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STUDY SKILLS
FOR HIGH SCHOOL
In our first school we learned things without having to think about it too much - in a way you were being prepared for work in a senior school. To cut a long story short you were gaining skills that would be useful.
This guide has been designed to do just that. It should help you work out sensible solutions to any problems you may come across as you work towards the qualifications you will need. Remember, everyone is different - no one approach will prove successful for everyone. Each unit of this guide has been tried and tested - use the information to find out what is best for YOU.
ARE YOU AN EFFECTIVE LEARNER? This "question and answer" test may help you spot where you might start to improve your study skills. Just answer YES or NO. Do you plan, make a rough copy of, and check your homework or assignment before copying it out neatly? Do you voluntarily revise a subject even if exams or tests are not due for some time? If you are having problems with a subject, do you talk it over with your teacher as soon as you can? Do you do complete your homework or assignment in advance of its deadline? Do you have a place at home where you can study without being distracted? Do you take notice and act upon the comments and suggestions your teacher might make about your work? Do you keep a record of the "language" (terminology) used in each subject, especially if that subject is science? Do you use the library, internet or other learning aids regularly to help with your studies? Have you always kept your exercise books or folders in good order and up to date? Can you easily spot the main points of a topic when reading a text book and make extra notes from them? Do you plan your use of time by writing down what you have to do and by when? Do you know ways of improving your memory when revising? Do you plan ahead for tests or examinations? Are you able to forget about schoolwork once you have finished studying? Read on to find out what your score means... "YES" TO AT LEAST TEN QUESTIONS: You are well on your way to becoming an effective learner. Use the rest of this guide to help you spot the weaknesses you may still have. LESS THAN TEN "YES" ANSWERS?: No problem - read this guide very carefully, follow the advice, and you, too, can be an effective learner!
Those people who find schoolwork easy are those who can organise their work: They are able to work on their own; they can fit their work to a flexible timetable; they are willing to stick to it. Wise use of time is the key to success - and not just in terms of schoolwork. Your time must be divided up in many other directions. GETTING ORGANISED AND USING TIME AVAILABLE MORE EFFICIENTLY
When asked what they saw as the greatest time wasters, other people came up with the following:
Watching television The first task is to find out where, when and why time is being wasted. Is there a common factor? Secondly, try out time-saving ideas such as: Selective viewing or listening Carrying key-fact note cards for revision in idle moments Limiting time spent on the telephone or with visitors Saying "NO" and meaning it! How and what YOU do is up to YOU No-one else will do it for you THINK CAREFULLY AND BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF!
Many people fail tests or exams because they start their revision too late rather than because they lack ability. The reason for this seems to arise from the many other pressures put upon you. Lessons, practical work, coursework, homework, friends, family, other responsibilities, etc., etc., all eat away at valuable time. No wonder revision gets put off to just before a test or exam! Strange as it may seem, careful planning of what you do and when you do it often uncovers huge amounts of free time you never knew you had! The most important phrase to remember is: ORGANISE EARLY - REVISE REGULARLY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONSTRUCTING YOUR TIMETABLE There are 35 - 40 working weeks in a typical school year. Use this as a guide for your rough timetable. Fill in tasks as they are given. You might include the week a test takes place, the deadline for a project, when vacations are scheduled - it is entirely up to you! Advantages At-a-glance timing for every activity. Busy periods show up clearly. Lead-in time to deadlines can be shown by a long arrow. Time limits for tasks can be set and adhered to. This timetable should then be backed-up with a detailed daily plan which states what you need to do day by day. DO NOT rely on memory for this! There will always be something you have forgotten to take you by surprise at the worst possible time. ...Be Prepared... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAILY TIMETABLING
For the evening, make up a timetable from the time you get home. Divide your time in slots of 15 minutes or so. Don't forget the weekend! Most of this will be taken up with other things but do try spare some time preparing for the week ahead and/or revision for tests and exams. Everyone is different. The timetable must suit YOU and YOUR needs, NOT what someone else says you must do. GET SETTLED - LOOK AT THE TASK - DIVIDE YOUR TIME FIX TARGETS - SET DEADLINES REWARD YOURSELF!! and finally NEVER FORGET WHAT YOUR TIMETABLE IS FOR!
