs up for lessons with me. I send him/her the first homework assignment, but I never get the answers. The day of the lesson comes. I didn t get your homework. I wonder if there was a problem with email I say. New Slang & Formal Words adapt (page 4) = change, alter or make something different boost (page 3) = increase; raise bust your ass (page 3) = work really hard get something straight (page 1) = to explain something until the other person understands mediocre (page 3) = average; unimpressive noncommittal (page 2) = vague; not committed to something Uhh No. I m really sorry, but I was so busy. I ll do it tomorrow. I promise. You re in danger, too. Ok, let s get one thing straight: If you do the assignments in Right Notes or not, my life changes very little. I mean, of course I want you to be successful, but my TOEFL score doesn t need to improve. Doing the assignments helps your TOEFL score improve. If you don t do homework or study, the result is that you don t use our lesson time wisely, and you progress more slowly. This means, of course, you might not get your target TOEFL score which means that your dream might not happen. When I look at my students, most people fall into one of two groups: either they work hard and they do 95% of what I 1
assign for homework (and, as a result, make improvements with their score), or they have lessons with me but do very little or almost no extra work (and, as a result, make almost no improvement with their score). Which group do you want to be in? The Solution You can avoid the I ll do my homework later scenario by making an actual study schedule. Yes, I ll be sending you Right Notes assignments every day, but it s also important for you to decide some things about your time. When you look at the testimonials on my website, I showcase some amazing, successful students. All of these people got their scores because of hard work. They finished homework, reviewed their notes, so I was able to move on to new material and concepts with them. They created and followed their own study schedules they did exactly what I m telling you to do now. When are you actually going to do the Right Notes assignments? Mornings, afternoons or evenings? Which days of the week? When are you going to have fun? How will you reward yourself for keeping your study schedule? How to Make a Schedule This takes 10 minutes maximum; 5 if you write quickly. 1. BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR GOAL. At the top of a piece of paper (or calendar), write your goals for TOEFL. Maybe it s getting a professional license; moving to another country; earning more money. 2. CONSIDER YOUR TIME COMMITMENTS. On the paper, draw 7 columns (one for each day of the week), or look at your agenda. Write down your time engagements. There s work, school, normal homework, taking care of children, seeing your friends and family, spending time on Facebook, eating, sitting in traffic. Think about your habits. How do you spend your time? The most important thing is to be realistic. 3. FIND TIME FOR TOEFL. You need between 3 and 4 hours every week that you can do TOEFL practice. If you gave a noncommittal answer like, I ll figure it out or I ll do Right Notes someday, think again buddy. Someday is not actually a day of the week. Maybe you can find 30-45 minutes on Monday night; another hour during a lunch break on Wednesday; 15-20 minutes to study vocabulary while you travel around your city (we ll talk more about this later). Alternatively, you might be able to wake up early some mornings before you go to class or work. 2
You might have to be flexible when you find time for TOEFL in your schedule but think about it this way: Would you rather bust your ass for a few months and improve, or would you rather sit around and then get a mediocre TOEFL score (which probably means your dream is delayed)? I hope your answer was I d rather work my ass off. 4. REMIND YOURSELF OF YOUR GOAL. Hang your study schedule somewhere that you will see it every day: the door of your bedroom; the mirror in the bathroom where you stand to brush your teeth; the front of the refrigerator. If you can see your study plan, you are less likely to forget it or make excuses. Second: Remembering Vocabulary The Challenge How do you remember new vocabulary? Are you actively studying new words? If you want to boost your TOEFL score, you need to improve your vocabulary. But how? Sometimes I ve kept a little notebook in which I ve written lists of words. Honestly, all these word lists disappeared after a while because the method wasn t very practical. The list method wasn t useful for me because my notebooks never fit easily into my pocket (the result of this was that I didn t take it with me, or study regularly). Without repeating the words, I couldn t remember them but it s not just me. You probably need to repeat new words to remember them, too. Right? And, when I finally looked at the list of words, both the new word AND its meaning, or sentence, or translation was right next to it. Let me give you an example. Imagine you write this in your vocab notebook, in a list: boost = increase; raise The Problem with Vocab Lists Look above. Do you have to think, What does boost mean? No! You see both pieces of information at the same time. Boost means increase or raise. How is that a challenge? How does your brain think actively? Answers: It isn t and it doesn t. Working from a list is actually fake studying it looks and feels like you re studying, but you re not. So what can you do? 3
The Answer You can use flashcards. A flashcard is a small piece of paper and on the front, you write some information; on the back, you write related information. You can do it like this: boost increase / raise front of flashcard back of flashcard The Benefits of Flashcards When you look at the front of this flashcard, do you have to think, What does boost mean? Yes! So you re going to think more actively; your brain will work and exercise. This helps you memorize and remember new information. Can you think of any other benefits to flashcards? They re small, so you can put them in your pocket or wallet, and carry them around with you. This means that you can study for five minutes on the subway; another two minutes while you wait for your friend at a café; twenty-five more minutes while you are sitting in traffic. In other words, your dead time becomes productive. I love flashcards and I want you to use them, too. When we have lessons, I keep a list of words that you re studying, and from time to time, I will quiz you on some of these words. However, you need to physically make and study flashcards regularly. How to Make Super Amazing Flashcards You can make flashcards like my example above but there s actually a better way. I want you to make Super Amazing Flashcards because they are a very effective way that helps you learn multiple new words at the same time. I ve made a video to show you this in #3 of 5 Secrets to Permanently Learn TOEFL Vocabulary. You can read (and watch!) it here: http://www.jaimemiller.com/online-toefl-preparation/how-to-learn-toefl-vocabulary/ Take a look at it and let me know what you think. If you want to adapt or simplify my suggestions, you can do that. But let s talk about it and find a method of studying vocabulary that works for you! 4
Study That! It s not enough to make the flashcards; you have to use them. Obvious! Keep the flashcards with you at all times maybe in your pocket. One of my students used to keep them in her wallet. For real! Dead time is any time during the day when you are just sitting around, doing nothing in particular. Dead time is a perfect opportunity for you to get out your flashcards and review. Dead time can be found when you are sitting in traffic, waiting for your friends, riding public transportation, taking a break from work or class, waiting for the commercials to finish during your TV show, brushing your teeth, right before you go to sleep Can you think of any more potential dead time? Third: Pronouncing Clearly If you have trouble with pronouncing particular words, you should probably make some pronunciation flashcards. It can be helpful to make an association between the English word s sound and a word (or name) from your language. Sometimes it s also useful to use your language s alphabet to write the English word phonetically (I talk more about this in the 5 Secrets to Permanently Learn Vocabulary). For example, one of my students, Pierre from France, was having trouble saying the word focus. Every time he said it, it sounded like fuck-us. Uh oh! I certainly did not want Pierre to go through life saying things like, I have to fuck us on my work. He confused the oohh sound with the uuhh sound. I said, Pierre, tell me a French name that has the oohh sound in it. He said, Cosette. C-oohh-sette. Perfect. So Pierre made a flashcard like this: focus Cosette focused on her thesis. front of flashcard back of flashcard 5
The oohh sound in Cosette and focus are the same. But a Turkish student could do a similar flashcard: focus front of flashcard Okyar focused on his thesis. back of flashcard Finally: Getting It Clear 1. When do you have free time for studying? 2. Have you read / watched 5 Secrets of Permanently Remembering Vocabulary? 3. Where are you going to keep your flashcards? 4. Can you find three or four times every week that you have dead time that you can use to review flashcards? 6