Making Learning Fun,
Fast and Effective

 About Your Brain...

You going to use the rest of that brain?    Important stuff you need to know about your brain, how it is changing, what is happening in there and how to treat it right.

Do it.... Again?  How Study Partner applies exciting new research results regarding memory and learning. Even if you do not use Study Partner software, understanding how your brain creates and retains memories in the hippocampus should make your study time more effective, and should help to improve your grades and free up discretionary time.

 Learn by "Spacing Out"

The website of The Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children of the Claremont McKenna College of Claremont California has an excellent section entitled, "Applying the Science of Learning,"⁵ which discusses numerous aspects of the learning process. This resource also cites a "spacing effect," which appears to suggest that the testing effect is most effective when the tests are "...spaced out, over time." The web site section sums up its analysis of learning with the following statement.

The single most important variable in promoting long-term retention and transfer is "practice at retrieval"--learners generate responses, with minimal retrieval cues, repeatedly, over time (emphasis added). ¹

In other words, it does not really matter if you are using standard study mechanisms or software based review and self testing, the act of trying to remember the material under study appears to create the long term memories associated with recall-based study such as the "testing effect."

 Taking Tests for Better Memories

New research investigating the "testing effect," a long known educational phenomenon suggests that taking frequent tests over the material you are trying to learn is an excellent way to learn. In this context, tests are not just evaluation tools, but learning tools.

Recent research⁵ on the testing effect suggests that taking frequent short answer tests over the material under study is more likely to result in long term memories than repeatedly reviewing the material in the absence of self testing. In addition, that research suggests that for best results, students should prepare for tests more than one week in the future with short answer mock tests and prepare for imminent tests with repeated review.

Study Partner's Self Test Mode and Review Self Test Mode allow users to regularly and repeatedly generate and take formal and informal tests over the material under study.

 Excruciating Detail

One of these recent studies explored the testing effect with free-recall tests over a short block of prose. In phase one, a group of students called the read-test-test-test group, "...studied a prose passage for about five minutes and then took either one or three immediate free-recall tests, receiving no feedback on the accuracy of answers."

The second group, the study-study-study-study group, "...received no tests in this phase, but was allowed another five minutes to restudy the passage each time their counterparts were involved in a testing session."

In phase two, "...each student was asked to take a final retention test presented at one of three intervals - five minutes, two days or one week later." When the final test was presented quickly, "...five minutes after the last study or testing session, the study-study-study-study (SSSS) group initially scored better, recalling 81 percent of the passage as opposed to 75 percent for the repeated-test group."

In contrast, when the final was presented one week later, "...the study-test-test-test group scored dramatically better, remembering 61 percent of the passage as compared with only 40 percent by the study-only group." Surprisingly, The study-only group had read the passage about 14 times, but still recalled less than the repeated testing group, which had read the passage only 3.4 times in its one-and-only study session."³

This data suggests students should

1. prepare by taking tests for tests occurring one week or more in the future and

2. prepare with repeated review for imminent tests (less than one week in the future).

Other studies of the testing effect found that recall and short answer tests were most effective in establishing long term memories.

... recall tests produce a greater testing effect than do recognition tests (emphasis added).⁴

... the short-answer conditions provided a greater benefit than did multiple-choice testing (emphasis added).¹

While Study Partner includes both a Review Mode and a Self Test Mode that facilitate automated review and self testing, these studies suggest that due to the testing effect, students should use Study Partner's Self Test Mode to create long term memories and use Study Partner's Review Mode to refresh short term memories.

 Three Learning Principles

Modern research has identified new approaches to long term memory and learning. Applying these principles, Study Partner helps you work hard and smart and enhances learning through numerous mechanisms by providing software functions encouraging

1. "practice at retrieval,"¹ the repeated, intentional recall of information under study from memory based upon small cues, and

2. "re-representation,"² the conversion of learned materials into different contexts, both of which have been shown to create long term memory and the ability to apply the learned information across contexts, and applying

3. "less is more,"¹ the practice of distilling large bodies of information into small chunks and preventing "cognitive overload" by removing unneeded information.

Study Partner creates an automated environment that helps students apply these modern learning concepts to enhance the creation of long term memories.

 Remember, Practice Remembering!

