Study Tips
The information given here is simply the opinion of one guy who did
electrical work from 1967 until 2001and has taught electrical courses
since about 1973. Please confirm all aspects of this information with
others before acting on the contents. Hopefully you will find helpful
details here which will make your career choice easier to follow.
Cheers:>) David U. Larson
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Same Time Same Place
Find a place where you can arrange all your course materials and leave them.
Then each day at a set time, for a specific amount of time, go to that place.
Sid down and begin studying. Establish a routine. Thirty minutes every day is
much better than 3 1/2 hours all at one sitting only one day each week.
Tell your Family and Friends
When you have established a place and schedule, make sure your family and
friends know. Only in this way will you be able to minimize distractions. You
need your family and friends on your side to be successful.
Improve your Vocabulary
Look up every word you do not know as you come to them in any study exercise.
Have a good dictionary handy. Make a list of the new words with definitions that
you are learning.
Repetition Repetition
This is an obvious study technique which has great power. Reading each
assignment once is great. Twice is better. Taking a test the first time produces
areas which you can see need work. So after improving your understanding of each
question on a test, retake it. Work through each code reference and each
calculation until you can do them from memory. That's a good thing.
Flash Cards Help
Children are not the only students who benefit from flash cards. You can, too.
Use 3x5 blank cards and a black felt tip pen. Write a word on one side.
Definition on the other, for example. Make flash cards for anything you want to
memorize. Then let anyone help you. Take the flash cards with you in a pocket.
Whip them out when ever you have a spare moment.
Make Audio Tapes
If you have a long commute, you may want to use audio tapes of code articles to
improve your memory. Use any inexpensive cassette recorder. Read 60 minutes
worth of code into the recorder. Put article numbers included on a sticker.
Repeat the process until you have tapes for Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Then during
your commute, plug in a tape and listen to yourself.
Let Others Help
When you encounter an aspect of your study that you do not understand, ask
someone for help. Strangely, people who can will like to help you. Equally
effective is for you to help others. Both of these activities will help. As many
people have said, you only really understand a topic when you can explain it to
others.
Make To Do Lists
Study time like most activities is best applied according to a specific plan.
Make a list of what you need to accomplish each week. Work backwards from your
goal to where you are now. Then list every task to be done. Divide the tasks by
the time available to determine how much needs to be done and when. Click HERE
to see a study guide format for a Journeyman Preparation Plan. A lesson
can be a week or a month. You say. Feel free to print this list and modify it or
change it in any way that fits your circumstances. List your work then work your
list.
Read At A Good Time
If you find yourself falling asleep when you try to read, consider trying to
read at a different time of the day or in a different place. The National
Electrical Code will put anyone to sleep. But face facts. The NEC is THE book to
get through for success.
Establish A Study Group
Two or more people getting together can really help one another. One person may
understand topic A but not topic B. Another person may understand topic B but
not A. In a study group setting, anyone can ask any question. Anyone else may be
able to answer. Easy for me to say.
Bring Questions To Class
If you are luck enough to participate in a classroom setting where an instructor
is available to answer questions, bring any question you come up with to class.
On a tablet, write out questions no one in your study group can answer. A
separate yellow table works best for this since it is really identifiable in
class.
Skip What You Know
When you encounter a topic that is easy for you, just do a few problems then
move on to what is difficult for you There is no reason to waste time on what
you know. Study what you don't know.
Visit Job Sites
Fortunately in the electrical trade, many people already know how to do the
work. You can learn from them. By looking over what others have done, you can
record images of completed installations in your memory. Then when you are
reading about a specific topic, you'll have an image to go along with just
words. A picture is worth those famous thousand words for sure.
Ask Questions
When you are working on a job, with other more experienced electricians, ask
them for help to study a topic. Ask them how they learned. Follow their
suggestions if you see a benefit. Learn from others is very difficult. But if
you develop this ability, you can go right far.
Make Mistakes
Yep. An effective study tip is to accept mistakes as normal. No one knows
everything about anything. Why try to be the exception? Therefore if you are
never going to be perfect, just work to get as close as you need to be. And if
along the way you don't do well on a test or two, no big deal. Go back over the
material until your errors are reduced. For sure, improvement is more likely
with effort. Perfection is unlikely regardless of effort. Close sometimes is
good enough. Well sometimes it just is! This is particularly true if working for
perfection will cause you never to reach perfection. Get all you can of the
trade knowledge available to you. But accept the fact that you'll never know it
all.
Use Books
A good selection of reference books should be available to you as you study. A
dictionary is the most important to have. Click HERE to see a list of references
appropriate to your experience level. Remember to Invest In Yourself. This will
pay great rewards.
Product Literature
Manufacturers of electrical tools and material produce beautiful trade
literature mostly given away freely. These days you can request videos, CD's and
booklets from many companies. And online data is increasing exponentially daily.
This information is readily available. Click HERE to see a list of links to
trade sites where you may find information which can make learning easier.
Click HERE to read about the importance
of investing in yourself.
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