What study techniques do you use?

[Rhuiden]

I am thinking about changing the way I am studying and I was curious how other people study. I have not been using any sort of organized study plan. I was previously just doing the excercises in each chapter of Wheelock. I also have the Workbook (3rd edition) but was not using it yet.

I am considering the following method:
1. Read the chapter
2. Do all the excercises at the end of the chapter
3. Do the excercises in the workbook for the chapter
4. Reread the chapter and spend extra time on areas that I do not completely understand.

I am thinking that my understanding of the material and the memorization of the vocabulary will come much easier with a organized plan.

What plan, if any, does everybody here use?

Rhuiden

[classicalclarinet]

I would suggest using the back-of-the-book exercises as a quiz for the chapter, doing it w/o any help, and checking it against the answer key: it makes you study the chapter more throughly.

[johnsmith]

Vale!

I tried a lot of different study techniques until I settled on this one:

1. Read the chapter, take notes on new forms or grammer

2. Write out the vocabulary (This helped a TON, I almost always had trouble with the vocabulary for chapters where I didnt do this quick step)
Another winning Vocabulary tool is Laura Gibbs' wonderful Quia page (http://www.quia.com/pages/wheelock.html) It has matching excercises for each of the chapter's vocabulary words... youll master them in no time with it! Watch out though, as you get into the 30's, words begin to be omitted!

3. Hit up the beloved Dr. Dale Grote's website for his notes to each chapter. ( http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Wheelock-Latin/ ). Grote is a CHAMPION to those of us learning latin, his notes are reassuring and always helpful.

4. Do the Optional Self-Tutorial Excercises in the back of Wheelock. Of all the questions in the book, these are the most straightforward and easiest to do after reading the chapter.

5. After the OSTE's, instead of checking them with the provided answers, surf back over to Grote's website and listen to the OSTE answers there instead! ( http://www.languages.uncc.edu/classics/ ... m#Wheelock ) He goes over each OSTE as if he were in a classroom, and to hear the Latin, and also hear the extra tidbits he throws in, are INVALUABLE!

6. After all this, do the Practice & Review, and then the Sententiae. Use bess's wonderful Wheelock Answer Key for this, which is posted up at the top of the Wheelock help page.

If youre still hungry for more after this, do the readings, or pick up the book 38 Latin Stories, which contains a short, adapted Latin story to go along with the material you learned in each chapter. Its fun, and it lets you use your contextual abilities, unlike the individual problems and questions that you encounter throughout Wheelock.

All in all, Wheelock is good stuff. Top quality text, everything seems to be introduced at the right time (at least from my tiny experience!)

Have fun, and post up here in the forum! I joined the forum when I was learning from Wheelock, but I never had the courage to post up questions... I should have!

Have a great day!

[classicalclarinet]

oh yes, Dr. Grote's notes are a must. But I have no way to play his audios since the sound files refue to play.

[johnsmith]

Ahh, I had the same problem! However, I've unscrupulously converted them to mp3! (ha HA!) I have them all here on files if anyone wants them, they fill just over two cd's so it will take a while to download them, but youre more than welcome. My upload is about 50kbps.

Anyone who wants them should just drop me an email at kirk@ksu.edu, Ill make them available.

Vale!

[sigma957]

I just wanted to say to johnsmith-- THANK YOU!!!

I've been putting off starting on learning Latin, but the steps you laid out will make it easier for me to get going. Thank you for those great resources!

Barbara

[johnsmith]

Thanks! But the real credit goes to Dr. Grote, benissimus, and the others who have put together these resources! Feel free to email me if I can help, I'm still a beginner though so be careful =)

[Rhuiden]

Salvete!

Thanks for everyone's input. I especially like some of the things you suggest Johnsmith. I will give them a try and see how they work for me.

[Rhuiden]

Is anyone able to get Dr. Grote's audio file to play? I can't get them to play and was wondering if everyone was having this problem or if it something with my computer.

[dcmoore6]

There are some problems with the file, I think, which he mentions. I ordered the same audio file on CD from him for $10. I had it in a week. It was well worth it! He actually teaches you through the lesson, VERY slowly, but very precisely.
Denise

[sigma957]

I can't get it to stream either. I may get the cd from him as well.

Barbara

[johnsmith]

Hey all, send me an email at kirk@ksu.edu and Ill send you the files converted to mp3, they all play well!

[Jefferson Cicero]

Here's how I studied Wheelock:

1. Read the Chapter through, including the Sententiae Antiquae and the passages from Roman literature.

2. Take index cards and write each vocabulary word on the front side, and on the back, write the definition and any notes on usage. While you continue your study of the chapter, study the vocabulary card you made until you can remember ALL the definitions and usage notes for each word without having to look on the back of the card.

3. Reread the chapter and perform the following exercise: take each point made in the text of the chapter and convert it into a question. Leave space for an answer. Set this aside.

4. Now do the exercises at the end of the chapter, and go back to the questions you got wrong in the exercise and write them down. Set this aside. Study the parts of the chapter these questions pertain to.

5. Meanwhile, read and reread the Sententiae Antiquae and reading passages at the end of the chapter until you are reasonably sure you can understand them, and can do so without too much difficulty in reading.
Also, review the main chapter text as much you feel necessary.

6. Now sleep on it for a night or even two. I found that this can actually help it all sink in better than if you keep your nose to the grindstone too much.

7. After you have slept, without studying any further, pick up those questions you converted from the chapter text and answer them. If you can get them right, you've learned them beyond doubt. Write the questions you got wrong down on another paper, study the points in the chapter they pertain to, and sleep on it again. Do this also with those questions at the end of the chapter that you got wrong and wrote down. Keep doing this until you can get the last single wrong question right after sleeping on it for a night and answering it the next day without first studying before you answer the question. You will have it in your memory this way.

8. Now do the practice and review exercise for this chapter at the end of the book. Do the same with the wrong answers here that you did with the converted questions and the questions at the end of the chapter.

This sounds like a lot of work, but it's not a much as it seems, since each chapter is so short. I did some of the shorter chapters in two days using this method, others three. Some of the more difficult took about four or five days. Rarely did a chapter take a week or more unless my studies were interrupted. Being unemployed at the time didn't hurt my study schedule either.