A primary goal of Study Partner is helping you LEARN THE MATERIAL. No other approach is as effective in making your college experience productive and useful as learning the material you are studying.

To achieve this goal, Study Partner encourages you to apply practice at retrieval at every opportunity. No other learning technique is as effective in inducing synapse formation and creating long term memories.

To remember, practice remembering!

 Re-Representation

The design of Study Partner relies upon helping students learn by providing numerous mechanisms through which to repeatedly review and "re-represent"⁴ the course content in different contexts over a long time. The Information Bank, the Do it NOW! Database, Review Mode and Self Test Mode all provide opportunities for re-representation of course material and practice at recall.

Rather than simply providing students with materials for review, Study Partner leverages the student's hard work in study by capturing a portion of that work to create the Do it NOW! Database, a new learning resource allowing focused review and self testing.

 Getting More From Less Is More

In college, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information pouring out of your professors faces and into your notebooks. Not to mention the reading assignments filled with seemingly endless details about seemingly endless details. If you allow all the information to intimidate you, it will become even harder to learn it.

Less is more learning focuses upon breaking huge masses of information into smaller, more digestible pieces, and identifying and eliminating excess extraneous material. The Do it NOW! Database helps you identify key concepts in your course material and organize them with their associated facts. In addition to breaking a large amount of information into smaller pieces, entering key concepts into the Do it NOW! Database helps you to identify which pieces of information are more important.

 Getting Started

Start Early: how starting early with Study Partner can help you earn top grades and avoid common pitfalls.

Be Prepared: how to prepare for college - and for class.

Study Partner can help you earn top grades, learn the material and avoid significant pain and suffering by teaching you how to play college like a video game!

 Controls

G.P.A. Quest 4.0 - Dominate Level One and Win!

 Ready, Set - GO!

During the first days and weeks of college it is easy to make painful and damaging mistakes when errors can negatively and permanently effect the grade point average and the student's level of understanding of critical founding concepts. If you leave first year algebra not understanding the course material it will be even more difficult to understand the material presented in subsequent classes.

While keeping an excellent GPA is important, especially if you wish to matriculate into a medical school or transfer to a better college, it is essential that you build a strong foundation for future classes by understanding the basics such of math, English and science. If you fail to build a strong understanding of these subjects, subsequent classes will be even more difficult.

 Facts of Life - College Style

About 67% of jobs require post secondary education or a college degree and pay 70-80% more than jobs for high school grads.¹

Every year about four million students enter college² hoping to earn a college degree. While about 48% of high school graduates enroll in college within 18 months after graduation, only about 23% of high school graduates earn a college degree within five years of completing high school.¹

A college degree is not worth the paper it is printed on if the graduate has not learned the course material because success in life after college is often critically dependent upon applying college knowledge. Only a tiny fraction of college graduates will learn more than 90% of the material under study as indicated by a grade point average of 4.0 (assuming they did not cheat).

The Study Partner Academic Software Environment leverages your study time and provides help, content and a learning directed infrastructure to help you prepare for college, learn the material and earn top grades.

 Strong Learning = Strong Grades

Earning average grades mean that you only learn about 70% of the material under study - at best. If you fail to correctly answer a question on a test, chances are that you did not learn that piece of information. Since many college disciplines employ linear learning (each new course builds upon the last) failing to understand just one piece of information can lead to a failure to understand the concepts built upon that piece of information.

Would you be happy receiving only
70% of a video game purchase?

Furthermore, many students do not realize that cramming and other short term study techniques cheat the student by allowing them to earn acceptable grades without learning the material under study.

If you are cramming to get average grades, you may be receiving significantly less than 70% of the material you have paid to learn.

 The 90% Solution

If you succeed by learning 90% or more of the course content you are paying to be taught, you will earn excellent grades naturally because when you know the material even the toughest test is a breeze.

In addition, when you learn 90% or more of the material under study, future concepts built upon the information you learned are easier to understand. Sure, you may end up having trouble with new material built upon the ten percent you missed, but that is much easier than trying to understand Algebra I when you relentlessly crammed to get a soft C in Pre-Algebra and only understand about 50% of the founding principles upon which algebra is built.

Study Partner can help you plan your course of study, improve your learning and decrease the amount of time you spend at your studies (for extra sleep perhaps).

