PORTFOLIO OF WRITING SAMPLES:
IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE READ! The following are provided for reference only, and are not free for the taking. If you're interested in anything I post here, contact me and we can discuss the basis of any plans for use; by all means, if you want or need something written, I want to hear from you. I can produce polished work at a reasonable and competitive rate. I believe fully in a fair exchange. I don't plagiarize; I don't steal the work of others; furthermore, I can guarantee a solid ethical foundation for everything I produce. There will be free stuff from time to time, and it all will be clearly earmarked as such, and you will be more than welcome to it with my blessing and a hope for future mutual benefit, but my portfolio, my samples, my site content are not free, and please clearly note that you need permission before using anything posted on any page of this site. May your life be blessed as mine surely is. Namaste'.
ENTRY #1--(An exercise in the economy of writing)
How to Plant Under a Tree
Planting under a tree can produce beautiful results. Certain trees, however, tolerate the disturbance better than others.
Dogwoods don't take well to having the area around their roots disturbed; Redwoods are fine.
Sugar Maples don't mind, but Silver Maples can die from the root system interference.
Black Oak is not so good, but White Oak is okay.
These are just a few examples.
It's possible to plant under most trees, but you have to be a little more careful with some varieties than others; make sure
that any tree you're planning to disturb is mature.
Let's start planting.
Choose plants that like the shade, that can withstand dry conditions and that can thrive in direct competition with the tree itself.
Opt for hostas, yew, lily of the valley, holly, ivy, and hardy ground cover plants such as phlox and juniper; ferns can also find a good home in an under the tree garden space.
You might also consider native low growing or middle growing plants, which are easier to cultivate and care for in difficult growing conditions.
Additionally, you want to provide a mulch to retain some moisture; make sure you put down a thick layer and give extra water to your plants
because the tree is a heavy drinker, and will dry out the area under the tree.
It takes a little extra work, but before you know it, you'll have a verdant blooming space where before there was nothing but boring emptiness.
WORD COUNT: 250, (With Title)
ENTRY #2--(A press release I wrote announcing my new book of poetry)
Poetry and Short Writing Are Mediums of the Future and Bill Bowling Delivers the Perfect Marriage of Flash and Poetry to Great Effect in His New Book
November 29, 2013
Writer, artist, and teacher Bill Bowling has just published a great book of poems to take lovers of poetry in a new direction; readers can experience poetry in a more psychological, philosophical vein with the entries in this new work. As a bonus, there is an essay on the nature of language and poetry.
Published under the writer's imprint, Ridgeline Publishing, the entries are written in the form of Sevenlings, which is a short form comprised of seven lines, and originally credited to Anna Akhmatova for its formulation. A few other poets, primarily Roddy Lumsden, have also written complete works using the form.
The benefits of reading poetry, connecting with literature, words, message at that language level, are many. Some are easy to pinpoint, but the deeper ones go all the way down, deep into the bedrock, to who we are as individuals and as a whole family of people. A new voice, a new perspective is always a welcome presence. The reader has an opportunity to hear, to interface with that voice, and either find spiritual resonance or the impetus to begin a lively discussion.
What is refreshing about Perturbance is the rhythmic continuity achieved with the repetition of a singular form. Along with that powerful rhythmic quality, the reader can sample a prose offering to add variety. The book contains the essay, and the poems divided into eight sections. Prevalent themes are the natural world and our place in it, positive and negative.
About the author:
Bill Bowling graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a master's degree in education, studied music at Warren Wilson College, with further educational experiences in art and graphic arts from North Light Art School, from college level courses at Central Piedmont Community College, Spirit Square, and through private lessons. He likes the outdoors, hiking, enjoying nature, and doing what he can to protect and preserve the environment.
Perturbance: Flash Journal, The Sevenlings can be found at the Amazon.com website in both Kindle and paperback formats. http://www.amazon.com/Perturbance-Flash-Journal-Bill-Bowling-ebook/dp/B00GA068HI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385931329&sr=1-1&keywords=perturbance
Contact:
Bill Bowling
http://www.billbowling.weebly.com
ENTRY #3--E-zine Articles Link
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Bowling
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8160489
ENTRY #4--(A list article sample)
THOSE DARN LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS
They’re killers, aren’t they?
They’ll cause writers to trip over their golden quills every time.
