Victus Study Skills System - Review

Teaching our kids at home can be challenging.  One of the things I found to be an especially hard concept was how to study.  Recently we had the chance to review  Victus Study Skills System.  This was a complete program designed to teach students how to study effectively.

What products I used in the Victus Study Skills System :


Victus Study Skills System Student Workbook - $20
Victus Study Skills System Teacher Edition - $40

Recommended Age:  This product would be best for 5th-12th grade.  Keeping in mind that younger students will need more teacher help.

About:  

This product is designed to teach students how to study.  From planning for the future to mapping out projects - students will develop the appropriate skill set to accomplish goals.  

The teacher edition is a spiral bound text that includes the answer key for the student workbook.  The student workbook is also spiral bound and has all the worksheets required. 



Lessons Covered:

1. Introduction and Study Habits Checklist
2. Learning Strengths
3. Mission and Goal Setting
4. Time Management
5. Organization and Study Environment
6. PQRST
7. Listening
8. Note Taking
9. Test Taking
10. Review

 How we used this product:


My oldest son who is 13 and in 8th grade worked with me on this program.  It is designed to move fast there are ten lessons so depending on how fast you move you could take as little as 10 days or as much as a month.  With my student being on the younger end (not yet high school)  we needed to take about 2 weeks  to make sure concepts were understood.  Basically we moved along slowly but successfully.  We took about 30 minutes three times a week to complete the course. 

My Thoughts:

My intention for this product was to pick up the teachers edition, open and go.  With this being only my second year of homeschooling I have discovered that most of my teacher editions with other curriculum walk me through ALL the teachings.  That wasn't quite the way it works with this program.  What I found is that I jumped right in after reading the first bit for teaching and I was okay for the first few lessons teaching the concepts.  Then things got interesting.  I found I needed to go back and re-read all the beginning concepts and actually take the time before teaching to prepare for each lesson.  Not much time maybe 10 minutes but that was something new to me.  

I personally really liked this course for so many reasons.  One of the first activities we did was to find out my student's learning strengths.  There was a little test that you tally up the points and see if your child is more of a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner.  This was both fun and enlightening for us!  My son was actually excited to learn that his strengths were visual and auditory.  It was a great opening activity for the course and helped peak his interest in the rest of the workbook.  

Another highlight for me is how it ask the kids to map out their goals.  I think in today's world we focus so much on the immediate future (tomorrow) rather than the further future (10 years from now.)  While the bible says we should: 

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.  - Proverbs 27:1

We should have goals we would like to achieve.  I think about the saying:  a failure to plan is a plan to fail.  What is awesome is this study system makes the kids think about the goals they want in the far-future.  

When we embarked on lesson 8 - Note taking I didn't think it would be that important because my son had been notebooking for the past 2 years in our history.  However I soon discovered that his notes were not condensed and he was almost writing every word I spoke.   Learning some shorthand and bullet type style of notetaking has improved his notebooking.  Now he is able to put down the main points and keep up in class better.

Pros:

• Christian Curriculum
• Quick Course
• Important skill set learning

Cons:

• Teacher planning/prep required
• Easier for older students (high school) or perhaps something to revisit again in high school if done in younger grades

In conclusion both my son and I liked this curriculum.  He said it wasn't anything hard or new but it came together in a different approach and included good reminders.  I think that sums it up perfectly.  The kids know they should study and probably have some idea they are supposed to have a game plan.  Victus just gives them the tools in a easy to apply format so that they can map out, execute and successfully complete a project, life goal, or test.  I think this is a course that would benefit every high school aged child to really prepare them for the vigorous studies in 9th -12th as well as those who are college bound.