Name-- Sevoach
Nickname-- Sev
Species-- Gelert
Gender-- Male
Color-- Green
Eye Color-- Brown
Age-- 85706 hours
Level-- 6
Strength-- 8
Speed-- 8
Defense-- 11
Brains-- 18
Owner-- sweetesttenshi

FAMILY
Kuaneneo - the bad-tempered blue gelert
BumbMonkey - the silent, scary plushie skeith
Sweet_ButterCreme - the bratty baby gelert

LINKS
By Sweetesttenshi - Steal and BE FROZEN!

This page was made to help you. Please respect that and don't steal the images, text or code. If you do, you will get caught, and you will be frozen. Just don't do it!


Not far from the doors of the dreaded Neoschool, there's a little patch of woods that students down on their luck always seem to be visiting. Other students whisper that amazing things seem to happen there, and most of those you catch sight of sneaking over start doing much better on their tests and homework once they have returned.

So, with your latest assignment covered in red correction marks and topped with a low score, you decide you might as well give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? The test crumpled in your hand, you sneak over to the thicket after school.

Inside the small stand of trees there is a little clearing. And in the middle of that clearing, instead of finding a magic potion or a miraculous pool of water, you find an ordinary green gelert reading a book.

Then again, perhaps he isn't so ordinary. He's the standard gelert color, sure, but there's a darker green stripe running down his back and engulfing the whole of his tail. Plus the lighter color of his belly accents his face and legs as well. And that's not just any book his spectacled brown eyes are peering down at. That's Advanced Learning, a Brightvale book that gives most people headaches just to look at it.

As you continue to stare at him, the gelert finally notices that he is not alone. He looks up at you with a warm smile and says, "Hello! My name's Sevoach. Have you come to study?"

You can feel the shocked expression cross your face. "Wait a minute. Study?? I thought there was something magical over here that would help me get better grades!"

The gelert shakes his head. "Nope, no magic," Sevoach says. "Just studying. It will help you get better grades, I guarantee it. But you're going to have to work hard. Are you up for it?"

You glance down at the paper in your hands and the ugly red marks the teacher left for you, then mumble, "I guess so.

Leaping to his feet, Sevoach says, "Great! "Let's get started."

About Sev

As the gelert starts to shove a notebook and pencil into your hands you cry, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You're going to make me study? Who are you to tell me what to do?"

The gelert replies, "I'm Sevoach, like I said," Settling on his haunches in front of you, he cocks his head to one side and adds, "And I'm not telling you what to do. I'm going to give you some advice. It's up to you whether or not you use it."

Quickly you ask, "But why should I?"

Quietly Sevoach stands up again and walks toward a nearby bush, underneath of which is a small box you had not noticed before. The gelert nudges open the box with his nose, pulls out a file, and drops it onto the ground. The papers that spill out all bear perfect marks from various teachers. You gape in surprise.

Smiling, Sevaoch replies, "Because it works. There are a lot of pets in Neopia who are smarter than I am. But I work really hard. And you're going to have to work hard too, if you want to succeed."

Staring at the gelert, you wonder aloud, "Where did you come from? Outer space?"

Sevoach shakes his head, and says, "Nope, I came from the pound." His voice is completey matter-of-fact. "I've been with my owner, sweetesttenshi for a very long time, and she's very proud of me. No fancy paintbrush or battledome trophy could make me any happier than that. So do you want to give it a shot?"

Starting to grow more convinced, you nod your head. "Okay, I'll try it."

Location, Location, Location

Sitting down before you again, Sevoach adjusts his glasses with his paw. "First of all," he says, "I want you to make a list of all the places you have studied. Where you study is just as important as how you study.

As you start to scribble in your notebook, Sevoach waits patiently, his whippy tail tapping lightly against the cool grass.

When you're ready, you look up at him again. "Now what?"

Adjusting his glasses with a paw, Sevaoch replies, "Now cross out all those places on the list that aren't available any time you need them. For example, if you like to study in the kitchen, you couldn't go and study in your kitchen when someone else was there cooking."

He continues, "Secondly, cross out all those places on the list where you would be distracted. You might find it hard to study in your own bedroom if your brother listens to loud music in the next room or you've got a cool new game you're dying to try."

Thirdly, you have to be prepared to study." Sevoach pauses as he adjusts his glasses again, and then continues, "Your study space should be equipped with all the things you need to study, or you should be able to bring them with you. And fourth, you need to be comfortable. Your study space should have enough room for all your supplies, have a nice temperature, a good place to sit, that sort of thing."

