Hi there! Let's go ahead and jump right into this today; I'm super excited to share this with you guys! But in order to get ya thinking, I'm gonna start out with a question... What makes a person good at quizzing? This is a pretty important question for those who want to be the best quizzer around, or just at the top in general, because it holds the key to unlocking the door to the quizzing success room. And of course, being a good quizzer includes more than just one thing, but I think we can all agree that the one ingredient of it, that I'll be talking about, is a major piece of the foundation for building a successful quizzing career. And that's having a solid study plan. But this topic isn't just for those who want to be at the top right now, this season; the things I'll be touching on would help a newer, or less competitive, quizzer as well - Especially in the area of learning how to study, because we've all been there. I mean, for goodness sake, I'm still learning to study my best; there's always room for improvement! The system I've found in my three years (and a little bit) of quizzing that works best for me, is to block out the study time. Now, this won't work unless you learn how to keep yourself motivated and encouraged to keep doing your very best and to work at it with all your heart - keep your eyes on the prize, my friend! When I block my time out, it gives me just a little bit of my plan to bite off at a time, rather than just having a study list, which can work, but also is more likely to be overwhelming and discouraging, especially on a not-so-great day. Because, to be honest, we all have lives; we all have school, homework, hobbies, friends and family to spend time with, and on top of all of that, we know that we have to make time to relax, rest and refuel. So a great way to help yourself keep up a good study habit for quizzing, is to block out your time; and I'm gonna show you how. Answer these questions; how much variety to I want to keep in my study routine? and how much time do I want to, and am able to, spend on it everyday? To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I'll give you a few examples of having "variety" in the first question.
Now you'll probably want to mix them up a little, and it might take a while to really find a combination or order of business that works best for you (and you might even try changing around the order of your study time topics when you're feeling discouraged, or just unmotivated - trying something new is always a good idea to get the spark of motivation lighted again!). And for time lengths for your study time total, and for how long each block is, I would suggest considering three things;
There is a fine line between having a killer disciplined mindset to do what needs to be done and enjoying it, like I mentioned in a previous post, and making yourself work super super hard to the extent that you don't even want to quiz anymore. Beware of this so that you don't become your own worst enemy. After you answer these questions, put them together and find the best template that works for your situation. For example, I decided that I wanted to do some questions, have a specific chapter or chapters to focus on, do a little reading, memorizing of course, and then leave room in my study outline for some special, topic-specific study, where I would learn a list, work on the genealogy, make a point to study with my siblings, etc.. Like always, I drew it out, and then revised it to fit into reality. Deciding to stick to my 6-day/week plan for studying, I continued to leave Sunday open for rest, and then put fewer study goals on Wednesday and Thursday because I not only have more verses to memorize on those days (as previously determined by my memorizing schedule) but those are my most busy days of the week, and I wanted to refrain from making it even more difficult. Following this, I mixed it together with my reviewing plan (coming soon in a post of its own!) and wha-la! What I ended up with I think will help make me a better quizzer, and will help with the balance of the rest of my life as well. Once you figure yours out, the next step is to put it into action, which is definitely the most difficult step, but also the most rewarding! If you're on track with working on the Learn Luke Challenge already, or if you're wanting to learn the material this season without memorizing, then this might seem a little too much right now. But don't worry, everyone feels overwhelmed sometimes, and everyone feels like quitting every once in a while - I know I have, and will again - but you can't let that discourage you long term, and you can't let it stop you. As strange as it might sound, blocking out study time is one of the most profitable study lessons I've learned, and I hope that it helps you too! Thanks for reading, y'all! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! your fellow quizzer, Mallory
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Hey guys! I hope all is well with your quizzing so far this season! As the first sprint for our Learn Luke Challenge, as mentioned in a previous post, I'm gonna walk you though the steps I used (just a week or so ago) to draw out my memorizing plan for the Olathe Invitational. Now, I know and am friends with a good number of people who really couldn't care less about planning ahead, but let me tell you that especially in quizzing, but in other areas as well, that a goal without a plan is just a wish - you have a much, much better chance of meeting (and maybe even exceeding your goals) if you write them down, organize them, and know what you need to do every single day. Here are a few things you can expect from this sprint;
With these things in mind, are yall ready to jump in? Lets do it! First thing's first; how many verses do you need to learn before Olathe? The tournament, to my knowledge, is going to be over chapters 1-11 (if you want you can go ahead and check out their website; olathe.nazquizzing.org). Hopefully, you've already got a good amount of the material memorized - whether it's just in essence, or if you've got them down backwards and forwards and ready for according tos. But however much you have, subtract that number from the total number of verses in the first 11 chapters, and count the number of days and weeks we have until the tournament on November 5th. Given, this is a slightly longer sprint than you might have been expecting when I first announced the kind of events we would be having, but think of it this way; the longer the sprint, the farther you'll go. If the sprint was only a week long, then you might be able to get like 100-150 verses memorized, tops. And in Luke, that's like two chapters, so in order for a sprint to really have a good impact on how you do at the tournament named, the sprint has to be a good sized one. Anyway, back to preparing; take away from the total number of days and weeks the number of days that you think you'll need to spend intensely reviewing the material. For example, in my schedule, I left out Sundays, and then the last week or so for JUST review. After you do this, divide the number of verses among the remaining weeks, and further divide into the number of days a week you want to, and think you'll be able to, memorize and review recently memorized material. I.e. I'm doing Monday-Saturday, and at the time of my personal preparation and planning, I had a little over seven weeks before the tournament. Next, decide if you want to have the same number of verses every day, or have heavier days and lighter days during the week (you can also take it a step further and have heavier and lighter weeks; I.e. heavier memorization the first few, and increasingly less to memorize every week to make room for the increasing number of verses to review every week). I decided to do more than double memorization Tuesdays-Thursdays, because I have other activities during the other days that take time away from school, so I don't have as much time. This also gives you a little wiggle room if you come a few verses short, so that it's not too big of a deal to add those on to light memorization days. Once you know how many verses, and for how many days, and what days you're taking off for review, write it down - make a calendar and put it somewhere you'll see it everyday. This might seem a little overwhelming, or it might be super motivating and exciting for you, but here's a couple things on how you can stick to your plan;
Well guys, are you pumped to really charge into this challenge, and to be your own boss, and to be more prepared for Olathe than you were last time? I know I am! I will try to write more about this sprint as we go through, but until then, continue to be the awesome, and capable you! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hi Guys!