I just have to do this because quite frankly I’m concerned. I believe we are surely losing our ability to properly navigate our language. Maybe it’s too much time on the Tweet deck; maybe everybody’s got sore thumbs, and brains are addle-pated as a direct result.
I don’t know. I do know, however, that it’s kind of scary to watch professed writers make silly guffaws they ought not to make even in casual writing, and I’m talking about more than this site: I’m talking about newspapers; I’m talking about website after website; I’m talking about all manner of published material; I’m talking about reports, which I have need to read on a regular basis; I’m talking about every other kind of writing you can imagine; I’m talking about everywhere I look.
I’m working from the premise that there are some mistakes that we writers, especially us writers, should not ever, ever make, including writing that you would consider a ‘freebie’ or a ‘throwaway’. I believe that a person should consistently try to do his/her best no matter the purpose of the end product.
THERE ARE SIMPLY SOME THINGS THAT WE SHOULD KNOW—PERIOD—AT THIS JUNCTURE.
I sincerely don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, folks, (don’t come after me with your blunderbuss blaring); I simply want to shine a little light. I also want to keep it lighthearted, and in that interest I have produced for your pleasure below a little bit modeled after the Jeff Foxworthy set, You Might be a Redneck if.
I’m calling my bit: You might need a remedial if: So without further au’ jus (sic) . . .
YOU MIGHT NEED A REMEDIAL IF…
Your going to love this. (If you're not too numbed to notice, it is like a pin sticking in you.)
I realized today that I have to much to do. (Tiny little pinprick, but annoying, non-the-less.)
I am seeking your advise on this problem I have.
There entry in the cake-baking contest was by far the best one.
“I feel as if I’m loosing my best friend.”
“Well, dear, if you laced him back up, he might make a recovery.”
This one relates to texting or is an extension thereof.
U fl mi, im representin’. (Students turn in work like this
all the time; maybe it’s me. Did somebody institute a new
language system and forget to invite me into the club?)
He was setting right there in that chair when he dropped that heavy news
on me. (People lie, things lay; people sit, things are set).
I could go on and on, but that’s enough for this pass through. Maybe I should say there’s MORE TO COME, and I’ll share those little tidbits too for the fun and edification of all concerned. By the way, don't call me; I wouldn't be able to call you back anyway because I loss my cellphone.
Remember this old proverb that I just made up, ‘if you loose your healthy sense of humor, good health will be hard too keep’. Where’s Yogi when you need him?
ENTRY #5--(Another List Article)
DO NOT MAKE BAD PASSWORD CHOICES
Let’s talk about passwords.
Recently there has been an increase of bad little cyber orcs stealing password data.
Here’s the problem: We, the users, the creators of passwords, make it painfully easy for the nasty little creatures to do their dirty work. We do some stupid things when it comes to protecting our personal spaces on the web.
What were we talking about? Oh, yes, passwords! OPEN SESAME!
There are certain things that you should never ever do when setting up your passwords. So, in the interest of helping, if I may add my voice to the fray, what follows below are ten serious do not do’s when it comes to creating passwords:
Commandment #1: THOU SHALT ESTABLISH STRONG PASSWORDS!
Why do they do it, these orcsies? The answer is that it is not known for sure, but you can bet that it is a combination of nature and nurture. A lot of elemental forces feed into it. Most of them are probably bored gamers who don’t have anything better to do than mess with others; they could just simply get a thrill out of rising to a challenge, so there may be a chemical brain rush associated with it; they could be very smart and want the rest of the world to know it; although they get no name recognition, they get something from it; at end result they could be, to the last individual, working off of some kind of blueprint fed through profound personality disorder, sociopathic to be sure. All of that is just conjecture; I’m not an expert in that area. Ultimately, they do it because it pays and because we make it way too easy for them.
It’s hard to put a finger on a phenomenon that quickly degenerates into an abstraction, and it’s even harder to place the outrage that results from attacks in any kind of useful context. You’re left with the feeling of dangling over the edge of a steep cliff.
The best course may not be, though, to expend a lot of time and energy dwelling on those hapless souls.
It’s better to work at making sure that you've put strong measures in place on you home turf, and that you’ve done everything you can to secure the gate against any possible breach from those nasty little orcs.
