Schol Athlete Excerpt

ESSENTIAL STUDY SKILLS FOR THE SCHOLAR ATHLETE
SCHOLATHLETE’S
SURVIVAL GUIDE
Essential
Study Skills
for the
Scholar Athlete
i

SCHOLATHLETE’S SURVIVAL GUIDE
Copyright © 2008
Tamsen Valoir, Ph.D., J.D., L.L.M.,
and
Jolanda Jones, J.D.
ISBN 978-1-60145-654-0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the authors.
Printed in the United States of America.
The information in this book is provided for educational and
informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for
professional advice.
Booklocker.com, Inc.
2008
ii

SCHOLATHLETE’S
SURVIVAL GUIDE
Essential
Study Skills
for the
Scholar Athlete
Written by
Tamsen Valoir and Jolanda Jones
Illustrated by
Peter Q. Nguyen
iii

iv

v
For scholar athletes everywhere…

vi

About the Authors
Tamsen Valoir has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Rice
University, as well as a J.D. and an L.L.M. in Intellectual
Property Law from the University of Houston Law Center.
Tamsen is a partner Houston office of Baker & McKenzie LLP
where she practices patent law in the biotechnology and medical
arts.
Dr. Valoir has often lectured on how to study and take
exams, and has provided private tutorials for many types of
standardized tests, ranging from grade school achievement tests
to the LSAT to the Texas Bar exam. She has also published a
study guide for law students called the “Law School Survival
Guide,” available at www.booklocker.com and most major
online bookstores.
Tamsen is also the wife of an at-home programmer, mother
of two boys, and lives on a farm with chickens, geese, turkeys,
peacocks, pigs, rabbits, horses and one miniature donkey, as
well as the usual assortment of pet cats and dogs. The entire
family fences either epée or saber, and Tamsen does endurance
riding for fun—25 to 50 mile cross-country horse races,
vii

although like many marathon runners, her goal is to complete,
rather than to win.
Jolanda Jones is the owner of an inner-city law firm and a
consulting firm, and a member of City Council in Houston
Texas. She is a successful civil, criminal and family litigator, a
Hall of Fame athlete, starred on the reality television show
Survivor-Palau, is a warrior activist for poor people, an honors
graduate, a basketball coach, a radio commentator, a poet, and
so much more . . .
Jolanda’s speaking experience has taken her to venues as
diverse as Mistress of Ceremonies for Miss America to prisons
to schools and corporate boardrooms. Her ability to connect
with audiences on topics of social importance is remarkable.
viii

About the Illustrator
Peter Nguyen is a graduate student in the biochemistry
department at Rice University, and hopefully by the time you
read this, will be a young scientist applying his skills to world-
saving endeavors. The illustrations presented herein are a direct
product of countless hours of doodling in grade school to
alleviate boredom. He likes to read, paint, and do extra science
experiments when he should be relaxing instead.
ix

x

Forward
TV: I would like to thank my husband Trey, who looked
after the boys when I was writing, working weekends, and off
horseback riding with the cowgirls. He also provided helpful
suggestions and valuable editorial review. He’s a wonderful
guy, a great husband, a fabulous father and he makes an
incredible hollandaise sauce!
I’d also like to thank Jolanda Jones, a brilliant scholar and
incredible athlete whose passion for justice and equality have
always inspired me. Jo doesn’t just talk the talk, she puts her
money down every time she defends a poor person against the
tyranny of the wealthy. Without Jo, this book would never have
been written—it was her fervor for helping every student athlete
succeed in school that drove this project onward.
These accolades1
would not be complete without thanking
my son Pier who proofread this book and provided excellent
1
Accolade: an expression of approval, praise.
xi

xii
suggestions to improve its readability and scope. If you read
this book and easily understood it, it’s thanks to Pier!
JJ: The ScholAthlete Survival Guide is the book I needed
back when I was in high school and college. The techniques
described here are what allowed me to eventually enjoy my
school experience, although I hated it at first because I was
overwhelmed with academics, sports, a newborn son and an
abusive husband. These techniques allowed me to win the Most
Improved Legal Writer in my third year of law school and ace
the Texas State Bar Exam, all while maintaining sufficient
training to qualify for the 1996 Olympic trials.
I’m sure that when you finish reading, you will see that
athletics and studies can exist in harmony. You can have
success in both arenas of college life.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.................................................................................1
2. Class Selection..........................................................................14
3. Scheduling ................................................................................23
4. Target Your Weaknesses ..........................................................28
5. Reading: A Fundamental Skill..................................................35
6. Taking Notes.............................................................................58
7. Group Study..............................................................................70
8. Private Study.............................................................................77
9. Outlines.....................................................................................81
10. Improving Memory..................................................................87
11. Pre-Exam Pointers ....................................................................99
12. Taking Exams .........................................................................103
13. Multiple Choice Exams...........................................................112
14. Insomnia..................................................................................119
15. Conclusions.............................................................................122
Additional Materials........................................................................125
Afterthoughts...................................................................................126
xiii

xiv

1. Introduction
So, here we are! You have spent—or are thinking of
spending—some hard earned cash for this book, and we begin
by telling you what it’s for—what we hope to achieve.
In the short term, we hope to contribute2
to the
development of scholar athletes or “ScholAthletes” by
providing the skills necessary to make better grades, stay
eligible, and ultimately graduate from college.
In the long term, we believe that acquiring these skills will
make you a more qualified job applicant and help you to move
up the career ladder. You can even teach your children these
tools so they too will have the benefit of an early start on
success. In short, you’ll learn a positive way to transition from
athlete to ScholAthlete to a lifetime of success.
2
Contribute: lend, give, bestow a quality on, provide.
1

First step… Buy this book!
As a ScholAthlete myself (says Jolanda), not just an athlete,
I believed this book had to be written for a number of reasons.
First, it was very difficult to balance school, athletics and life.
2

