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Although this tutorial is primarily intended for use with the W1UL Ham Cram website most of the suggested alternative study strategies are applicable to the study or any material.Since the inception of the W1UL Ham-Cram.com website, when there was only preparation for the Technician license, I have strongly advocated studying one subelement at a time. I also strongly encouraged the candidate take the subelement’s practice exam and if the candidate didn’t get at least 85% correct I recommended repeating the process until attaining a test score of at least 85%. (Each license class has 10 subelements which are basically categories.) Despite many years of college level teaching I committed a rookie educator’s mistake, which is assuming all people learn the same way I do. I like my information served in small packages with frequent practice test to reinforce my learning. The following is a true story and points out the fallacy of my educational assumption. An experience with a good friend drove home the point that different people learn in different ways. This tutorial reviews different study modalities when preparing for an amateur license examination. |
1. Question number one.
Correct answer for question one.
2. Question number two.
Correct answer for question two and so on.
After Jim had been studying the print out for a couple of week I offered to bring my computer to his house so he could take a practice exam. “No way,” he exclaimed, “I don’t want to see an incorrect answer until I take the actual test!” I suggested he intersperse practice tests with his studying but he adamantly refused.
All’s well that ends well. There were three candidates taking the Extra exam at Jim’s VE session. He was the first to finish and had only one wrong answer the best of the three!
Is this method for everyone? I honestly don’t know. You might want to try it and see if it works for you. A compromise might be to study the questions and correct answer until a day or two before the VE test. Then take a practice exam for the entire test (see below) so you get feedback on what you don’t know.
Let’s take a look at some other learning methods.
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| Several candidates have commented on their inability to use multiple subelements to create a study session or practice test session and have all the available questions displayed. Mistake on my part, it’s possible to do but my explanation is vague. Here is how to create a study or practice test session using multiple or all subelements. Go to ham-cram.com and select either the Technician, General or Extra study session. We’ll use the General study session for this example.The figure at the top of this section shows the top of the General study session page. The text box in the upper left corner contains the number of questions on the actual test which is 35 for Technician and General exam and 50 for the Extra exam. The first entry in the “Question Count” column is the total number of questions in the ham crams pool for that specific class of license. To select a listing for all questions in the specified ham cram pool enter zero in the text box in the upper left corner. Next, check the first checkbox in the left most column. Lastly, click on the button at the bottom of the page labeled, “Select one or more Subelements for Study.” This produces a listing of each question, followed by only the correct answer, for the entire question pool. Print the output so you have a complete listing of the entire question pool for your target license class. Take it with you and you can study when you get a few spare minutes. |
Gordon West Radio School
When you are using the ham cram study mode (Only questions likely to be on the VE test and only correct answers) read the questions and answers out loud so you are seeing the questions and answers as well as hearing them. Ideally, do the prep with a partner and have one person read the questions and the other read the answers. On the next pass have the person who previously read the questions read the answers and the person who previous read the answers read the questions.
When studying with flash cards alternate between reading the questions, out loud, first and then read the answers, out loud. Next, read the questions and before reading the answer try and remember the answer. Finally, read the answer and see if you can remember the question.
When you pass your target test – notice I said when, not if – make the cards available to other members of your local radio club.
73 Urb W1UL urb@w1ul.com