ENTRY #6--(Article Submission)
How to Study Effectively
How do you study effectively? Don't wait for your teachers and parents to challenge you; get in touch with yourself, and figure out what's creating avoidance; after you do that, making sense of any material is a 'piece of cake'.
I could go over all the established skill sets and strategies for studying effectively; I could go over SQ3R, (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review); I could go over creating flash cards; I could go over rewriting and organizing your notes; I could go over all the other strategies that are supposed to give you proven results and raise your grades, but I won't.
I won't because I also know something else! I know that one size doesn't fit all. I know that you are uniquely you; I know that all of your friends and indeed every other individual have mindsets that are theirs alone, but you know what else? We all connect in profound ways, and we can help each other; we can brainstorm, we can bounce ideas off each other, we can all be teachers to each other.
There's no education like self-education, and there is no better study strategy than what works for you.
There's an old saying, "many paths lead to the same destination." In developing good study habits, the recommendation is to choose a spot where you can study best; it's a good recommendation, but there is no law that says that your best studying can only be done sitting at a desk pushed up against a sterile wall. If you study best with a group of friends sitting, relaxing outside under a tree in the sunshine exchanging ideas and checking understanding, then do that. Get your friends together, and start a study group.
Why can't your study spot be a series of spots? School isn't, your education isn't that digressive thing you have to do while you're waiting for your real life to start. Your present life is your life, and your school work isn't really preparation for anything so much as it is the continuous process of life unfolding. It's all continuous, and you can choose to live your life to its highest level, and drain every last ounce of potential from it, or you can deny yourself positive immersion in the task at hand, move through it and celebrate its completion.
There's no reason why learning can't be fun, and it's hard to make learning fun if you do it in isolation. Check your own understanding with other people; ask for and get that very important peer feedback and fully test your own understanding of facts and concepts.
Another important thing is to make the material your own. Don't try to memorize the textbook, and don't attempt to rely totally on your notes. Translate the material into you, and your unique perspective; tell yourself stories to make the material come to life, and relate the material to you. One other point, if you come to something that you don't quite grasp, or a word that isn't clearly defined, make sure you get clear on it before you move forward. Once you get in touch with the dynamic, engaged you, you can tackle anything, and when it comes time for the test, you'll ace it because it's all about confidence. Nothing creates confidence like preparation from the inside out.
IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE READ! The following are provided for reference only, and are not free for the taking. If you're interested in anything I post here, contact me and we can discuss the basis of any plans for use; by all means, if you want or need something written, I want to hear from you. I can produce polished work at a reasonable and competitive rate. I believe fully in a fair exchange. I don't plagiarize; I don't steal the work of others; furthermore, I can guarantee a solid ethical foundation for everything I produce. There will be free stuff from time to time, and it all will be clearly earmarked as such, and you will be more than welcome to it with my blessing and a hope for future mutual benefit, but my portfolio, my samples, my site content are not free, and please clearly note that you need permission before using anything posted on any page of this site. May your life be blessed as mine surely is. Namaste'.
ENTRY #1--(An exercise in the economy of writing)
How to Plant Under a Tree
Planting under a tree can produce beautiful results. Certain trees, however, tolerate the disturbance better than others.
Dogwoods don't take well to having the area around their roots disturbed; Redwoods are fine.
Sugar Maples don't mind, but Silver Maples can die from the root system interference.
Black Oak is not so good, but White Oak is okay.
These are just a few examples.
It's possible to plant under most trees, but you have to be a little more careful with some varieties than others; make sure
that any tree you're planning to disturb is mature.
Let's start planting.
Choose plants that like the shade, that can withstand dry conditions and that can thrive in direct competition with the tree itself.
Opt for hostas, yew, lily of the valley, holly, ivy, and hardy ground cover plants such as phlox and juniper; ferns can also find a good home in an under the tree garden space.
You might also consider native low growing or middle growing plants, which are easier to cultivate and care for in difficult growing conditions.
Additionally, you want to provide a mulch to retain some moisture; make sure you put down a thick layer and give extra water to your plants
because the tree is a heavy drinker, and will dry out the area under the tree.
It takes a little extra work, but before you know it, you'll have a verdant blooming space where before there was nothing but boring emptiness.