 College is Fun!

College offers escape, new experiences, new friends, new challenges and time with peers in an exciting and vibrant new environment. Most graduates - and even those who fail to graduate - have fond memories of college.

College also offers numerous distractions, demanding schedules, complex coursework, high stress and nasty pitfalls.

While most students manage to survive college and the vast majority of college students pull through with average grades , some students excel, and others fail.

Who wants
to be average?

Many students believe you cannot make good grades in college and have fun at the same time.

When you are
making good grades,
you have
more time for fun
and taking time
for fun
is more likely
to be fun.

College is much MORE fun when your GPA is the envy of every gunner in the dorm and you do not have to spend as much time studying as the "standards" who are only pulling down average grades. You might even "win" cash prizes - like scholarships.

 Who Needs "All Nighters"

All night cramming sessions have become an expected part of college life.

However, both cramming and sleep deprivation defeat the learning process, and make it more difficult for you to learn the material you are studying! Even though the brains of average college students are overflowing with excess neurons, if you deprive those neurons of the sleep and spaced "practice at retrieval" shown to create long term memories, reliance upon all night cramming sessions only compounds academic problems, concomitantly creating the appearance of learning and the need to relearn the material the next time it is encountered.

Cramming in college may create the need to cram for the rest of your life. Wouldn't you rather learn what you are paying to be taught?

 Ethics, Honesty and Personal Integrity

College provides unparalleled opportunities for success, learning, fun, exciting experiences, unforgettable memories and lasting friendships. College is the first time most people make their own decisions about morality - decisions which often set the tone for their entire lives.

The degree(s) you earn in college (if any), will be meaningless piece(s) of paper if you:

1. fail to learn about ethics,
2. act unethically in college or afterward,
3. fail to learn to accomplish your goals honestly and
4. lose, surrender or sell your personal integrity.

If you cheat in college, you may have to cheat in the "real world" just to keep up with those who worked hard to learn the material. If you choose to be dishonest or unethical in college, you may find it easier to be dishonest or unethical in "real life" as well.

Anyone can "win" through the use of unethical means. However, "victory" achieved through immoral means is no victory at all. Even the sweetest prize in life can be soured by dishonesty - even if you are never caught. While others may think of you as a fantastic person, if you cheat you will always know deep inside that you did not win the prize fairly and instead, cheated someone else out of it

 Introduction

If you think that college will be unpleasant and difficult, it probably will be. If you look at college by comparing it to things you have already mastered, it will be less threatening and easier to understand.

Those who have mastered even one video game have already demonstrated skills that will be very useful in college!

While college will not be as easy as a video game, if you take college seriously and apply the same kind of energy, excitement and persistence you might expend beating a challenging video game, your gaming experience may help make your college experience much more rewarding and successful.

College is a challenging, difficult, exacting and expensive - it can even be fatal. Most students look forward to going to college with a mixture of trepidation and elation. Although the environment may seem threatening, unfamiliar and challenging, many prospective students will endure almost anything to escape their parents - even return to school! In this respect, the college environment is not that different from the schools that students have been attending for 13 years, except that dorm life is kind of like a massive sleepover, and the 'rents may be hundreds of miles away.

While video game players can simply clear their memory cards and try again, college students cannot erase their transcripts and start over.

Can you prove that the countless hours you spent playing drive 'n crash, hack 'n slash and first person shooters in your room will give you an edge in college?

The Study Partner Extended Help file^* describes how to play college like a video game. Please refer to that file for more information on this subject.

^* Available only with licensed versions of Study Partner or original demo such as 1.9483 and below.

 Game Modes

Gunner: test yourself against the other most talented players in the college. Work to achieve top grades and academic honors. Gunners often capture more than 90% of the available game tokens (called points) to distinguishing themselves at the edges of the spectrum and far outside the standard deviation for their class. Most gunners are able to beat game bosses (called tests, papers, midterms and finals) to move on to the next level (sophomore, junior, senior and beyond). Although gunners may have to endure the derision of players using other game modes, usually only gunners are able to gain access to the highest levels of the game such as graduate or medical school.