Second, many of my comrades were ill prepared for a college
curriculum3
, in most cases through no fault of their own.4
Third, I noticed that many had problems transitioning to life
after athletics. They weren’t equipped to compete in a non-
athletic world. It seemed to me that no one bothered to teach
athletes how to manage both academic achievement and
competing in sports.
For those who haven’t competed at a collegiate5
(and
sometimes world class) level, it’s hard to explain how
incredibly difficult it is to juggle these two independent and
equally difficult tasks.
3
Curriculum, Curricula (plural): all the courses of study offered by
an educational institution.
4
Social promotion for star athletes is unfortunately a sad fact of life.
At some point in these young people’s lives, someone realized they
were great at athletics. It became more important to keep them on the
playing field than actually teaching them. School was secondary and
passing them to the next class or next grade became the norm.
5
Collegiate: of or pertaining to a college, as in collegiate studies or a
collegiate society.
3

Most non-athletes have no real appreciation for how much
of a JOB completing the requirements for an athletic
scholarship are. They think of the media coverage, traveling,
the cool sweats, the free shoes, the toned bodies. Everything
seems glamorous.
But training and competing is just as time consuming and
emotionally draining as any job. In addition to an intense
training and game schedule, athletes have to learn over 100-
4

page playbooks, opposing teams’ offensive and defensive
schemes, study competition film and learn the proper techniques
and winning strategies. These intellectual endeavors take hours
and hours of study time, and this is in addition to 12 to 15
academic hours each semester, research papers, homework,
labs, classes and tests.
It’s a daunting task! You must maintain your athletic
prowess,6
but without losing your grades for fear of losing your
scholarship or eligibility! What’s an athlete to do?
Most of the athletes I knew didn’t get a degree. Many,
notwithstanding their degree, were functionally illiterate
because they were socially promoted based on their athletic
ability. Many were from impoverished7
backgrounds and were
the first family member to ever attend college. These athletes
were eaten up by college athletics and spit out, unprepared to
cope with the real world.
6
Prowess: superior strength, courage, or daring, especially in battle.
7
Impoverished: reduced to poverty, poverty-stricken, deprived of
natural richness or strength, limited or depleted, “an impoverished
vocabulary”, “a region impoverished by drought.”
5

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Look at me—I am from
the Third Ward, a ghetto in Houston. All but one of my uncles
went to TDC,8
the prison system in Texas, with crimes ranging
from drugs to violence. Many of the women in my family were
on welfare or addicted to drugs. One was a prostitute. My Dad
committed suicide in front of me, and my Mom raised five
children largely alone. We constantly moved from place to
place, always being evicted when the rent got too far behind.9
We might have a car one day, but the next it would break down
and we’d be walking again.
I didn’t want to keep living like that—I wanted something
better. My Mom said college would change my life for the
better, but only two members of my family ever earned a
college degree. Even if I wanted to go to college, my mother
couldn’t afford to pay for it.
My Mom couldn’t put me through college, but she said my
brain could—with a scholarship. From the first moment I
8
TDC: Texas Department of Corrections.
9
Behind: in arrears, late, in a place or condition that has been passed
or left, in or toward the rear.
6

dreamed of going to college, I knew it would be my brain that
got me there. Even when it became clear that I was good in
athletics, that “brain” notion never changed for me. I always
relied on my brain more than my athletic skills.
I decided that I was going to get that scholarship and I
would go to college. But to get into a college, you have to take
the “SAT.” I didn’t know about SAT preparation courses, but
we couldn’t have afforded it anyway. My Mom scrambled to
come up with the SAT fee and I took the test without any
preparation. If I remember correctly, I scored between 800 and
900. Not a good score, but luckily I had good grades in high
school, so my SAT scores didn’t matter that much.
I got into college.
Once in college, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. But to
get into law school you had to take the LSAT—another
standardized test! By then, I knew about preparation courses,
but I still couldn’t afford one, so again I took the test without
preparation. I don’t remember what my score was, but I do
know it was so bad they suggested that I should probably pick
7

another profession! Lucky for me I had excellent grades in
college, and my LSAT score didn’t hold me back.
I got into law school.
To practice law, you have to pass the Bar Exam—the
Granddaddy of standardized tests. As you can imagine, I was
anxious and scared because I had never done well on a
standardized test. All you had to do was look at my history to
predict my future.
There was a lot of pressure too. I had been offered a
prestigious10
clerkship11
at a prominent12
law firm in Houston.
Only the top law students got these positions, and I was going
to be earning more money than anyone in my family had ever
earned. I was also going to be the first and only Black lawyer at
the firm.
10
Prestigious: having prestige or a good reputation, respected,
esteemed.
11
Clerkship: having a job working as a clerk, lawyers may refer to
obtaining a clerkship—a position in a law firm.
12
Prominent: widely known, eminent, important, “he was a
prominent writer in economics.”
8

But first, I had to pass the Bar . . .
Talk about stress. Not only had I never done well on a
standardized test, but the weight of all future Black lawyers was
on my shoulders!
I studied for the Bar using a preparation course and the
techniques taught in the ScholAthlete Survival Guide.
9

When I got my Bar results, I was shocked! I called the
clerk of the Texas Board of Law Examiners to make sure they
gave me the right person’s results. Surely I couldn’t have done
as well as that? Same answer—I passed the bar—with flying
colors!
The ScholAthlete Survival Guide can give you the
academic freedom and confidence it did for me in law school
and on the Bar exam. Please use this book to ensure you get
what you deserve out of college—a degree. Don’t let the
athletic world take one of your very special gifts, but then fail to
prepare you for success in academics and later on in life.
Use the techniques in this book to become more efficient in
your studies. The book won’t do your work for you, but it will
give you some fundamental skills that will make you a better
student. It will cut down on your study time and give you more
free time (to the extent that any free time exists for the
ScholAthlete).
TV: Succeeding in school requires certain skills
that you learn from your parents if you’re lucky,
and if not (because your parents, like mine,
never went to college), you have to learn them
some other way.
10

I have helped many students pass the Texas Bar
Exam after one or more failed attempts by
teaching them the techniques in this book. For
most of these students, what was lacking was not
an innate13
ability, but rather their study and test
taking skills were poor.
My best student tried twice to pass the Bar and
was desperate when she came to see me. She did
everything I told her to do and passed the Baron
the third try. I’m very proud of her! I
recommend her to all who need a family lawyer,
because she’s smart, determined, and I know
she’ll never give up in the face of an initial
failure or setback.
You won’t learn much about any particular subject or class
from this little book. You will learn how to take useful notes,
how to study both individually and in a group, how to
memorize, and how to take better tests. In short, you will learn
how to improve your GPA,14
and thus stay in college, continue
playing sports, and maybe even make it to the pro’s!
13
Innate: describes an inherent or intrinsic characteristic or property
of some thing, such as a quality or capability that is possessed since
birth.
14
GPA: Grade Point Average, the sum of your grades divided by the
number of credit hours.
11

