How do you study?

So what's your game play? How do you normally study for Locals and/or Nationals? Any additional studying besides what is provided in the SS? Please share!

GREAT NEW TOPIC!!!

Yeah, it will be great if anyone posts! ;-)

Who's going to be first? :D

I'm certainly not an expert, but I find that it really helps me in my studying when I can talk it over with my family, because they ask me questions that I never would have thought of. Then I can study up on the things they ask me about. Maybe your family does the whole sword study together, but I'm the only one left in my family that can do the BB, so the rest of my family doesn't see the SS, and they have a different perspective. Besides that I'm afraid I mostly stick to the SS. I always like to look for a quiz on the book of the Bible online, and those are helpful.

K…I'll be next.
I wake up early (3 or 4-i'm a morning person) and study till everyone is up at like 9 (little kids :)

Well, I try to memorize the verses quickly and then make sure I have them down absolutely perfectly by the time of the competition. As for the Sword Study, I try to finish it quickly, then go back over it throughout the summer, trying hard to memorize the Greek words and cross-references. Additionally, listening to sermons and reading commentaries can be very helpful too. :)

Well, I try to memorize the verses quickly and then make sure I have them down absolutely perfectly by the time of the competition. As for the Sword Study, I try to finish it quickly, then go back over it throughout the summer, trying hard to memorize the Greek words and cross-references. Additionally, listening to sermons and reading commentaries can be very helpful too. :)

That's what I do too :D

I go through things a LOT. Another thing is to teach someone else…that always helps stick it in your brain more :D

You've just about summarized my method, Nicolas. :D I also like making and checking practice questions. It gives me other contestants' perspectives.

Anyone else want to share? :)

I like to make multiple choice questions for 1 John and the cross-references. It helps me learn and remember the things from 1 John, and it is a great blessing to others.

Neat! :)

Our family listens and listens and listens to the music CD, and that helps us with the verses. My dad used to be a pastor, and so nearly every morning we either read the context of the verses/cross-references, after which he helps explain, or the chapter that we are studying. We all do SS together (mostly), and then, as I said, listen to the verses.

Our family listens and listens and listens to the music CD...

Oh yeah! Sounds like us! =D I hear it going so much around here!

I'm really new to this whole nationals thing.does anyone have any advice…… like do you guys print the cards up on card stock….I went through my Hebrew Greek study bible and wrote out all the Greek words on cards. Just if you could give me some pointers. also
….realistically how many of which tickets do we order. 6 people from our FAM will be going……that would be like a 600 dollar dinner if we bought it…..what do you all do?

I'm really new to this whole nationals thing.does anyone have any advice…… like do you guys print the cards up on card stock….I went through my Hebrew Greek study bible and wrote out all the Greek words on cards. Just if you could give me some pointers. also
….realistically how many of which tickets do we order. 6 people from our FAM will be going……that would be like a 600 dollar dinner if we bought it…..what do you all do?

Sorry…I'm on an android……lol

....realistically how many of which tickets do we order. 6 people from our FAM will be going......that would be like a 600 dollar dinner if we bought it.....what do you all do?

We have six people in our family, and we usually all go. We don't do much extra stuff- we do the awards ceremony, the square dance, and the semi-finals and finals!

We also like to make list on Microsoft word about Greek words, cross-references, etc……
Also we like to read it before bedtime or read through the passage about 20 times to memorize it

For the memory verses, I print them on card stock and cut them with a paper cutter. Then I sort them chronologically, punch holes in them, and put them on a ring.
Since Ephesians is not an easy book to study, I would recommend buying a commentary by your favorite author. It really helps me understand the text and some commentaries have greek words and cross-references. Some or most of your memory passages may be cross-references. Last year pretty much of all them were. You should definitely look for a lot of your cross-references there.

....realistically how many of which tickets do we order. 6 people from our FAM will be going......that would be like a 600 dollar dinner if we bought it.....what do you all do?

My family never does that dinner. We usually just get a wristband and the desert reception.
I hope this helps

I always print my cards on card stock, and that helps them not get crunched up so fast. We never go to any of the dinners or anything. They have food their, but it's also pretty expensive (and I think it tastes nasty and greasy). I know a lot of families bring their own food, which is what I am hoping to do this year :) Last year, we went to some of the semis and finals, the square dance, and the Ray Comfort lunch (which were all either free or a few dollars). Oh, and we went to the desert reception too. (which is REALLY fun!!!!:)

"They have food their, but it's also pretty expensive (and I think it tastes nasty and greasy)."
Haha - lol! My mom bought me and 2 of my brothers each a slice a pizza, and a pepsi to eat during Mr. Comfort's talk, and the pizza was so greasy and sometimes, pepsi gives me headaches, and i got a headache :P Not sure if it was the pizza, the pepsi, or the adrenaline, or all 3 :D :P

Eww, we got the pizza too, the first day and it was SO gross! :P I'm sorry you got a headache! :(

Mom got their coffee, and it was so yucky - but I drank a few drinks cause I needed it! :P :D Oh well…

Yuck…. Yeah, I didn't like the food there very much :)

thanks guys!! I cant wait to meet most of you in Nov.