Standard: nestle into the comfortable confines of averageness - safely within the standard deviation for your class. In standard mode, players in standard mode usually only learn (at best) about 70 odd percent of the material they have paid to learn. Those who employ cramming and cheating often learn significantly less, and thus are unable to accrue as many of the "points" so valuable in gameplay. Players in standard mode often beat bosses and levels, although sometimes with difficulty. While it is possible for "standards" to play at any level of the game; however, most players using standard mode switch to gunner mode before entering higher levels of game play.

Crasher: blow off assignments, classes, project teammates, tests and large amounts of money as excess sleep, chronic procrastination, uncontrolled partying or all of the above lead to extremely low grades. Lose out on end of semester parties as you struggle against the very foundation of mathematics and statistics to earn a passing grade after losing far too many points early in the game. Crashers often experience great difficulty with bosses and levels. Distinguish yourself by being near the edge of the spectrum and far outside the standard deviation for the class. Unless using cheats (such as family connections, crib notes etc.) Crashers often are forced to change to one of the other modes of play before moving on to level two.

 Biology

The Biology Project (problem sets and tutorials): The site map of The Biology Project of the University Of Arizona includes links to major areas in biochemistry, cell biology and immunology and includes detailed problem sets with thorough tutorials.

Cells Alive!: Cells Alive is an award winning, animation dense educational biology resource under development since 1994 by biology filmmaker and animator Jim Sullivan.

Kimball's Biology Pages: Leave your bio text in the student center after that wild weekend seminar on applied quantum biophysics? Maybe you just need a reference for the paper you are writing on epigenetics. No worries - simply follow the link above to Kimball's Biology Pages, an online textbook of biology (not quite game like but handy just the same).

The Online Biology Book: The Online Biology Book by Estrella Mountain Community College's Mike Farabee PhD. The Online Biology Book is a heavily illustrated online biology text - each topic contains links to detailed resources such as animated gifs.

 Chemistry

Chemtutor: Although Chemtutor is "only half finished" (as of August 2008), it provides a great deal of useful information for chemistry students.

General Chemistry Online: The Frostburg State University's Department of Chemistry Fred Senese maintains a fantastic website on general chemistry with numerous useful tutorials, simulations and exam guides.

The HyperPhysics Chemistry Website: Georgia State University does it again with the HyperPhysics Chemistry Website - most everything you need in one place! Concise, detailed information about chemistry capable of helping you understand chemistry topics.

Chemicool Periodic Table: Where would students (or anyone else) be without a periodic table. The Chemicool Periodic Table is an online interactive periodic table providing more information than most students will ever need!

 General

Intute: A fantastic general academic website from the UK . Careful with the spellings!

 Learning

Study Guides & Strategies  "An educational public service helping learners to succeed." Offers a large number of detailed study guides including "Think like a genius." From www.studygs.com.

Dartmouth College Learning Strategies    Useful information about time management, where to study, managing stress and academic deadlines. Sorry, unless you are a student at Dartmouth you will not be able to take the Study Strategies evaluation.

What is your learning style?  Answer a series of questions then click the "Submit" button to determine your learning style. From the University of South Dakota.

A learning style questionnaire suggesting effective learning techniques   Answer thirty two questions then click the "Submit your answers" button to determine your learning style. From www.metamath.com.

How to Study  A "Study Skills Resource Site" offering a collection of detailed study techniques. From www.how-to-study.com.

 Math

College Algebra: West Texas A and M University's College Algebra page contains more than 50 detailed tutorials on subjects from Adding and Subtracting Rational Functions to Zeros of Polynomial Functions II. Each tutorial includes objectives and answered practice problems.

The Calculus Page: Sponsored by the University of California, Davis, the Morgan Foundation and the William College Department of Mathematics, the Calculus Page contains problems with step-by-step solutions, book excerpts, sample quizzes, sample exams with solutions, worksheets with solutions and much more.

HyperMath: Georgia State University? Again? The HyperMath Website - another excellent resource for the college student!

 Physics

If "a picture says a thousand words," animations must say millions! Check out these sites providing countless flash animations for numerous aspects of physics from the University of Toronto, the University of New South Wales (Australia) and Paul Falstad.

HyperPhysics: The HyperPhysics Website is the foundation of all Georgia State University's "Hyper" websites, and is an excellent tool for understanding some of the most challenging concepts in physics. You can even use it to check your homework!