WORD COUNT: 250, (With Title)
ENTRY #2--(A press release I wrote announcing my new book of poetry)
Poetry and Short Writing Are Mediums of the Future and Bill Bowling Delivers the Perfect Marriage of Flash and Poetry to Great Effect in His New Book
November 29, 2013
Writer, artist, and teacher Bill Bowling has just published a great book of poems to take lovers of poetry in a new direction; readers can experience poetry in a more psychological, philosophical vein with the entries in this new work. As a bonus, there is an essay on the nature of language and poetry.
Published under the writer's imprint, Ridgeline Publishing, the entries are written in the form of Sevenlings, which is a short form comprised of seven lines, and originally credited to Anna Akhmatova for its formulation. A few other poets, primarily Roddy Lumsden, have also written complete works using the form.
The benefits of reading poetry, connecting with literature, words, message at that language level, are many. Some are easy to pinpoint, but the deeper ones go all the way down, deep into the bedrock, to who we are as individuals and as a whole family of people. A new voice, a new perspective is always a welcome presence. The reader has an opportunity to hear, to interface with that voice, and either find spiritual resonance or the impetus to begin a lively discussion.
What is refreshing about Perturbance is the rhythmic continuity achieved with the repetition of a singular form. Along with that powerful rhythmic quality, the reader can sample a prose offering to add variety. The book contains the essay, and the poems divided into eight sections. Prevalent themes are the natural world and our place in it, positive and negative.
About the author:
Bill Bowling graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a master's degree in education, studied music at Warren Wilson College, with further educational experiences in art and graphic arts from North Light Art School, from college level courses at Central Piedmont Community College, Spirit Square, and through private lessons. He likes the outdoors, hiking, enjoying nature, and doing what he can to protect and preserve the environment.
Perturbance: Flash Journal, The Sevenlings can be found at the Amazon.com website in both Kindle and paperback formats. http://www.amazon.com/Perturbance-Flash-Journal-Bill-Bowling-ebook/dp/B00GA068HI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385931329&sr=1-1&keywords=perturbance
Contact:
Bill Bowling
http://www.billbowling.weebly.com
ENTRY #3--E-zine Articles Link
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Bowling
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8160489
ENTRY #4--(A list article sample)
THOSE DARN LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS
They’re killers, aren’t they?
They’ll cause writers to trip over their golden quills every time.
I just have to do this because quite frankly I’m concerned. I believe we are surely losing our ability to properly navigate our language. Maybe it’s too much time on the Tweet deck; maybe everybody’s got sore thumbs, and brains are addle-pated as a direct result.
I don’t know. I do know, however, that it’s kind of scary to watch professed writers make silly guffaws they ought not to make even in casual writing, and I’m talking about more than this site: I’m talking about newspapers; I’m talking about website after website; I’m talking about all manner of published material; I’m talking about reports, which I have need to read on a regular basis; I’m talking about every other kind of writing you can imagine; I’m talking about everywhere I look.
I’m working from the premise that there are some mistakes that we writers, especially us writers, should not ever, ever make, including writing that you would consider a ‘freebie’ or a ‘throwaway’. I believe that a person should consistently try to do his/her best no matter the purpose of the end product.
THERE ARE SIMPLY SOME THINGS THAT WE SHOULD KNOW—PERIOD—AT THIS JUNCTURE.
I sincerely don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, folks, (don’t come after me with your blunderbuss blaring); I simply want to shine a little light. I also want to keep it lighthearted, and in that interest I have produced for your pleasure below a little bit modeled after the Jeff Foxworthy set, You Might be a Redneck if.
I’m calling my bit: You might need a remedial if: So without further au’ jus (sic) . . .
YOU MIGHT NEED A REMEDIAL IF…
- you don’t yet know how to use YOUR or YOU’RE in a sentence.
Your going to love this. (If you're not too numbed to notice, it is like a pin sticking in you.)
- you don’t know that there is a difference between TO, TOO and TWO. Tutu is beside the point, and Toto isn’t even in the picture.
I realized today that I have to much to do. (Tiny little pinprick, but annoying, non-the-less.)
- you don’t know that there is a difference between ADVICE and ADVISE.
I am seeking your advise on this problem I have.
- you consistently show that you don’t know how to correctly use THEIR, THERE, and THEY’RE.
There entry in the cake-baking contest was by far the best one.
- you can’t come to the understanding that you should not amputate whole parts of words just because you do it in TXTNG.