The best time to read this book is before starting college, or
within the first couple of weeks, and again sometime near the
Thanksgiving break. Why twice? Because you need this
information before you even begin the semester—that way you
can get started on the right foot. But the second time you read it
you will have more experience with school, and you will have a
deeper understanding of what we are trying to show you. It’s a
quick read so you shouldn’t have any trouble reading it twice,
and we really want you to make that commitment.15
You can
also read it again every year, or at least as long as you need the
extra help.
Please read it twice.
Another thing we ask—is that you try each of the tips in
this book at least three times. We know that each of you is
different and has different learning strengths. We also know
that for many of you the tips will feel unnatural at best and
difficult at worst. But if you try each one at least three times,
giving it your best shot at making it work for you, you’ll have a
15
Commitment: the act of binding yourself (intellectually or
emotionally) to a particular course of action.
12

better chance at incorporating16
them into your study habits.
Please try every tip three times. Then, go ahead and use what
seems to work best for you!
We know that some of our readers will be better at reading
than others, and that some may have limited vocabulary.17
To
help those students out, we’ve included a footnote with a
definition for some of the words. Read the footnotes if you
need to, and ignore them if you don’t.
Remember, have fun, be enthusiastic, share the work and
your notes with others. College is more than athletics—it’s
your skybox ticket for the next stage of life, be it the pro’s,
graduate school or a successful career. Tell yourself every day:
“I CAN do this.” “I CAN be a ScholAthlete!”
16
Incorporating: assimilating, blending, combining into a structure
or organization, whether material or mental, “she was incorporating
Jo’s ideas into her work.”
17
Vocabulary: a language user’s knowledge of words.
13

2. Class Selection
So you’ve made it to college, and for the first time you have
complete freedom in selecting your classes. The choices are
dizzying—ranging from sociology and political science to
chemistry and math to drama and art appreciation. This
freedom of choice is one of the best things about college—
imagine finally studying only the things you are interested in!
But with so many choices available, how can you choose?
We can’t offer much advice here, because each of you is
unique and the generic advice of strangers in unlikely to be of
help. What we can say is “follow your heart.” Study whatever
you feel passionate18
about! School is SO much easier when
you enjoy what you are studying.
JJ: Many athletes are put into majors they have
no interest in or will put them in a career they
have no desire to work in for the rest of their
lives. Don’t allow a coach or advisor to move
you to another major or class because they think
you can’t handle the academic load or because it
18
Passionate: having or expressing strong emotions.
14

might negatively affect your sport performance.
With the proper learning tools, you can be
successful at the classes you are interested in.
TV: Ask other students how good a Professor is.
A great teacher can make even dry material fun
to learn.
That said, there are a few basic skill sets that you should try
to acquire. We believe that every adult should pay attention to
these four areas: 1) bodily health, 2) mental and spiritual health,
3) relationship health, and 4) financial health.
Look for any classes on first aid or basic health. Your body
has got to last a lifetime, and you’ll be putting it under more
pressure to perform than the average human. Anything you can
learn to better the care and feeding of your body will help to
maintain it. Consider classes like basic sports medicine,
nutrition, or first aid. These will help you throughout your
entire life.
15

You don’t have to be a religious person to sharpen your
mental and spiritual edge, although that certainly is one way.
Meditation, yoga, or anything that stresses regular deep
breathing can help you relieve stress, sharpen your focus and
16

reenergize you. Even karate, with its emphasis19
on regular
breathing, meditation and discipline,20
can benefit your mental
and spiritual health.
You can also study religion or comparative religion in
college. Alternatively, you may prefer to train your mental and
spiritual being outside of the college environment, perhaps in a
church or other community.
You can even just set aside time to walk through a nature
preserve. The point is that you make time available for
contemplative21
thought. After all, college is a marathon, not a
sprint, and you have taken on a much heavier workload than the
average student. You don’t want to burn out before you get to
the goal line.
19
Emphasis: special importance or significance, “the red light gave
the central figure in the play increased emphasis.”
20
Discipline: training to improve strength, skills or self-control, train
by instruction and practice, especially to teach self-control, “He was a
highly disciplined piano player and practiced for five hours each
day.”
21
Contemplative: a person given to contemplation, deep thought.
17

There may not be too many classes to help you with
relationship health, but look for leadership, people management
or communication classes. Being a leader or manager requires
many of the same skills and considerations that apply to
personal relationships. You can also look for those sociology
classes that seem to deal with relationships.
TV: I didn’t learn good relationships from my
parents—except maybe how not to behave in
relationships. However, when I left home I took
care to surround myself with people that did
have healthy relationships and I emulated22
them. Judging from the success of my own 18
year marriage, I’d say I had some pretty good
mentors (Thanks Heidi and David Needleman
and Karen Lee for showing me how its done!).
The average undergraduate had a balance of $2,169 in
credit card debt in 2004, and it was much higher for graduate
students! In fact, University administrators say they lose more
students to credit card debt than to academic failure. This tells
us that most students have not learned healthy personal finance
practices from their parents.
18

We didn’t either—we had to learn the hard way. But we
hope you can learn from our experience.
No matter what you do in life, whether you become a pro
athlete, a sports announcer, coach, doctor, or lawyer, it is
critical that you learn the basics of personal finance. After
all, how can you make it if you can’t look after your own
money?
Take a course in finance, or get a good self-help book on
the subject. You’ll need this information to keep you from
graduating with a large debt—and when you start to make
money from endorsements!
22
Emulate: to strive to equal or excel, especially through imitation,
“he was an older pupil whose accomplishments and style I emulated.”
19

JJ: If you are going to be a professional athlete,
you must take business and finance classes.
There are countess stories of athletes who
earned millions of dollars and ended up broke
because they were ill-prepared to manage their
wealth. Instead of great financial planning, they
were robbed blind or spent more than they made.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a perfect example of a
great athlete who didn’t prepare to be wealthy
and filed for bankruptcy in 1987.
TV: I really liked “Smart Women Finish Rich,”
by David Bach. It was written in plain English,
was easy to understand, and taught me some
very important financial basics. The author has
also written “Smart Couples Finish Rich.”
20