Me too!
My dad noticed, while helping my younger brother with the summer SS, they base it somewhat on KJV. So, I use greattreasures.org (If you have an account on there you'll know what I mean in this next part) and have both ESV and KJV up. In the notes part, I basically combine KJV and ESV for the verse I'm working on, then retype the verse in the combined version.

So you made it? Great!
What division are you in?
Another thing I do to study for Nats is I record the verses in tunes. I make up the tunes on the spot. That way they're really funky and I can remember them better because I like funky stuff. :)
For instance, after recording verses, I sometimes give it the Telephone effect which is pretty cool. I also like the Chorus, Reverb, Echo, and Distortion. I also like to do silly voices.
I learned a lot of verses that way, by recording them (I record them over and over sometimes, if it doesn't sound right) and also by slipping an MP3 player into my pocket, putting on headphones, and listen throughout the day. I can remember one especially I learned by doing that and only by doing that: Amos 5:24. I did it in a weird voice and used the Telephone effect.

im a senior

cool! what version do you use? I'm a primary and I use ESV (the extra spiritual version) :D

So how did you all study for Nationals?
Now that it is over, what did you think helped and what didn't?
I need some advice; next year is my last year to be able to compete and I would like to place better than 60th!

Are you asking about the written or the oral?

Either, but mostly the written.

Sorry in ever answered you Hannah, I use kjv

Do any of you "Experts" (I consider anyone who's made it to Nationals an expert, lol :) ) Have anything they would like to share with us?

Memorizing the study book is a good idea. It doesn't have to be perfect, but fairly close.

I'll post mine when I find the time. :)

Here are some tips for the verses.

All your verses should be word perfect in the summer and you should get at least 290 on the oral test. During the summer I spent about 25-30% of my study time on verses. Also, in the summer, you should understand all of the verses. Know the context of each passage; you don't want to miss any context questions on the test.

For Nationals, I would say that more time should be spent on verses. The best time to memorize your verses is early in September. The reason for this is because memorization is one thing that cannot be crammed, obviously. During September, I would spend 60-70% of study time on memorizing verses and the rest on the book study. Once 60-80% of them are memorized and have no more than 2-3 mistakes per verse, I would put more time into the book study. Last year, I made the mistake of doing the opposite of what I just said :P. I spent a lot of time studying Ephesians and ended up cramming my verses.

Ways to memorize:

Spend the time to organize all your verses. Maybe you have particular order in which you want to memorize them, maybe you want to punch holes and put them on a ring…

Before memorizing the verses, record yourself using an mp3 player or iPod saying all of the verses. Then go back and listen to them while you're cleaning your room, sitting in the car, or washing dishes. The basic idea is to keep ALL the verses going through your head as much as possible.

Memorize your verses before bed. Everyone has their own preference of when they best like to memorize. For me, this time is right before I go to sleep. I usually stick with 10-20 verses to read or memorize before I go to sleep. Wake up in the morning, review them again, and they're in my head for a while. If you do not fall asleep quick, this might not work for you. :)

Go phrase by phrase. Probably the one of the most common ways to memorize. This method is very simple but it only works for short passages and sometimes it won't stick in your head. But there is a modified way of going phrase by phrase which I have found to be extremely effective for longer passages. Take for example, Ephesians 1:3:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,"

If you were going phrase by phrase, you would probably stop at comma's, semi-colons, and periods. However, if you pay attention, you may notice that many of your mistakes and blanks come right after a period or comma. This happens because you memorized up to the period or whatever and stopped. To fix this problem you simply go phrase by phrase as usual but stop a few words before the period or comma. Example: Memorize up to here, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus", repeat a few times then go on, "Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly". Just this slight twist will make a huge difference.

These are my personal suggestions; I hope you find some of them useful. :)

Great ideas, Everett! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Everett!

Here are a few things I always do for the Bible Bee…although I haven't made it to Nationals before, and don't consider myself an expert, I hope these are helpful to you!

-Establish a dedicated place for your studying. In my case, that's my bedroom.
-When you are memorizing, memorize OUT LOUD! Even if you feel a bit funny knowing that other may be hearing you, I find it so helpful in the long run!
-Have notebook especially for BB, and make notes and lists on things you notice in the Sword study…even if it's the tiniest reference to something small, like a Greek or Hebrew word, a reference to something, etc. It may be on the test! I've learned the hard way :)
-Read The $100,000 Word by Daniel Staddon.

Just a few things that are coming to mind….I might add if I think of more. :)

Memorizing the study book is a good idea. It doesn't have to be perfect, but fairly close.

Very true. Just read or listen to the study book every day. By the end you will have it memorized.

I haven't memorized the study book for locals before, but I think I will this year.

Very true. Just read or listen to the study book every day. By the end you will have it memorized.

As long as you can pay attention to what you're reading–I was reading Ephesians this year and was having a lot of trouble keeping from slipping into autopilot and not really comprehending anything.