- you don’t know the difference between LOSS, LOSE and LOOSE.
“I feel as if I’m loosing my best friend.”
“Well, dear, if you laced him back up, he might make a recovery.”
- you habitually truncate words.
This one relates to texting or is an extension thereof.
U fl mi, im representin’. (Students turn in work like this
all the time; maybe it’s me. Did somebody institute a new
language system and forget to invite me into the club?)
- you write too much in the passive tense--nothing technically wrong with it, emphasis on 'too much'.
- you don’t know that there is a difference between LIE, and LAY, SET and SIT.
He was setting right there in that chair when he dropped that heavy news
on me. (People lie, things lay; people sit, things are set).
- you have a long laundry list of words that you misspell over and over again.
I could go on and on, but that’s enough for this pass through. Maybe I should say there’s MORE TO COME, and I’ll share those little tidbits too for the fun and edification of all concerned. By the way, don't call me; I wouldn't be able to call you back anyway because I loss my cellphone.
Remember this old proverb that I just made up, ‘if you loose your healthy sense of humor, good health will be hard too keep’. Where’s Yogi when you need him?
ENTRY #5--(Another List Article)
DO NOT MAKE BAD PASSWORD CHOICES
Let’s talk about passwords.
Recently there has been an increase of bad little cyber orcs stealing password data.
Here’s the problem: We, the users, the creators of passwords, make it painfully easy for the nasty little creatures to do their dirty work. We do some stupid things when it comes to protecting our personal spaces on the web.
What were we talking about? Oh, yes, passwords! OPEN SESAME!
There are certain things that you should never ever do when setting up your passwords. So, in the interest of helping, if I may add my voice to the fray, what follows below are ten serious do not do’s when it comes to creating passwords:
- DO NOT use the following combination of numbers; 1234, 12345, 1234567, or the reverse versions 4321, 54321, 7654321. Why? The answer is that it is a no brainer; ‘they’, the little cyber orcs, know this without even thinking about it. They don’t even have to apply any kind of algorithm on this one.
- DO NOT use your birthday, your child’s birthday, or any part of your birthday as your password. Why? This one, once again is very easy to guess, and that information is easy to find for a criminal orc detective.
- DO NOT use your pet’s name as your password or even as a part of your password. Why? Let’s set it up: You’ve got this beautiful little fluffy poodle that you just adore and love to post pictures of her antics on Facebook. “Look at my poodle, Doodle Bug, that’s her name, doesn’t she make a beautiful little password,” you might as well announce. Guess what, ‘they’ are watching, and ‘they’ are always looking for any opportunistic entry point.
- DO NOT use actual words as part of your password: Why? Once again, it’s very easy to guess, or derive with a few clicks of a sophisticated program designed to cull such information. The primary reason being that there are a finite number of words in the English language, and it is known that people rely on what is familiar to them for convenience of access to their accounts. Words related to religion, body parts, body processes, and certain shock words are very common. This is known, and it provides easy access for an enterprising orc.
- DO NOT use the same password for all of your accounts online. Why? Once again, why make it easy for the sleazy? If they break one code, they break em all, and gain carte blanche to your life. At least make it as hard as possible for the scum bag bottom feeding orcsies.
- DO NOT keep initial setup passwords as a permanent password. Why? Hackers know that people don’t follow through with this important step in setting up their accounts. Even though those initial passwords are randomly generated, they ultimately have finite values and with a little bit of sleuthing and persistence, they are hackable—I’m declaring it a word. Hackers are very aware of these kinds of programs. Just maintain the awareness that those little orcs are smarter than they probably look, and they are out in swarms.
- DO NOT create a password that is a mirror of or contains any part of your user ID. Why? The answer is that it is just too easy. Hackers know all the shortcuts that people use because users have this obsessive need to make sure they remember their password. It is possible to create a password that is easy for you to remember but hard for an outsider to crack.
- DO NOT use a discoverable set of data from one source as the password for another account, i.e. your phone number as the password for your e-mail account. I’ve seen it done. Why? The reason for this is that your phone number or similar information could be posted, on social media for example, and from there it’s just a hop-skip-and-a-bye-bye to an intact identity. You don’t want to be compromised; it only takes a little bit of imagination to make sure that you’re protected. Don’t make it easy for those enemies of the Shire.