Another issue to consider as you choose your courses is the
workload and time management. Most schools have a 12 hour
minimum and a 16 hour maximum workload. Since you already
have a large commitment to sport, consider dropping your
workload. You might need to stay in college a little longer, but
if you can graduate with decent grades it will have been worth
it.
JJ: If you do take a smaller course load, make
sure your scholarship will pay for a fifth year.
Be sure, as well, that the courses you select will
contribute towards earning a particular degree.
You might also want to select classes in part based on the
requirements of the class. Some classes have term papers, some
have weekly homework, some have final exams, and others
have midterms too. If you hate writing term papers, you might
not want to take a paper class, or you might want to limit it to
one paper class per semester. Similarly, you might not want to
take too many classes where the entire grade depends on one
21

final exam. These issues shouldn’t be determinative,23
but they
can certainly be considered in close cases.
JJ: Figure out what it is you’re interested in and
how you learn best, then you can choose your
classes in an educated manner. If you are able
to master this, you will choose classes that are in
your degree plan, that interest you, and that
encompass how you learn best. When this all
comes together, you put yourself in the best
position to do well in college while you move
forward towards your degree.
We’ll take a closer look at scheduling next.
23
Determinative: Serving the function of deciding or settling with
finality, having the power to determine an outcome.
22

3. Scheduling
As a college athlete, you will have an extraordinary24
workload—not only do you have class and study time, but you
have a practice and competition workload. This is equivalent to
working a job and going to school at the same time!
This means that you will need to be more disciplined than
the average student. Fortunately, as a college athlete, you also
have more discipline than the average student (you will soon
anyway)!
JJ: While in college, I realized that most of my
fellow athletes had great discipline but didn’t
realize or appreciate it. They routinely
sacrificed for their sport. For example, early
rising to practice, drilling technique for
unimaginable hours, working through pain or
putting the team ahead of themselves—the list
goes on and on. It seems crazy to me that most
of my fellow athletes couldn’t or wouldn’t apply
24
Extraordinary: beyond what is ordinary or usual.
23

those incredible and valuable skills to
endeavors25
outside sports.
An average work week is between 40 and 45 hours long,
but since you’re in effect holding two jobs, you can expect your
work week to be as much as 60-70 hours. Don’t schedule much
more than this—it isn’t sustainable.26
Start with a 7 day blank schedule. Pencil in all travel,
games, competitions, and all academic deadlines, such as
exams, term paper deadlines, and the like. Now add your
regular practice time, classes and at least 2 hours of study per
class per week. Add 1-3 hours a week for something that will
recharge your spiritual batteries—perhaps volunteer work or
church.
If there are a few hours left, you can use the extra time for
writing a paper, or you can leave it unscheduled because as
exams approach, your study time will as much as double.
25
Endeavors: things we do or undertake, enterprises, purposeful or
industrious undertakings.
26
Sustainable: being able to meet the current needs, without
compromising those needs for the future.
24

Let’s start with an example. Say you have an away game
every two weeks, and between travel and game time a whole
day is lost. Pencil the games into your schedule and design
around them. Already, 12 hours every other week is taken, and
home games take out about 6 hours on alternate weeks.
Typically, you’ll have about 12 to 16 hours (say 12) of class
room time for four or five classes. Classes have to be your first
commitment. After all, if you don’t go to classes (or games),
25

they will throw you out and you’ll never make the pro’s! And
if your are injured AND flunk out, you’ll have nothing to show
for your efforts.
You’ll also have another 15 to 20 hours (say 20) in sports
practice. Already we have 44 hours between just away games,
classes and practice. That leaves about 16 hours for study (12 +
12 + 20 + 16 = 60). Therefore, you should have an hour or two
a week in group study for each of four classes and two or three
hours for individual study.
Sixteen hours isn’t a lot—non-athlete students will have as
much as 30 hours to study! But you are probably more
disciplined than they, and can make the most of your 16 hours!
Of course, as exams approach, you will probably need to
increase your study time considerably—say double. This will
mean that when you get close to exams, you will have about 32
hours of study per week, but this should be doable a couple of
times a year. You’ll be helped because not all classes have mid-
terms, and they’ll be at different times, and because there is
usually a study week between the last class and finals, and you
can easily fit 40 hours of study into that final week.
26

Of course our schedule is only exemplary,27
and your
competition schedule may be more intense or more variable,
and your classes may require term papers, projects or trips.
Whatever your schedule is, plan ahead for it so that you know
in advance when you’ll need to be playing, and what time is left
for classes, studying and personal time. There’s no way to
manage two jobs without a good schedule—and the discipline
to follow it!
27
Exemplary: worthy of imitation, being or serving as an illustration
of a type.
27

4. Target Your Weaknesses
Many people have some discomfort level related to
academics, but that discomfort should not define your school
experience. Honestly evaluate yourself and develop a strategy
to capitalize28
on your strengths and compensate29
for your
weaknesses. Think back to all those things your teachers,
parents, and friends say or said about you. The people who
know you best will usually have a pretty accurate assessment30
of who you are.
Now consider how you can use your strengths to put you in
the best position for success. Consider as well how to
compensate for your weaknesses with increased practice or
changes in environment and behavior.
28
Capitalize: draw advantage from, “he is capitalizing on her
mistake.”
29
Compensate: Cover or make up for shortcomings, “he is
compensating for bad eyesight by sitting at the front.”
30
Assessment: to determine the importance, value or other qualities
of a person or object. See also Evaluation.
28

