LearnQuickly Blog

How does it feel not to be listened to? Oh come on, you know what I mean. You are talking to someone and they start glancing in another direction. Or you realize she has missed most of what you are saying. How do you feel? Do you really want to continue talking with her? How do we know that someone is really listening to us? The really responsive listener can paraphrase what they’ve said to us. This type of active listening encourages the speaker to continue and makes them feel good knowing that you are really hearing what they are saying and feeling. Many times by listening well and paraphrasing, you can help them to easily solve their own problems. According to professional speaker David Peri, there are one million trillion synapses in the human brain. More are used for listening than any other process.

A long time ago, listening was  a matter of life and death. If you weren’t looking, smelling, touching, feeling, and hearing - you might have missed that wild animal about to pounce. Nowadays, there are still professions where listening is a matter of life and death: doctors, mothers, therapists, air traffic controllers, law officers, and, of course, lawyers. The better you listen, even with all of the distractions and noises of TV, radio, cars, and the general hum of technology, the more aware of the world you will be.

We all know that hearing is different from listening, but do you know why? When your wife says she was listening to you, how do you know she really was? Here’s the clue. Is she looking at you when you speak? The first easy and simple way to kick your listening skills up a notch is easy — just remember to look at the person who is speaking to you. I know it seems simple, right? But do we really take the time to look at people anymore? Life is just so darned busy. Think about this, 65 -93% of all communication is nonverbal. If you don’t look at the speaker, you’re going to miss out on so many important nonverbal cues. What if the speaker is saying yes but means no? If you only hear the words you might miss the curl of their lip or the arched eyebrow or that wrinkle in the middle of their forehead that says that he means the opposite of what he’s saying. When you fully listen you engage all of your senses. Just start with sight and keep going. For those of you who are weight conscious, by using your senses to fully listen, you burn 96 calories an hour. If you’re just hearing the words and you are barely regarding the speaker, you only burn 48 calories. Let’s weigh those — 48 or 96 — and just for giving your full attention to listen well. Plus, the experts say that the more you practice fully listening, the more you will do it without even thinking about it.

Imagine yourself in ancient Greece. You are taking a class with your favorite instructor, perhaps Aristotle. See yourself dressed in a toga strolling with fellow classmates listening intently as Aristotle brilliantly lectures to his class. Afterwards you return home for a family meal. Your father asks about what you learned in class today. You proceed to recite word for word everything you learned. An everyday occurrence? In ancient Greece, oh yes! In 2007, I don’t think so. Imagine your daughter calls you at work and asks you to stop at the store and buy milk on the way home. You heard the words but if you don’t write them down, will you remember them when you get to the store? How often have you gone to Safeway only to say to yourself, what was I supposed to get? What did she tell me to buy? What’s happened to us? We just don’t seem to listen and retain well anymore. In fact, according to communication experts, we only listen at 25-30% of our listening ability. After thirty-one years of teaching, I like to say that my students learn how to listen at 90% of their listening capacity. I’ve been testing students in listening for many years — rarely does anyone ever pass at the beginning of my class. Why listen better? In a world where the playing field is now worldwide, we need to rise to the top. Being a great listener is just a smart thing to do. How? Easily. Stay tuned for some simple ways to improve.

Do you have math anxiety? Does the thought of doing a math problem make you panic? You are not alone. Relax. See yourself easily and effortlessly succeeding. Begin to change the math hate to dislike. Then change the dislike to the willingness to enjoy! Also, according to the experts, the better you get at math, the more you will like it. Remember, fear is two-faced. It can be a bully. However, if you look it in the eye, it will become a coward and run away! Chase that math anxiety away and do the best you can on this test. Remember it’s at www.LearnQuickly.com. You might find that you know more math than you thought you did!

Set aside some time to take the pre-test at www.learnquickly.com. It doesn’t have to be a difficult process. If you are studying for the math GED test or any other test that provides the formulas for you, you can then use the following when you are testing:

Area of a Square or a Rectangle — Area = length x width

Perimeter– Add up all the sides

Area of a Triangle — Area = 1/2 base x height

Area of a Parallelogram — Area= base x height

Area of a Circle — Area= 3.14 x radius x radius

Circumference of a Circle — Circumference= 3.14 x diameter

Volume of a Cube or Rectangular Container — Volume = Length x width x height

Volume of a Cylinder — Volume = 3.14 x radius x radius x height

Do remember to use these formulas and see how you do on the test. Best of luck!

You can take this free math pre-test at www.LearnQuickly.com. After you take the test, your score will show you if you need to watch any math videos. There are workbooks that go along with these videos. After you watch a lesson, there are four practice lessons in the workbooks that you can complete. You might find that you only need one of these lessons to cement in what you have learned on the video. If you need more drill and practice, it’s there in the workbooks. If you click on the video letter or number - for instance Video B or Video 15 - you will be able to read a description of the lessons it includes.

The free math pre-test at www.LearnQuickly.com measures your knowledge of basic math: whole number operations, fractions, decimals, percent, ratio and proportion, algebra, and geometry. It’s easy to do! You take the test, fill in your answers, and check them with the answer key. There’s a correlation chart that will show you which of the Learn Quickly Videos you need to watch to learn how to do the problem. For instance, if you missed a question in addition, you would need Video A: Addition. If you missed a question in algebra, you would need to watch one of the four algebra videos, and the chart will tell you which one. So don’t delay -take the math pre-test at www.LearnQuickly.com and see how well you score!

I know, you’re thinking who wants to take a math test, I’ve got so many more fun things to do. What if you are planning on taking the GED, ASVAB, CBEST, Civil Service, or college entrance tests -taking this math pre-test could save you time and energy. Then that will leave you more time to do all of those fun things that you really want to do. So don’t put it off. Go to www.learnquickly.com  and click on Video Previews and Math Pre-test. Make sure you’ve sharpened your pencils and have paper and an eraser ready. After you take the test you will see exactly what you need to study and how to do it. Good luck!