- DO NOT create a password that is less than eight characters and numbers. Why? The smaller the spread of characters, the more discoverable it becomes; the possible combination of six is naturally much less than a combination based on eight or twelve. If you develop some kind of system, your own password generation engine, you’ll be able to remember a longer password just as easily as a shorter one, and it will also give you more assurance that what you’ve created can’t be readily cracked. Once again, (I know I’m harping on it), why make it easy for them?
- DO NOT use any part of your address as your password; in fact, don’t use any public information as part of your security profile. Why? All of the information that anyone can get from anywhere with a little bit of digging, less digging than you think, does not a good security wall make. To reiterate, don’t make it easy for the little bastards; they’ll jump through whatever gaping hole in the firewall you provide them by your careless attention to your security measures. Your passwords are important, way too important to take lightly.
Commandment #1: THOU SHALT ESTABLISH STRONG PASSWORDS!
Why do they do it, these orcsies? The answer is that it is not known for sure, but you can bet that it is a combination of nature and nurture. A lot of elemental forces feed into it. Most of them are probably bored gamers who don’t have anything better to do than mess with others; they could just simply get a thrill out of rising to a challenge, so there may be a chemical brain rush associated with it; they could be very smart and want the rest of the world to know it; although they get no name recognition, they get something from it; at end result they could be, to the last individual, working off of some kind of blueprint fed through profound personality disorder, sociopathic to be sure. All of that is just conjecture; I’m not an expert in that area. Ultimately, they do it because it pays and because we make it way too easy for them.
It’s hard to put a finger on a phenomenon that quickly degenerates into an abstraction, and it’s even harder to place the outrage that results from attacks in any kind of useful context. You’re left with the feeling of dangling over the edge of a steep cliff.
The best course may not be, though, to expend a lot of time and energy dwelling on those hapless souls.
It’s better to work at making sure that you've put strong measures in place on you home turf, and that you’ve done everything you can to secure the gate against any possible breach from those nasty little orcs.
ENTRY #6--(Article Submission)
How to Study Effectively
How do you study effectively? Don't wait for your teachers and parents to challenge you; get in touch with yourself, and figure out what's creating avoidance; after you do that, making sense of any material is a 'piece of cake'.
I could go over all the established skill sets and strategies for studying effectively; I could go over SQ3R, (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review); I could go over creating flash cards; I could go over rewriting and organizing your notes; I could go over all the other strategies that are supposed to give you proven results and raise your grades, but I won't.
I won't because I also know something else! I know that one size doesn't fit all. I know that you are uniquely you; I know that all of your friends and indeed every other individual have mindsets that are theirs alone, but you know what else? We all connect in profound ways, and we can help each other; we can brainstorm, we can bounce ideas off each other, we can all be teachers to each other.
There's no education like self-education, and there is no better study strategy than what works for you.
There's an old saying, "many paths lead to the same destination." In developing good study habits, the recommendation is to choose a spot where you can study best; it's a good recommendation, but there is no law that says that your best studying can only be done sitting at a desk pushed up against a sterile wall. If you study best with a group of friends sitting, relaxing outside under a tree in the sunshine exchanging ideas and checking understanding, then do that. Get your friends together, and start a study group.
Why can't your study spot be a series of spots? School isn't, your education isn't that digressive thing you have to do while you're waiting for your real life to start. Your present life is your life, and your school work isn't really preparation for anything so much as it is the continuous process of life unfolding. It's all continuous, and you can choose to live your life to its highest level, and drain every last ounce of potential from it, or you can deny yourself positive immersion in the task at hand, move through it and celebrate its completion.
There's no reason why learning can't be fun, and it's hard to make learning fun if you do it in isolation. Check your own understanding with other people; ask for and get that very important peer feedback and fully test your own understanding of facts and concepts.
Another important thing is to make the material your own. Don't try to memorize the textbook, and don't attempt to rely totally on your notes. Translate the material into you, and your unique perspective; tell yourself stories to make the material come to life, and relate the material to you. One other point, if you come to something that you don't quite grasp, or a word that isn't clearly defined, make sure you get clear on it before you move forward. Once you get in touch with the dynamic, engaged you, you can tackle anything, and when it comes time for the test, you'll ace it because it's all about confidence. Nothing creates confidence like preparation from the inside out.