For example, if you hate the time pressure of exams and do
better with open books, you might prefer a class that is graded
by producing a paper. If you are very self confident, perhaps a
class that requires public speaking or an oral exam might be a
place where you can shine.
But don’t forget to also target your weaknesses for
improvement.
For example, if you don’t see or hear very well, you should
probably sit in the front of the class where you have the best
sound and view—even if that makes you uncomfortable. You
will eventually get used to it and wonder what all the fuss was
about. Sitting in the front can also help the easily distracted
student.
JJ: I used to always get in trouble for talking too
much in class. I never liked getting in trouble so
I eventually modified my behavior to make
getting into trouble less likely. One practical
thing I started doing was sitting in the front row
of all of my classes right in front of the teacher.
Why would she do that you ask?
Well, I found that sitting right in front of the
teacher cut down on my bad conduct grade
29

because I couldn’t talk as much with her so close
to me. Likewise I could always see and hear
everything she said or wrote. When you sit in
the back of the class, you can’t always hear and
with my bad luck, the things I couldn’t hear were
the things most likely to be on the exam!
Most students are afraid to ask questions because they don’t
want to look stupid in front of their peers, but thank the student
who gets over this embarrassment and asks all the questions
because without him or her, the rest of the class would be lost
too! Can you make a commitment to ask one question in every
single class starting on day one? Making that commitment will
force you to listen hard and think about the lecture, and pretty
soon you won’t be the least bit embarrassed to ask questions in
front of others.
JJ: On many occasions, classmates came up to
me after a class and whispered to me that they
were glad I was in the class because I asked the
question they were too scared to ask. Time and
time again I heard, “Jo, I never would have
passed that class if it weren’t for you!”
While you are at the front of the class, listening and
thinking about your question for the day, go ahead and take
good notes in your own words. This is another little trick that
30

can keep you paying attention and thinking in class. We’ll
show you more on how to take good notes later in the book.
JJ: I took pages and pages of notes in every
class in my own words. I learned over the years
that I can understand myself better than I can
understand anybody else, so to the extent I could
translate the teacher’s words into my words, the
better I could prepare for the test or quiz.
One important behavioral change that some of you need to
make is to actually attend all of your classes. This isn’t high
school and no one will check up on you, but you’re paying for
it, so you should attend each class and get the most for your
money.
JJ: I always made myself go to class whether I
wanted to or not. This is Murphy Jo’s Law—if
something bad can happen, it will happen to me!
I was certain that the one day I skipped class
was going be the day that the professor taught
something important for the test.
Others may need to reconsider who their associates are. If
the people around you are just doing time with no interest in
making the most of their college experience, maybe you should
hang out with different people. If you associate with students
31

who really care about their grades, and who have disciplined
study habits, it will be much easier for you to do the same.
Study without distractions, such as TV or music. It only
makes sense that if HALF of your brain is tuned to the TV, it
will take you TWICE as long to get the same learning. This is
especially true for difficult material or for the easily distracted
student. If you must have some background noise, play an
instrumental album (without words) that you know really well.
The more familiar an album is to you, the less your brain will be
focused on it.
TV: I like to wear earplugs to block random
noise.
Another thing that you can do to improve your chances of
doing well is to get to know your professor. If you know your
Professor personally, you are less likely to blow him off in class
and more likely to pay attention. Visit each Professor early on
in the semester, and ask them to explain something that you
don’t understand. Visit again after each quiz and discuss how
you could have improved your grade. Professors are people
too, and they will really appreciate your efforts and remember
you when it comes to grading time.
32

TV: I have taught many classes and its always a
thrill to be able to help the student that wants to
learn. I visited Professors when I was a student
too and some of the tips in this book were taught
to me by my Professors in these after-class visits!
If poor vocabulary has always held you back, carry a
dictionary and make a commitment to never read over a word
you do not know. Learn the meaning of that word, say it out
loud, learn how to spell it and use it in a sentence. Use it in
your writing. You can even keep a running list of new words
that you have learned.
TV: One trick I use to help myself spell words is
to say them in my head as they are actually
spelled. Thus, I sound out “benefit” as though it
was “bee-nee-fit,” and that helps me to
remember that the first two vowels are e’s even
though the second sounds like it could be an i.
Jo: Don’t neglect learning how to spell words
because even college Professor’s will deduct
points for bad spelling.
To sum it up, take a hard look at yourself to see what has
caused you to do poorly in the past. Often we want to blame
lack of achievement in school on the teacher or time spent in
sports or some other factor outside our control. But the truth is
33

we have more control over our success and failure in school
than we are usually willing to admit. The only way to do better
in school is pretend to be your own parent or coach, and make
yourself do what you know they would tell you to do.
JJ: All those rules my Mom imposed on me over
the years, I eventually learned to impose on
myself. I found that when I made behavioral
modifications, my grades went up because I put
myself in the best environment to learn. In other
words, I implemented31
self-controls that helped
me to succeed.
31
Implement: make use of, “implement a procedure.”
34

5. Reading: A Fundamental Skill
One thing that should be very clear to you by now is that
reading is the single most fundamental32
skill for succeeding
in school and in life. Not only do you need this skill for
learning the class material, you need it for exam success.
JJ: Years ago my youngest sister was living with
me during her senior year in high school. I read
one of her papers and unfortunately her writing
was not up to the 12th
grade level, so I suggested
she read anything of her choice and then write a
paper on it once every two weeks. I explained
that if you can write about what you read then
you truly understand it. That reading is not just
saying the words, but understanding them and
their context.
She didn’t buy into my theory and didn’t really
try to improve. But when she got to college, she
didn’t place into freshman English, and had to
take remedial English.
32
Fundamental: cardinal, serving as an essential component, being
or involving basic facts or principles, “the fundamental laws of the
universe.”
35

She came back later and apologized. She wasted
a semester studying remedial English because
she hadn’t tried to improve when I pointed out
what she was lacking.
As was stated previously, reading is truly fundamental for
standardized tests, all of which use the same multiple choice
format. Each series of questions begins with a long fact pattern,
followed by 1-5 questions about that fact pattern and 4 or 5
multiple choice answers for each question. Obviously, the
student who reads quickly and accurately33
will outperform
those whose reading is more labored.34
Reading—and her cousins Writing and Speaking—don’t
stop being important after school either. All white-collar jobs
require good reading, writing and speaking skills, and even a
manual laborer needs sufficient reading skills to review a
33
Accurate: Conforming exactly or almost exactly to fact or to a
standard, total correctness.
34
Labored: produced or done with effort, lacking natural ease,
strained, “the labored breathing of a dying man.”
36

mortgage35
or employment contract, set-up a retirement fund,
and help his or her children with their homework.
JJ: I see the devastation36
that illiteracy37
reaps
every day as a criminal defense lawyer. Most of
my clients are in the criminal justice system in
part because they can’t read. They can’t get
good jobs because good jobs require literacy.38
In many cases, low wage jobs won’t pay the bills
so my clients either self-medicate or turn to
illegal activities for extra money. All told, the
inability to read trapped many of them into a life
of poverty and crime.
Therefore, the Reading, Writing and Speaking trio are
critical to your success, and we have assumed that the average
student could use some improvement in that area. If so, what
can we do about our reading skills this late in the game?
35
Mortgage: put up (usually a house or land) as security or collateral
for a loan, a method by which persons can buy property without
paying the full value up-front because the buyer pledges the property
as security for the loan.
36
Devastation: an event that results in total destruction, the state of
being decayed or destroyed, “Katrina left New Orleans in a state of
devastation.”
37
Illiteracy: the inability to read or write at a competent level.
38
Literacy: the ability to read and write.
37