Looking at your notebook, you mumble, "Well that gets rid of a lot of places on my list,"

Sevoach says, "That's good. Those places you crossed off are bad places for you to study. If you don't study in those places anymore, you should be able to focus better."

Find the Time

As you finish crossing out locations on your notebook, you exclaim, "I think I've figured out a good place to study!" Hey, this is easier than you thought it would be.

Sevoach smiles brightly. "Good! But there's something even more important we need to talk about. Time."

Time?

Sevoach nods again, his expression eager. Then he says, "A lot of people say that for every hour you spend in class, you need to spend two hours outside of class studying."

You feel like slapping your forehead in shock. "Jeez! Two hours??"

A kind smile on his face, Sevoach says, "It isn't as awful as it sounds. Think of it this way: if there are classes where you're already learning something you know a lot about or don't have to do homework for, such as gym classes, you don't need to study that long. And honestly, a few hours of studying per week isn't a lot to lose for good grades, is it?"

Frowning, you say, "I guess not. It still seems like a lot of time staring at a book, though."

To this, Sevoach replies, "Well, there are lots of things you can do to make this study time easier. You need to study and do homework in your hardest subjects first. That way you get them done and don't have to worry about them anymore. Also it keeps you from putting them off until the last minute."

Sitting back down again, Sevoach adds, "Another really good thing to try is to break your homework up into chunks. Do one thing for fifteen or twenty minutes, take a five minute break, and then do something else for the next fifteen or twenty minutes. Keep switching back and forth. If you just can't focus on your science book for hours at a time, you don't have to."

Wow," you mumble, blinking. "I never thought of that before."

Sevoach nods. "A lot of people don't."

Suddenly there is a screeching sound, and something comes swooping down over your head! Before you can let out more than a surprised yelp, however, the culprit comes fluttering down to sit on Sevoach's shoulders: a green horus with wide-blinking eyes. And the paper it had been carrying comes floating down into your lap.

Sevoach's eyes are twinkling. "This is Senmut, my horus. I'm sure he didn't mean to scare you. That thing he just dropped on your head is a time chart. As you can see, it is divided into columns, each of which represents a different day of the week. The rows going across are all the hours in a day. You can use that to mark down all the times you're going to spend studying every day of the week. It could help you schedule other things, such as when you have to do chores. Keeping a schedule like that can make it easy for you to find the time to do things such as study, but you have to commit to sticking to it."



Looking at the chart, you say, "I see. Is that all there is to it?"

Sevoach chuckles. "Not quite. We've found you a place and a time in which to study. But we haven't actually talked about studying yet!"

Groaning, you actually do slap your forhead this time. "Man, this is just like going to class," you mutter.

The Nitty Gritty

Still smiling at you, Sevoach says, "There are a lot of different tricks you can use to help you study, depending upon what you are studying."

For example, some people get confused with math problems, and that includes simple fractions all the way up to calculus and the math people do in statistics, physics and chemistry. To help you study in these subjects better, it might help if you turn each problem into a 'given-find' problem."

Before you can ask what he means by 'given-find,' Sevoach explains, "A 'given-find' problem is where you write down all the things you are given in one column, and then write down what you have to find in another column. For example, in chemistry you might be asked to combine two different amounts of two different types of chemicals to make a third. So in the 'given' column, you would write all the information that is given about the two chemicals, and in the 'find' column, you would write the information about the third. You might not even have any information to go into the third column except that it's what you're supposed to figure out, but that's important information by itself."

Sometimes when you have really long or complex problems, turning them into 'given-find' problems can help you stay focused on exactly what it is you're supposed to be doing."

Sevoach says, "Another really great and easy way to study is to use pneumonic devices."

Noo-what? You can almost imagine putting some crazy equipment on top of your head to make your brain work better.

Pneumonic devices," Sevoach repeats. "It's when you take the first letter of a list of things you're supposed to know and turn them into a phrase or word so that you can remember them better."

Holding up one paw he says, "For example: Roy G. Biv."

You ask, "Who is that?" .

Not who," Sevoach corrects you.What. Roy G. Biv is a pneumonic device for remembering the colors of the rainbow. Using the first letter of each color -- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet -- we made an easy to remember name."

