how to study for a test (with no textbooks)

[Anonymous]

My older child started middle school this year in MCPS. She has no textbooks in any class. When I was in school (admittedly not in U.S.), we had textbooks so when we had a test, we would know to study chapters 1-4, for example. I would re-read the chapters, make flashcards if there was an vocabulary, and generally just cover the page with my hand and "test" myself on my recollection of the material. I am struggling with how to explain to DD how best to study since she does not have textbooks. She did not have any tests in elementary school so studying generally is new to her. Math is easy as it is very discrete. But how best to study english, world studies. When I ask DD what the test covers, she shows me a few worksheets that she filled out in class. I really am at a loss other than to tell her to look over the worksheets. How does your middle school aged child study for tests?

[Anonymous]

Good question. We're almost there and I'm interested in hearing answers.

[Anonymous]

My kids' teachers usually give them a study guide with all the info on it, or a practice worksheet where they have to fill in the information and once it's done it becomes the study guide.

[Anonymous]

Study guides from the teacher. Often they are posted on Edline.

I find it so surprising that people are hung up on text books. Our kids have these mega binders that are compiled throughout the school year. There are internet resources. There are the study guides that are posted. The teachers send home study packets.

Most of us have adjusted in our work lives to the fact that we type everything instead of writing longhand and having a secretary type it. We've gone from typewriters to computers. We've gone from mail to fax to scanning documents. We used to write checks and now we go onto our bank websites and type in a dollar amount to send to our creditor. But we can't adjust to the move away from textbooks?!

[Anonymous]

Study guides or your child may have an interactive notebook or binder section.

I teach MS English and we have a Notes section in our binders with a table of contents which we up date every time we add a page to the notes section.

When it is time for tests and quizzes, I will tell them to study pages 19 and 20.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for the replies. My DD has only ever brought home a study guide for science tests. It is better than nothing but I still question those - often they refer DD to videos on the subjects being tested. Or to look over her notes on labs she has executed (what if she did it wrong, or came to the wrong conclusion?). In world studies, english and digital literacy, she never has a study guide. I tried earlier in the year to have her google the general topics, but it was an inefficient use of her time - what she found online was so much broader and deeper than the specific piece of the topic she learned in class. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Study guides from the teacher. Often they are posted on Edline.

I find it so surprising that people are hung up on text books. Our kids have these mega binders that are compiled throughout the school year. There are internet resources. There are the study guides that are posted. The teachers send home study packets.

Most of us have adjusted in our work lives to the fact that we type everything instead of writing longhand and having a secretary type it. We've gone from typewriters to computers. We've gone from mail to fax to scanning documents. We used to write checks and now we go onto our bank websites and type in a dollar amount to send to our creditor. But we can't adjust to the move away from textbooks?!

Instead of textbooks all our kids get are worksheets and blank notebooks to fill in. They just aren't as interesting and on top of that the kids aren't taught how to take notes properly. They are just given worksheets to cut up, paste in a notebook, and fill out. Why not just get a workbook instead? Or teach a kid how to take notes properly? Also, they are starting this too young in about 3rd grade when kids are not ready to take notes like a college level student.

[Anonymous]

And we wonder why kids have no academic honesty when so many of those worksheets are copied without permission. The adults have no regard or respect for intellectual property.

[Anonymous]

My 5th grader has carried his huge binder of worksheets around since September. He insists that he needs them all in one place. Fine, but they are going to disintegrate in the next strong wind!

He's a well organized kid who has figured out how to study, but these worksheets are not a long term solution. I shudder to think how his younger sister is going to manage all of this paper...there is going to be a trail of it running up and down the street on her path to school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Study guides from the teacher. Often they are posted on Edline.

I find it so surprising that people are hung up on text books. Our kids have these mega binders that are compiled throughout the school year. There are internet resources. There are the study guides that are posted. The teachers send home study packets.

Most of us have adjusted in our work lives to the fact that we type everything instead of writing longhand and having a secretary type it. We've gone from typewriters to computers. We've gone from mail to fax to scanning documents. We used to write checks and now we go onto our bank websites and type in a dollar amount to send to our creditor. But we can't adjust to the move away from textbooks?!

NP here. I still have have some of my full color, beautifully edited and photographed, appealing textbooks. I could read ahead, review past lessons and be fully immersed in the subject.

There is NOTHING COMPARABLE between my textbooks and the poorly photocopied, sparsely researched, black-and-white notes that my middle schooler receives. The internet resources are sometimes hastily thrown together by non-professionals.

So I buy books for him. He has a history of math, various history books, latin introductions, literature, books for physics, biology and chemistry. I can't follow the curriculum, of course, but I select books for their agreeable presentation and their informational quality. He loves them all. He doesn't love the school material.

[Anonymous]

No online textbooks, either?

[Anonymous]

I've noticed the same thing. The kids have no books now, not even online. Makes it difficult to help them with math homework, or study any subjects or work on their own or work ahead. They can google and read from other sources online, but it gets tricky trying to figure out what's being covered on a test.

I used to read my textbooks and work ahead--small solace available to a gifted kid back then. Some textbooks would have supplemental sections that went more in depth.

Learning be bad now.

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler admits the most organized class and the one she is learning the most from is the class that is following a text book.

The fact is most teachers simply are not as great at creating and providing their own resources as they believe they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My middle schooler admits the most organized class and the one she is learning the most from is the class that is following a text book.

The fact is most teachers simply are not as great at creating and providing their own resources as they believe they are.

[phone] They all want autonomy but then don't have the time to create more than one or two of their own resources each semester.

[Anonymous]

Your child should have materials to work from.

My son did have reading assignments from on-line text books (which I always bought from amazon since on-line isn't effective). My hunch is there is more going on than you are aware of.