38

Begin by candidly39
evaluating40
your reading skills. How
would you rank your skills on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being
excellent, 5 being average for your grade, and 1 being
marginal?41
If you have no idea how to rate your skills, you
may want to ask someone you trust and that has good skills to
listen to you read and evaluate you. Or you can try an online
evaluation of reading skills.42
That way you may have a more
accurate idea of what your true level of reading
comprehension43
is. It is not enough to just be able to speak
words out loud or in your head. You must also understand what
the words are saying—the story they’re telling or the message
they are conveying.44
39
Candidly: honestly, “candidly, I don’t think she has the talent.”
40
Evaluate: to appraise, to judge the worth or quality, to assess.
41
Marginal: of extremely small merit, extremely small, “a marginal
increase in speed can really increase your scores.”
42
See http://www.test4free.com/ (up to grade 10) or
http://www.brainchild.com/gen/usmap.asp (up to grade 8).
43
Comprehension: an ability to understand the meaning or
importance of something.
44
Convey: make known, pass on information.
39

JJ: Evaluate your reading honestly. The only
way to solve a reading problem is to accept
responsibility for whatever reading level you’ve
reached. Once you identify your level, you can
then develop a plan to improve your skills.
If you figure you are below 4, don’t be embarrassed. You
are NOT alone. Instead, view it as just another skill you need to
practice, like laps to develop the perfect butterfly stroke.
Practice, practice, practice will have you reading at a higher
level, just like Michael Phelps practiced enough to win 8 gold
medals at the 2008 Olympics.
Find a program specifically designed to improve your
reading skills. There are many available, and several are
available in software format, allowing you to improve your
skills at your own pace and in privacy.
Some free material is available at the sites below, but web
links decay45
quickly, so just Google® “reading skills” or
something similar and see what you find.
45
Decay: the process of gradually becoming inferior, degrade.
40

http://www.roadtoreading.org/ Free advanced reading
course
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingto
day/tiparchive.phtml/7
Offers weekly tips, free
downloads and feature
articles
http://www.tampareads.com/ Offers the first nine
weeks of any grade level
free
http://braindance.com/bdiread1.htm Provides three ways to
improve reading skills
http://www.managementhelp.org/prsn_d
ev/reading.htm
Links relating to reading
including self
assessment tests
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/suggest.ht
ml
Suggestions for
improving reading speed
Most student athletes will be somewhere about average in
their reading skills. If you scored between four and seven, you
should take every opportunity46
to practice this critical skill!
JJ: Reading is a skill that improves with
practice. It doesn’t matter what you read—
newspaper articles, want ads, books, comics,
Harry Potter, subtitles in movies—just read!
46
Opportunity: a favorable or advantageous circumstance or
combination of circumstances, a time or occasion that is suitable for a
certain purpose.
41

When you read out loud (and even in your head) make sure
that you adjust or change your voice and speed at the
punctuation47
marks. Periods get a long pause and commas get
a shorter pause. Your voice should rise at a question mark. It
should get louder or more emphatic48
at an exclamation mark!
Reading to include the punctuation changes in voice and speed
will increase your understanding of what you read.
One excellent way to practice reading skills is to read bed-
time stories to younger siblings. Really! Work with us here . . .
Young children won’t even know if your skills are less than
stellar49
because they can only compare against their own
rudimentary50
reading skills.
47
Punctuation: the marks used to clarify meaning of the written
words. Punctuation includes the period (.), comma (,), the question
mark (?) and the exclamation (!), but there are many other
punctuation symbols in addition to these four basic marks. Just look
at your keyboard!
48
Emphatic: spoken with emphasis, sudden and strong, “an emphatic
NO!”
49
Stellar: of or pertaining to stars, indicating the most important or
best, “a stellar performance.”
42

Read with feeling and do a different voice for each
character. You may be a bit embarrassed at first, but these two
techniques will help to improve your skills quickly. Of course,
you may be living in a college dorm by now, and only rarely
seeing your brothers and sisters. If that’s the case, why not send
them a weekly tape? It’s good practice and it will thrill them!
If you are already “famous” and making public
appearances, or if your athletic department has a community
service program, consider visiting a children’s cancer ward or a
school and read to those children. You can pick your book in
advance, practice before you go, and your improved skills and
generosity may even be worthy of a newspaper or TV spot! It’s
great free press, and even the President does it!
You can also get together with your teammates or study
buddies and read out loud in front of each other. This doesn’t
have to be explicitly51
about reading—you could simply read
50
Rudimentary: being in the earliest stages of development,
“rudimentary plans.”
51
Explicit: precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable.
Explicitly: In an explicit manner.
43

important paragraphs from your text books to help explain the
material.
Another great way to improve your reading and speaking
skills is to take a drama class. Not only is it an easy (and fun)
grade, it will give you many opportunities to speak in public.
Drama will also be of benefit if you’re hoping to make the
switch to sports announcer after your athletic career winds
down! It may also help if you plan to be a business person and
have to give presentations to grow your business or make a
sales pitch.
As you practice your lines, be conscious52
of your
diction53
—the way you pronounce54
each word. An educated
man can pronounce each consonant55
clearly and distinctly. Try
52
Conscious: intentionally conceived, knowing and perceiving,
having awareness of surroundings, sensations or thoughts, “he was
conscious of his faults.”
53
Diction: enunciation—the articulation of speech regarded from the
point of view of its intelligibility to the audience.
54
Pronounce: the way a word or a language is usually spoken.
55
Consonant: a speech sound that is not a vowel.
44