Another good example is the phrasePlease excuse my dear Aunt Sally.' The first letter in each word in that sentence stands for another word in a specific order -- Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract -- which is the order of operations when you are working on a compound math problem."

Slinking a bit closer to you, Sevoach has an odd sort of glint in his eyes. "Now we're going to learn another pneumonic device. This one... is murder."

You make a squeaky sound. "Murder!"

Sevoach nods, smiling again. "Murder. It's a pneumonic device on how to study! Isn't that cool?"

Sure it is," you say, heaving a sigh of relief.

Sevoach rears up onto his hind legs and bats with his front paws at a thick mass of ivy. As he brushes the ivy aside, you see an old chalk board has been hidden behind it, the dark surface of which is covered with writing in multicolored chalk.

Using his tail to tap each letter, Sevoach says, "Let's go over the points."

M stands for mood. We've already talked about mood a lot with you deciding on the right place and time to study. But you also have to have the right attitude. Sure, there are more fun things to do than studying, but you shouldn't let yourself be negative about it. Learning new things can be fun, and just think of those great scores you'll be getting."

U stands for understand. If you don't understand what you're studying, it isn't going to do you much good. If you're reading some difficult text, try putting the thoughts into your own words to see if you get them better. Or try explaining the ideas to someone else. Mark the things you can't understand so you can look at them later."

R stands for recall. Putting the ides in text to your own words will help with this. You can also use pneumonic devices for recall, or make yourself some flash cards. There are lots of things you can do to help yourself remember."

D stands for digest. This is where you get to go back and focus on the things you didn't understand the first time. Try puzzling them out. If you still don't get them, try looking up information from other sources, or ask your teacher when you can. You might also want to ask yourself at this point what you are supposed to be getting out of your readings or notes. Usually there are a few key points the writer or teacher really wanted you to understand, so see if you can figure out what those are. Always look at chapter headings and words in bold letters."

E stands for expand. Ask yourself three key questions:
If I could speak to the author/my teacher/whomever, what questions would I ask and what criticism would I offer?
How can I apply this material to the things I am interested in?
How could I make this material interesting and understandable to other students?"

And finally, R. R stands for review. Skim over your material one last time. Remember the strategies you used that helped you this time, and make sure to use those strategies the next time you study."

Scratching your head, you say, "That sure is a lot to remember. But I think I can handle it."

Sevoach barks and wags his tail. "Great! You're well on your way to being a very good student. But there are a couple more things I want you to consider that might make you a great student."

Hip Tips

Sevoach sits down again. "We've done a lot of talking about doing homework, reading, and going over class notes," he says.. "So I think you can guess how important it is that you do your homework, read your assignments, go to class, and make sure not to fall behind. You might be able to get notes from a classmate if you miss class, but you'll be able to remember things a lot better if you hear them for yourself. Not only that, but take notes on your readings, too. It's a lot easier to study your notes from the last chapter than going back and reading the whole chapter again."

Start studying several days before an exam. Don't just cram the night before." Sevoach's muzzle is wrinkled as if he thinks this is the worst thing in the world. "Cramming for an exam just proves that your short-term memory is working... you're not actually learning anything. Plus if you stay up late cramming for an exam or pull an all-nighter, you're going to be way too sleepy to perform well during the exam."

Testing yourself is really easy. When you're going through your readings and through your notes, write 'Who-what-where-when-why' questions about the material. For example, 'Who invented the light bulb? When did he invent it? Why did he invent it?' Then use these questions to test yourself. The questions you come up with could very likely be the same questions you get on quizzes and exams!"

Study with a friend. Even if you're not studying the same thing, having someone else beside you plugging away at their own homework can be great incentive to do your own. Just make sure you study, and don't just sit around and chit-chat or play games."

Taking a deep breath, Sevoach concludes, "And finally, talk to your teacher. They won't bite you, I promise. A lot of times teachers will have special time set aside to talk to students, or would be willing to stay after class or even after school to help you out. They're teachers, that's their job."

Tucking your pencil into your notebook, you rise slowly to your feet. Your head is brimming with ideas, and the future seems a bit brighter. "Well, thank you, Sevoach," you say.

Holding out a paw for you to shake, Sevoach replies, "Thank you for visiting me.". As you start to wander away from the clearing, the green gelert waves and continues to wave until he is obscured behind the trees and bushes. But just before you head back to the Neoschool Sevoach's voice drifts up from behind you, saying, "Good luck! And stop back any time!"




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