I'd like to apologize for the delay on this post; you know how busy life can get :) Anyway, thank you for your patience! So hey, happy new year! Middle of January, we're all getting in the groove of things, and hopefully keeping our new years resolutions (or trying :P)! So how's studying in 2016 going so far? Has the spark of motivation survived the holiday break? If so, awesome! Good for you! If not, don't worry! This isn't exactly unusual among quizzers. But the important thing to do, in a time like this, when we are speeding towards huge, important tournaments just around the corner, is to focus on getting the most out of our study time, and firing yourself up into a blazing inferno of motivation, in order to survive the coming months! How do we do this? Well lets start by getting organized. Objective: Get motivated & Make the most of study time How to achieve this: Simplify, focus, and encourage yourself How to Simplify:
All these things are centered around making you the absolute best quizzer you can be, and to help you keep having fun while doing so! Remember, if you're not having a good time while quizzing, you're probably doing it wrong :P Don't hesitate to reflect on how you're doing, every once in a while, to make sure that you're actually enjoying yourself; quizzing isn't meant to be a cage, it's meant to be a stepping stone, to help us tune skills that we're going to use in our adult life, and to (more importantly) give us a more stable and thorough understanding of the Word of God. Keep being fantabulous, (fantastic + fabulous), my friend! Get the ole' quiz portion out, take a deep, renewing breath, and dive right in to the preparation for the upcoming tournaments! I know you'll just be amazing (as usual)! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Until the next tournament, I remain your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hello!
When first starting quizzing, I didn't have any idea of what to do, or how to study, so I just read. And read, and read some more. And it served me well, but reading isn't the only thing you should do, because you get burned out faster that way, because to be honest, it gets really boring after a couple months (or weeks...). So over the past two years, I've experimented, researched, and learned a lot about studying for practices, local quizzes, invitationals, and regional quizzes, and here's some of the things I wish I would have done as a novice quizzer.
Having those things out of the way, here's a checklist for a novice quizzer, for their day to day studying, that I've made, that will help create a habit of getting in the word everyday.
Of course, adjust this to your own preference, but these are my default studying activities, and are good and straight forward for the newer quizzer. For a new quizzer, 15-45 minutes a day, is great! They will be able to get some jumps, and probably place pretty well at quizzes (depending on the level of competition of course). Just remember the difference between hard and light studying, because that it vital. Thanks for reading Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey! Welcome to part two of our new series about making and sticking to your quizzing study schedule. In this post I'll walk you through how to actually make your study schedule, and when to do it. Making a realistic study schedule: The biggest reason why quizzers end up not being able to keep up with their study schedule, is simply because it isn't realistic. They aren't able to do it along with everything else in their lives. This isn't something to criticize someone about, it's a real issue. Sometimes we just need a little help getting our lives under control and in order. Here's a quick little check list to make sure your study schedule (if you already have one. If you don't, no biggy, I'll help you with that later on in this post) is realistic, and possible for you to complete on a regular basis.
And
Okay, now for those who have not made a schedule yet, here's some things for you. Use Microsoft Excel or make a graph DIY and make room for you to check off everything that you've done each day. This is a form of completion, a visual pat on the back, and also just help you keep track in an organized manner. Here's what mine looks like: (now keep in mind, your study schedule simply needs to be personalized towards your goals, abilities, schedule, and experience.) Now, I usually don't get everything done (disclaimer: I have been very busy with school starting and moving my big sister off to collage and getting my first job :P), but I do try to get as much done as I can each day, and that's all I ask from myself. If I do everything, in full, it would probably end up being over two or tree hours of a mix of hard and light studying.
Notice the top task: "Memorize 6 verses". At the beginning of the season, it was 3 verses, but because I got behind, it has now doubled and I have to pick up my own slack before I get even more behind. Do I beat myself up about getting behind, and get all depressed and discouraged because I didn't keep up with my schedule? Absolutely not! I know I might not have worked as hard as I should have, but hey, that's okay! I'll try harder, and I'll do better in the future! Don't let your past failures define you: they're in the past, they don't mean anything. ] I've realized here in the past couple of weeks, that there are three different things scattered on my schedule:
Studying:
Practicing:
Memorizing:
Try to split up all your selected tasks into these categories to help you plan out your day better. Alrighty, well that's all I have for you today, but stay tuned for the third and final post of this series coming up soon! Thanks for reading! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory |
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