URGENT - must be done now. IMPORTANT - must be done soon. UNIMPORTANT - must be done eventually. There is, of course, a lot of overlap so you might also list the things you have to do only in order of importance - the top one or two becoming urgent. Keep a diary and a pencil handy to record things as they crop up. You could also use a card index, or even a computerised database, whatever you feel you can work with. If you find that more than two items are urgent, then you are the victim of bad planning - do it better next time!! MOST OF ALL BE FLEXIBLE - LEARN TO FIT THINGS IN and BE EQUIPPED - DIARY, TIMETABLES, CARD INDEX, ETC. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another way of setting priorities is to use the 4D system: DUMP anything that does not need to be done at all... DELAY what you can't dump... DESIGNATE a time for what you can't delay... and then..... DO IT! LOOKING BACK ON WHAT YOU HAVE DONE
Try grading yourself (A, B, C, or whatever) on one or more of the following: The grade or marks I obtained My level of effort The growth of my knowledge My level of understanding Keep a record of your own grading. It will help you plan your progress and allow you to set targets. Where do you succeed? Where do you fail? What are you going to do about it? You could also plot your marks on a graph with marks on the vertical axis and school week (1 to 40 or so) on the horizontal axis. You will then see immediately if you are heading up, down or staying the same. NEVERREGARD "FAILURE" AS FINAL Turn it into a challenge and use every opportunity to put it right! Only small changes in effort or attitude are required to move between grades - preferably upward!! SEVEN STEPS TO DEALING WITH PROBLEMS
1) WHAT EXACTLY IS THE PROBLEM? Make sure you know what it is! 2) WHAT END RESULT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE? Decide on what "success" means to you. 3) COLLECT INFORMATION
What are the facts? Who / What can help? 4) DECIDE WHAT HAS TO BE DONE How will you achieve your aim? 5) PLAN AHEAD When? How? Why? 6) ACT Carry out your plan. 7) REVIEW Have you achieved what you set out to do? (Yes or No) Were you unsuccessful? (Go back to Number 1¡¦) Did you fall short in any way? (Go back to Number 2¡¦) Have you learned anything? (If not, why not...?) What should you do next...?
SETTING UP YOUR STUDY AREA
If you always work in this one place your brain will begin to switch into "study mode" as soon as you sit down. In other words, you "activate" your ability to concentrate. In an ideal world the study area would be: QUIET FREE OF DISTRACTIONS COMFORTABLE WELL LIT AND VENTILATED In the real world the first two are difficult to achieve! There is no ideal place to study, only one in which you are able to study. This is a very individual place. Firstly, decide what your study needs are. Do you need silence or some background noise? Do you study best when sitting or lying down? Do you prefer the room light or direct light from a table-lamp? The choices are entirely up to you. Secondly, once you have decided upon your needs, claim your territory! When setting up your workplace you will need to organise your materials so that they are ALWAYS at hand. There is nothing worse than interrupting study to find something that should have been there already. You will definitely need a bookshelf for books and notes and a container or drawer for things such as stationery. IF YOU MIGHT NEED IT, IT SHOULD BE THERE!! It is also helpful to have a large noticeboard in front of your study area to pin timetables, short notes, "find-outs" and "must-do's". It will also be an ideal place to put memory aids so that they are always in sight. Finally, keep it tidy and organised! If you always have to search for materials you will waste valuable time and your concentration will fade. In fact, make it very clear to everyone who may use that room that your study area is sacred - if something then goes missing or runs out then you only have yourself to blame. KEEP IT EQUIPPED - KEEP IT TIDY - KEEP USING IT! A few words about music... It is perfectly OK to listen to music while you are studying. But choose carefully! Educational psychologists have discovered that music with a rhythm of 60 beats per minute actually helps you learn!! However, most contemporary music has a rhythm of 100 - 140 beats per minute which lowers your brain's ability to retain information. Don't believe it? Try it... For your information Classical Baroque music has the correct rhythm of 60 beats per minute or so. GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR LEARNING ABILITY "You cannot teach a man or woman anything; you can only help them to find it within themselves." Galileo "Just as eating against one's will is injurious to the health, so study without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in." Leonardo Da Vinci The only way to make study work for you is to avoid BOREDOM - the worst enemy of learning. From a very early age, we vary what we do to stop ourselves getting bored. We look for new tasks and seek new ways to do things. Sometimes even this fails and we fall into the boredom-trap. We cannot be bothered to find ways to cure our boredom because we are too bored. Over time we develop a concentration-span - the time between starting a task to the time we find our minds wandering. This is because your brain deals with information in a very special way. The brain receives information from our senses. This is then passed on to our short-term memory where it is stored for a short time. From then on the information in short-term memory must be passed on to long-term memory or we end up "forgetting" the information. Your brain's ability to do this depends on how you feel. If you are bored, short term memory is lost very quickly and so can never be passed on. You may be surprised to learn that it is not lost forever - it is stored away often never to be remembered again. The best way to learn is to limit study periods to the length of our concentration-span. This gives the brain the best chance to store what we are studying in long-term memory. