Lesson 10: Turn a School Bus into Gold

Gary North

YESTERDAY'S ASSIGNMENT

You should now know how much TV you can afford to watch this week. You should also know how much TV you simply can't do without over the next month. You have identified what really isn't worth watching.

Two lessons ago, I recommended that you recruit a study partner for each course, preferably someone a little better in each course than you are. Have you made a list of possible partners in all of your courses? Have you handed the JOINT STUDY STRATEGY recruiting sheet to at least three people?

There may be somebody out there who has fond memories of hours spent riding on a school bus. I offer this suggestion merely as a theoretical possibility, along the lines of flipping a coin "heads" 50 times in a row.

Maybe you walk to school. You can still use the information in this lesson.

Maybe you drive to school. If so, you can skip this chapter. Go back to your scheduler. Work on that instead.

In this lesson, I'm going to show you some simple techniques to convert wasted time into higher grades.

THE CRUCIAL TOOLS

I have told you how important a scheduler is. Now let me tell you about another learning tool. It's cheap. It's sold everywhere they sell business supplies or school supplies. It's the 3 by 5 note card.

This tool is great for many uses, such as taking notes on a library book. (I recommend 5x8 cards for that purpose, however.) It can be used to compile a bibliography for a term paper. It is great for flash cards.

I recommend them mainly for flash cards. They are especially useful if you're taking a foreign language. Write your assigned vocabulary words for the next three weeks, one word per 3x5 card. Always keep three weeks ahead of your class. Review all of them every day on the bus.

Write the English definitions (there will be more than one) on one side of a card and the foreign word on the other. If you do it this way, do it so that you flip the card over, top to bottom. The words are upside down if you flip them right to left. It's your choice as to how you prefer to flip them.

You can also use 3x5 cards for formulas of all kinds: mathematics, chemistry, physics. One education company has cards for several courses, including algebra.

There are even better tools for learning foreign languages: printed vocabulary cards. This company sells sets of 1,000 cards/words for about $15.

Create your own cards for dates, names, definitions, formulas. Use them for English vocabulary practice. If you are studying for the SAT or ACT college entrance exams, you must build your vocabulary. Buy a copy of the book by Murray Bromberg and Melvin Gordon: 1100 Words You Need to Know (Barron's). If it's at the library, you may choose to borrow it.

You will then have to find time to write down all 1100 words and definitions before it's due back. It's probably easier to buy it. Copy each word onto a 3x5 card, with the definitions, including the ways the word is used, on the back (the lined side).

Take 20 English vocabulary cards to school each day. Five cards should contain new words. This will add 20 words a week to your vocabulary. Keep reviewing old cards. Rotate old cards in and out of your stack of cards. The best way to do this is to shuffle them. Then deal the top 15 cards to yourself. Then add five new, unfamiliar words. In two years on the bus, you will memorize all 1100 words.

This will not only help you pass the SAT or ACT with higher scores in the verbal section. It will make your reading time more efficient. Your papers will improve as these words become part of your working vocabulary.

I assume that you have read my manual on Affordable Accredited Colleges. If you have, then you know my view on the SAT: Don't bother with it.

The SAT is a screening tool for college admissions committees to screen applicants who are in high school. If an applicant has already completed college-level courses, the committee pays little attention to the applicant's SAT score.

If the student is applying with a transcript of courses taken at a community college, the committee will look at the student's college grades. These grades provide far more reliable information about whether the student will perform well than an SAT score does.

You can get specific ideas about about how you can best structure your college entrance strategy by participating in the Q&A forum on this site, College Strategies. Every site member can participate, but only college-bound students usually ask questions. I invite you to join.

Bus time is noisy. There is a lot of stopping and starting. Bus rides are not conducive to reading new material, tightly knit arguments, or doing math. Bus time is ideal for memorizing lists of things, or words, or anything else that doesn't involve long chains of reasoning.

Bus time is great for review. If the material is familiar to you, the noise probably won't matter.

If you can sit next to your study partner, the two of you can ask each other questions off of the cards.

What if you can't find anyone to sit next to who wants to help? What if the noise gets to you? Here is a solution: ear plugs. Carry a pair with you at all times. Put them in a baggy. This is easier for girls, who carry purses. Still, guys these days wear baggy pants with lots of pockets: useful space.

Chatting with someone on the bus is a waste of time unless it's a study partner. The odds against your meeting "that special person" on a school bus are very high.

Nobody really cares if you sit there flipping 3x5 cards. If you stick earplugs in your ears, so what? Someone may tease you the first day or two, but if you don't respond, the wise-guy will get bored. If he knows you can't hear him because of your ear plugs, what's the point of saying anything to you? Think of your earplugs as dork-busters.

There is another use for bus time if you own an iPod or other portable music system. The night before, you can record a foreign language news broadcast from the radio or the Web. Listen to it on the bus. If you are in your second or third year of a foreign language, you should be listening to a 15-minute foreign language news broadcast every day. The best time to listen is when you are doing chores at home. Wash dishes, iron, wash the car, or other mindless tasks while listening to something in a foreign language. Listen again on the bus. Here's a Web site with lots of choices:

Note: You know that you have mastered a foreign language when you dream in that language. At that point, it's time to learn another language.

If you convert wasted bus time into useful study time, you can buy back at least five hours a week. That's a lot. This will free up study time for more complicated, more complex subjects.

I have estimated that you must find 15 to 20 extra hours each week to devote to study time. Count your bus time as part of this total. Anyway, count your earplug bus time.

WALKING YOUR WAY TO HIGHER GRADES

If you live too close to school to warrant a free bus ride, you can still use flash cards for memorizing things. You don't have to pay close attention to the sidewalk as you walk along. Pay attention when you cross a street.

I don't recommend earplugs for walking. Cars are a threat. Your senses are still operating even when you've got your mind on other things. Your ears serve as warning signals.

Note: this advice also applies to joggers who use iPods, Walkmans, or similar products. I don't think it's wise. If you jog on a school track or in a park, then a Walkman is all right. You probably prefer lively music to keep you jogging.

REVIEW

Your time is too valuable to waste.

Riding a school bus is high on anyone's list of wasted time.

Use 3x5 cards to convert wasted time into useful time.

If you can find a study partner on the bus who will sit next to you every day, do so.

Use earplugs if you can't stand the noise.

ASSIGNMENT

Go to the store and buy two or three sealed stacks of 3x5 note cards. You may or may not prefer the cards that have lines on one side. Today, you must convert at least 20 cards into rote memory tools by writing something on them.

If you are taking the second or third year of a foreign language, order a box of vocabulary flash cards. The only excuse for not doing this is because you're out of money. Do what you can to earn some money. If you can get good enough at the language to pass an AP or CLEP exam, you can save a year of one course's tuition money and time in college. If you have vocabulary 1,000 words in your head, you can probably pass an AP or CLEP exam.

PREVIEW OF TOMORROW'S LESSON: Study hall

Any time you want to ask me specific questions regarding your plans for college, you can find out where to contact me by clicking this link: Answers.