British roles—no one articulates56
the consonants like the
British!
Don’t get us wrong, we’re not denouncing57
local accents.
It’s just that people do make judgments based on accent, as
anyone with a thick Cockney, Irish burr or Southern drawl can
attest.58
No one would deny that Martin Luther King had a
accent, but his diction was always clear and when he gave a
speech, everyone understood him.
The average college student reads between 250 and 350
words per minute and a “good” reading speed is around 500 to
700 words per minute. Surprisingly, research has shown that an
increased rate of reading actually improves reading
comprehension, and that where speed has gone down,
56
Articulate: pronounce, speak, or utter in a certain way, usually
speaking each syllable clearly and precisely.
57
Denounce: speak out against, stigmatize, to accuse or condemn or
openly or formally or brand as disgraceful, “he denounced the Nazis.”
58
Attest: provide evidence for, stand as proof of, show by one’s
behavior, attitude, or external attributes, “his high fever attested to his
illness.”
45

comprehension also decreased. Practice reading more quickly
and see if it helps.
Something that might help you read more quickly is to read
with an index card above the lines you have already read. The
card will keep your eyes focused on the line you are reading,
and you can push the card quickly down the page, forcing
yourself to read quickly.
Another tip that can help you understand and remember
what you read is to read with a highlighter59
(of course, the
books must be your own, and not a library copy). Highlight the
important facts as you go. In general, you should not overuse
the color, lest60
it lose effectiveness, but if you do color
copiously,61
add a red box around the most important
information. You can also save the boxing for later review
sessions.
59
Fluorescent yellow highlighters do not photocopy. Therefore, if you
want a clean copy of something you’ve highlighted, make sure you
use fluorescent yellow.
60
Lest: unless, in order that something might not happen.
46

One thing that trips students up is unfamiliarity with the
terminology62
or language of the subject material. In other
words, you don’t understand the words used in a certain area of
study and this holds you back.63
Nip this interference in the
bud by starting each class with a good glossary.64
Getting
familiar with the words will not only improve your reading
skills, but gain you significant yardage on the class materials as
well.
JJ: Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know a
word. Just look it up. All it takes is not to know
one word once and Murphy Jo’s Law says that’s
the word that’s going to show up on the test!
Likewise, not knowing the meaning of one word
61
Copiously: abundantly—in an abundant or profuse manner, “they
were copiously supplied with food,” “he thanked her copiously.”
62
Terminology: words and/or phrases used to describe a concept or
phenomenon.
63
For example, your coach might tell you that “You must make sure
your penultimate step is longer than your take-off.” You could never
understand that coaching tip if you didn’t know that “penultimate”
means the “next to last.”
64
Glossary: an alphabetical list of technical terms in some
specialized field of knowledge, usually published as an appendix to a
textbook.
47

in a sentence can change the whole meaning of
that sentence.
People used to laugh at me a because I had to
know every word, even if it meant carrying
It takes courage to admit that you don’t know
glossary into your computer. Then
you can add to it as the class proceeds. You can also share it
with yo
having awesome multiple choice exam skills) I
around a dictionary. I got the last laugh though,
as my success shows.
something, but that courage is what it takes to
get you through college.
Google® for “glossary” and whatever topic you are
studying and copy a good
ur study buddies.
TV: I had to take the Graduate Record
Examinations® in biology and although as a
biochemist I knew a little basic biology, I knew
NOTHING about ecology or population biology,
which was about two thirds of the exam. Just by
learning a glossary from each topic (and by
was able to score in the top percentile, although
I did have to try twice to get such a good grade.
48

Another tip that will help you to build a stronger
vocabulary, is to invest65
in a reading pen. This is a large
computerized pen that scans the text as you read and provides
definitions of the scanned words on a small screen. It is much
faster than looking words up in a dictionary, and understanding
words is fully HALF the challenge of learning any subject.
Reading pens start at about $150 and go to $250, and seem like
a pretty good investm
ng skill instructors suggest that you don’t
sound out every word as you read. The thinking is that it will
slow yo
lways sound
out the words as I read, probably because I am
ent.66
Several readi
u down.
TV: I am an excellent reader, and I a
somewhat accustomed to learning through
hearing, and I hear myself as I go.
However, we think you can talk way faster than you can
read, and that you can sound out as you go. If you learn best
65
Invest: to commit funds or resources to some project in the hoping
of making a good return or profit from it.
66
Investment: money or time that is invested with an expectation of
making profit or some other valuable return.
49

thro
Let us show you an example of a paragraph that might be
o
some
backyards red-hot liquid was spurting from the
ot up and over the
houses. The island’s volcano, Helgafell, silent for
January night in
1973…red-hot liquid spurting from ground… Flaming
ugh your ears, consider sounding out as you go. But don’t
sound out every word. Instead, simplify the passage as you read.
quickly skimmed for its major points, saying (in your mind)
nly the key words or important points.
• The village of Vestmannaeyjar, in the far northern
country of Iceland, is as bright and clean and up-to-
date as any American or Canadian suburb. It is
located on the island of Heimaey, just off the
mainland. One January night in 1973, however,
householders were shocked from their sleep. In
ground. Flaming “skyrockets” sh
seven thousand years, was violently erupting!67
This passage might be quickly read as:
• village of Vestmannaeyjar, northern country of
Iceland, is bright, clean, up-to-date. Located on island
of Heimaey, off mainland.
“skyrockets” shot over houses… The island’s volcano,
67
Test question and answers excerpted from
www.testprepreview.com.
50