Physics Demonstrations from California Polytechnic: Do you need a demonstration to enrich your physics presentation? Check out this extensive website, replete with thorough, elegant and instructive physics demonstrations.

 Science

If "a picture says a thousand words," animations must say millions - perhaps billions! Check out these sites providing flash animations for numerous aspects of science from the Biology Department at North Harris College and Edumedia Sciences.

 Search Engines

Google Scholar: If you science project requires heavy academic research and you need to find extremely detailed science publications, Google Scholar is a great place to start!

 Writing

UNSW: The Learning Centre: The University of New South Wales offers an excellent series of articles focusing upon writing - just do not get tripped up by the spelling!

Writing in College: a short Guide to College Writing: A detailed resource about college writing from the University of Chicago.

 General Information

Study Partner is a general purpose study tool you can download here as "shareware." Study Partner helps you learn the material by applying modern learning research and providing interactive study guides.

College Study Partner (this website) is an online resource for college students providing game like online learning resources (see above), important information about learning, Study Partner software and study guides and links to websites and other resources useful to college students. We hope the College Study Partner website will be a valuable tool and resource for college students, especially when used in conjunction with Study Partner software and study guides.

Both provide useful information, opportunities for interaction, products, and tools useful to students. We hope you find most everything at College Study Partner useful.

It is the goal of the College Study Partner website and Study Partner Software and study guides to apply modern brain research to help you learn the material and earn top grades.

 Using Study Partner

Study Partner is a general purpose study tool you can download here as "shareware." Study Partner helps you learn the material by applying modern learning research and providing interactive study guides.

College Study Partner (this website) is an online resource for college students providing important information about learning, Study Partner software and study guides and links to websites and other resources useful to college students. We hope the College Study Partner website will be a valuable tool and resource for college students, especially when used in conjunction with Study Partner software and study guides.

Both provide useful information, opportunities for interaction, products, and tools useful to students. We hope you find most everything at College Study Partner useful.

It is the goal of the College Study Partner website and Study Partner Software and study guides to apply modern brain research to help you learn the material and earn top grades.

 SOFTWARE

 Super Student Shareware

Peter's Ultimate Alarm Clock:Peter's Ultimate Alarm Clock is a fantastic tool for the college student and is one of the very few alarm clock programs that allow scheduling events occurring twice weekly.

tinySpell and tinySpell +: Spelling can challenge even the best student because even stellar spellers can easily make typos. Let the "on-the-fly" spell checking capabilities of tinySpell and tinySpell+ help ensure that your spelling is always excellent.

 Online

Google Notebook: This handy free add on to your browser helps you keep track of online research.

 Chat

     Study Partner Chat

 Can you make Study Partner better?

Please let us know!

We want to make this site and our software thoroughly useful resources for college students. However, we here at Study Partner are mostly a bunch of old worn out gunners with more desire to help modern college students avoid the pitfalls we faced in college than understanding of modern college students. Therefore, our C++, html and especially college student likes and dislikes skills are WAY out of date.

If you think you can make Study Partner better we want to know about your ideas. If we implement your ideas and can verify a demonstrable improvement in the software, website or website traffic, we will try to find a way of rewarding you.

So send us a message and tell us what you think. We very much want to know!

Thank you for visiting our site and thank you for your time and consideration.

College Study Partner wants to help you maximize your college fun and success by helping you learn the material and earn top grades.

Study Partner is an Academic Software Environment designed to help user take advantage of recent research into human memory and learning that provides readily accessible software capabilities such as a specialized word processor, database, detailed help and separately available content files, to create an integrated learning tool for college students.

College Study Partner is an online resource for college students providing information, opportunities for interaction and products useful to students including, software, study guides and hardware.

It is the goal of the College Study Partner website and Study Partner Software and study guides to apply modern brain research and help you learn the material and earn top grades.

We hope the College Study Partner website will be a valuable tool and resource for college students, especially when used in conjunction with Study Partner software and study guides.

Thank you for visiting College Study Partner! We hope that this web site and Study Partner software and study guides will be of use to you and we hope that we can help you earn top grades and avoid pain and suffering by providing useful resources and helping you understand that college is like a video game, and you already know how to play!