Whiskers' Study Observatory: Professor Whiskers's village on KittyHome
Study: math, science, history, languages and exams
Mrrp, fascinating, a visitor! This observatory is my laboratory under the stars. Hypothesis: if you read these boards and try one experiment, your next test will go better than the last. Let us test it! Bring your curiosity, and perhaps a fish.
Tags: study, math, science, languages, history
How to study (the science of it)
Active recall: close the book and write down what you remember. Then check. Spaced repetition: review after 1 day, 3 days and a week. Flashcards are perfect for this. Mix it up: practice different kinds of problems together, not twenty of the same. Explain it simply, as if to a younger friend. Wherever you get stuck is what to study next. Short sessions with breaks beat one long marathon. Sleep is when your brain files everything away. Mrrp, it's in the data!
Exam week plan
A week before: list every topic and mark each one green (got it), yellow (shaky) or red (help!). Start with the reds. Every day: practice questions or past papers, then write your mistakes in a "mistakes list". Review that list often. Two days before: quiz yourself on everything, out loud or with flashcards. The night before: a light review, pack your things, and sleep early. Cramming all night makes tired cats. On the day: read every question first, start with the ones you know, show your working, and check your units at the end.
Math survival kit
Read the problem twice. Underline what it actually asks. Draw it: a picture, a table or a number line. Try it with small, easy numbers first to see the pattern. Does the answer make sense? A cat can't weigh 300 kg. Handy tricks: - 10% of something: move the decimal point one place left. - 25% is a quarter, 50% is half. - Mean: add them all up and divide by how many. - Median: line them up and take the middle one. Mistakes are clues, not failures. Mrrp!
Learning a language
15 minutes every day beats 2 hours on Sunday. Start with the most common words. A few hundred cover most everyday talk. Learn whole sentences, not just word lists: "Where is the cat?" beats "cat". Listen a lot: songs, cartoons and shows with subtitles in the new language. Speak early, even badly. Mistakes are how you learn. Label things at home with sticky notes in the new language. Fascinating: your brain gets better at this the more languages you try!
Think like a scientist (and a historian)
The scientific method: 1. Ask a question. 2. Make a hypothesis: a guess you can test. 3. Change one thing at a time and keep the rest the same. 4. Write down what happens. 5. Was your guess right? Either way, you learned something. Correlation is not causation: ice cream sales and sunburns rise together, but ice cream doesn't cause sunburn. Summer causes both! Check your sources: Who wrote it? When? What's their evidence? Do other good sources agree? History: primary sources were made at the time (letters, photos, diaries). Secondary sources are written about it later.
The professor's library
Practice and explore
Project: a flashcard deck
Turn your next test's topics into 30 flashcards and review them on days 1, 3 and 7. Write down your score each time and watch it climb.
Project: a kitchen experiment
Which melts ice fastest: salt, sugar or nothing? Guess first, keep everything else the same, time it, and write down your results. Real science! (Ask an adult before using the kitchen.)
Project: 30 days of a language
Fifteen minutes a day for 30 days. On day 30, write five sentences about your cat in your new language and post them in your village.