Helgafell, silent for seven thousand years, violently
erupting!
Let’s read it again, but this time circle or highlight what
ight be key words.
• village of Vestm
m
annaeyjar, northern country of
Iceland, is bright, clean, up-to-date. Located on island
of Heimaey, off mainland. January night in
1973…red-hot liquid spurting from ground… Flaming
“skyrockets” shot over houses… island’s volcano,
Helgafell, silent for seven thousand years, was
violently erupting!
Now, we have read it twice very quickly, sounding out the
maj onnectors like “the.”
We’ve also highlighted what might be important words, such as
try the sample reading comprehension
located on the island of:
a) Vestmannaeyjar
s
ey
ll
e) Heimma
The color of the hot liquid was:
or words, but leaving out meaningless c
dates and places. Let’s
questions:
The village is
b) Hebride
c) Heima
d) Helgafe
a) orange
51

b) black
d)
e)
coming from the:
ntains
nd
d)
e)
no had been inactive for:
onths
d)
e)
quic he village since it was underlined?
c) yellow
red
gray
This liquid was
a) mou
b) grou
c) sea
sky
ocean
The island’s volca
a) seventy years
b) seven thousand years
c) seven thousand m
seven hundred years
seventy decades
The answers were c), d), b), and b). See how easy it was to
kly check the name of t
Let’s try a harder one:
• WHAT WAS THE AMERICAN SMALL TOWN
LIKE? I’m glad I was born soon enough to have seen
the American small town, if not at its height, at least in
the early days of decline into its present forlorn status
as a conduit for cars and people, all headed for some
Big City over the horizon. The small town was not
always a stultifying trap for bright young people to
escape from; in the years before wartime travel
52

or farm
ung man and one part-time boy in his
r-Way
Cold Tablets or Bromo-Seltzer, or perhaps for
paramedical advice, which he was glad to give.
boys and girls, the town of five to twenty thousand
was a self-sufficient little city-state of its own.
• The main street of those Midwestern towns I
remember from the thirties varied little from one place
to another: there were always a number of brick
Victorian buildings, labeled “Richard’s Block” or
“Denman Block,” which housed, downstairs, the chief
emporia of the town--the stores which made it a shire
town for the surrounding farmlands. Each of these
stores was run according to a very exact idea of the
rules of its particular game. A hardware store, for
instance, had to be densely hung inside with edged
tools--scythes, sickles, saws--of all descriptions. It had
to smell of oil, like metal, and often like the sacks of
fertilizer stacked in the back room. It had to have
unstained wood floors, sometimes sprinkled with
sawdust, and high cabinets of small drawers
containing bolts, screws, nails, and small plumbing
accessories. It had to be owned and run by a middle-
aged man in a blue apron, assisted by one up-and-
coming yo
middle teens. It had to sell for cash on the barrelhead,
and it did.
• The drugstore was a horse of a different color (and
order), but it was circumscribed by equally strict rules.
Here you would ask the white-coated (and often
rimless-spectacled) druggist for aspirin or Fou
53

• These towns are by and large gone in 1974, their old
stores shut up with dusty windows, or combined, two
or three at a time, to make a superette, a W.T. Grant
store, or a sub-and-pizza parlor. The business has
moved to the big shopping center on the Interstate or
on to the city over the horizon, and the depopulated
old towns drift along toward oblivion, centers of
nothing in the middle of nowhere.68
Let’s read it quickly, sounding out the key words and
highlighting what might be important words:
• born soon enough to seen American small town, if not
at height, in early days of decline into present forlorn
status as conduit for cars and people, headed for some
Big City… small town not always stultifying trap for
young people to escape from; years before wartime
and scorn of Menckens and Sinclair Lewises made
cities magnet for farm boys, town of five to twenty
thousand was self-sufficient city-state …
• main street of Midwestern towns from thirties varied
little … always brick Victorian buildings labeled
“Richard’s Block” or “Denman Block,” housed,
downstairs, chief emporia of town - stores which made
it shire town for surrounding farmlands. Each store
run by exact idea of rules… hardware store… densely
hung with edged tools--scythes, sickles, saws… smell
68
Questions excerpted from www.prometric.com. Text by L.E.
Sissman in Selections From 119 Years of the Atlantic, © 1974.
54

of oil, metal, sacks of fertilizer stacked in the back
room. … unstained wood floors, sprinkled with
sawdust, high cabinets of small drawers containing
bolts, screws, nails, and small plumbing accessories.
… owned and run by middle-aged man … assisted by
one … young man and part-time boy in teens. had to
sell for cash on the barrelhead…
• drugstore was … different … but … equally strict
rules. … ask the white-coated .. rimless-spectacled
druggist for aspirin or Four-Way Cold Tablets or
Bromo-Seltzer, or paramedical advice… glad to give
• towns …. gone in 1974, old stores shut up with dusty
windows, or combined to make a superette, a W.T.
Grant store, or a sub-and-pizza parlor. business moved
to shopping center on Interstate or to city and
depopulated old towns drift toward oblivion, centers
of nothing in middle of nowhere.
Now we’ll try the reading comprehension questions:
1. According to the essay, what is the major reason for the
decline of the American small town?
a) Cars made people more mobile
b) Lack of variation between towns drove people away
c) Big cities drew people away from the towns
d) Their main streets were all the same.
e) Writers criticized small town life.
55

2. How does the author feel about the American small
town?
a) angry
b) nostalgic
c) spiteful
d) embarrassed
e) relieved
3. Given the descriptions of the small town stores, the
author would most likely view modern shopping malls as
places:
a) catering to small town people
b) taking over the role of small farm stores
c) lacking the friendliness of small town stores
d) providing variety to small town clients
e) carrying on the tradition of small town stores
This was much harder because the text just sort of
rambled,69
and had a lot of descriptive material that wasn’t
particularly relevant to anything. Instead, the descriptions just
gave you the flavor of how the author felt about small towns
and their sad decline. The answers are c), b) and c).
69
Ramble: to move about aimlessly, wander.
56

How did you do?
Do you see how simplifying and underlined can help your
reading comprehension? How underlining (or circling) can help
you to easily double check a key fact? Great!
JJ: Here are a few rules I generally use when
reading—underline or highlight 1) words I don’t
know, 2) words I can’t pronounce, 3) names, 4)
dates, and 5) what I think is the main idea.
Afterwards, I immediately look up the definitions
of the words I don’t know and sound out the
words I can’t pronounce. The dictionary
sometimes helps with pronunciation as well. I
then try to get a better understanding of the
passage I read.
Do the same with test questions. Nostalgic70
is a
word that jumped out to me as one word that
some people may not have known. It turns out
that nostalgic was the right answer to question 2.
If you didn’t know what it meant, you may have
missed the answer for that reason.
Keep practicing. Remember, reading is the most important
skill you’ll use in college.
70
Nostalgic: nostalgia describes a longing for the past, often
idealized, “he was nostalgic for his Mother’s chicken soup.”
57

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