How Effective Really is TART?

For this week's TECH assignment, the topic was Reading and the strategies available to choose from were TART and Charlie Reads SmarT. I analyzed the two and I immediately pushed Charlie Reads Smart to the side because I saw that it was more of a strategy that applied to writing and reading intensive courses and none of my courses are either of those, largely math-based. TART became my strategy of choice to utilize in my Linear Algebra (MAT 331) and Calc III (MAT 397) courses.

TART is a relatively simple four

I first used TART with my Linear Algebra class and it helped because out of all my classes it is probably the most definition/theorem-based class. Knowing the terms and theorems prior to class definitely helped in me better understanding everything that was being taught and once he spoke about one topic or section, I knew what was coming up next and already had a better idea of how the two related/connected. Often times in class he'll throw theorems on the boards with a couple examples but it'll take me a little longer to actually understand. Coming up with test questions wasn't as hard as I though it would be because a number of his questions are word based and are about just interpreting various theorems followed by numerical evaluations of them along with their formulas; and my questions were built off of my notes prior to and during lecture.step strategy whose letters stand for Terms Attend Read Test. STEP ONE is to go through the textbook and read and if necessary write down the terms and definitions that the professor may use in the upcoming lecture. STEP TWO is to actually attend lecture and paying attention to the professor's use of the terms and definitions from the textbook. STEP THREE is to reread your own lecture notes and then read the chapter or section(s) out of the textbook, taught/discussed in lecture. STEP FOUR is to create test questions that you think the professor may ask on the upcoming exam based on the material that has just been covered and to answer the questions.

TART for my Calc III class was a little different as it is not writing or word based AT ALL.

numbers. Prior to class I went through the text and wrote down the terms and theorems that I could find and in class it did help a bit but before it being discussed in lecture, it meant very little to nothing to me as opposed to Linear Algebra where I got a much better understanding by just going through the terms and definitions. My professor uses very involved examples in class and goes through them with enough time to make sure that we really understand the concept and with reStrictly numbers and when there are words used to describe theorems, it's strictly about

ading the textbook after class as well along with

my lecture notes, I completely understood everything in the sections and topics discussed. Coming up with questions wasn't extremely difficult although I did have a bit of trouble. With math that is involved as Calc II is it was difficult to come up with "nice" problems as it's almost impossible to get "perfect" numbers.

In the end the strategies worked out with my courses but they weren't necessarily the most efficient; a majority of the strategies presented in CLS haven't been the greatest because of the heavy math emphasis in my other courses, but there's always that strategy or two that happens to stick with me. TART is definitely a strategy that I can see myself using in future semesters as I pick up other types of courses that are more text, writing, or vocabulary based. This is a great strategy that would probably work much better for someone else with different courses so I can definitely say I would recommend this to others.