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read a large section of the text book belonging to your least favourite subject, preferably from part of the book which has not been covered before. Note the time you start. Make an effort to LEARN and RECALL the information you read. Note the time at which you find your mind beginning to wander, no matter how little. This will be your minimum concentration-span. Repeat the task with your favourite subject. This will be your maximum concentration-span. You will probably find that your concentration-span varies between ten and twenty minutes depending on the subject, how you feel, the amount of rest you have taken, and your eating habits. Now that you know what your own brain can cope with you can sort out your reading and revision to suit. NEVER study beyond your concentration-span. You may still be reading but your brain will be losing most of the information it takes in. This makes it pointless to go on. You may satisfy your need to feel as if you are working hard, but the amount you actually remember will get less and less. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This may be an unusual thing to do in the middle of a study session, but your brain needs that time to sort out the information in your short-term memory. At the end of the rest period, the information you were reading will be much clearer than it was to begin with. Short-term memory lasts between 12 to 48 hours. If you stopped at this point you would be able to recall only about 10-20% of the information you read. To get the information into long-term memory you must REVIEW. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then take another five-minute break and re-read once more, fitting all the bits of information together. Both of these reviews would be made even better by note-taking in whatever way you find easy and helpful. Make sure that the notes you make are well organised! ONE WEEKand TWO WEEKS later review the topic again using your notes. By now you should have found that there has been a huge improvement in your ability to remember, understand and use that information. Finally, you must REVISE. This is simply a way of drawing loose ends together with the same study method but this time using your notes only. If you use the above methods while you are still following a course of study, your final revision will be made much easier. Some students who have used these methods early find that very little final revision is necessary. They became so good at remembering the work during the course of the year that they didn't need to do any more!
IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY
Lay out the pieces Sort out the edges Build inwards towards the most difficult parts Put in the final pieces Stand back and appreciate! In learning, the pieces of knowledge you have can be swapped between several jigsaws in your mind - but there is no pattern which you can follow. By making patterns yourself all the pieces fall into place. Soon, that wonderful feeling of excitement hits you when you look down and see how the jigsaw fits together. If you make patterns within your work then several pieces can be missing from the middle, but by looking at their neighbours a guess can be made as to what the missing pieces should be. In other words - you do not have to know everything! By improving your reading and note-taking skills you can speed up the building of the jigsaw and increase your ability to remember the pattern. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S: SCAN each page at a time noting key words or sections as you read through fairly quickly. R: READ the page or chapter carefully and thoughtfully, making more notes as you go if you like. Concentrate on the key words or sections you highlighted, using them as trigger points for recall. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes should be short, to the point, well-organised and easily read. The exact style is up to you and you only. Some tried and tested methods are given in the next section. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a simple note-making style and is best for making notes during lessons. Don't write everything you hear or read but select out the most important points. Concentrate only on those pointers that will help you recall the lesson content. Improve upon them later when time allows. Use lots of headings, sub-headings, numbered points, "bullets", etc. Heading Sub-Heading 1
Note 1.1
Sub-note 1 Sub-Heading 2
Note 2.1 Or: and so on¡¦ MIND-MAPS¢ç (based on the work of Tony Buzan) Useful for making short notes for revision. Stretch points outwards from a main point or key word. These are best drawn from notes made during lessons which have then been added to with further information from text books. Software is also available to make drawing and revising a Mind Map easy - go to www.mindmapper.com KEY-WORD INDEXING This requires the use of index cards which can be purchased at any stationers. As you revise notes write down key-words in two categories: HEADERS and LINKED WORDS. Use the HEADERS as titles for the index cards, and beneath this write a list of the LINKED WORDS. When revising a topic have the index cards in front of you. With practice, just the thought of a HEADER word will trigger recall of most, if not all, of the rest. BRAINSTORMING Brainstorming is best used when revising in groups (but can be used by someone working alone) and combines all of the above techniques. This is especially good for working out what to put in an essay or extended assignment. Think of everything you can to do with a topic, no matter how odd or unusual. Note down the words and/or ideas, discuss how important they are. From that discussion develop a pattern that makes sense of the things mentioned by getting rid of those that stray from the point. "LUCKY MASCOTS" Lucky mascots can serve a very useful purpose besides sitting on a desk and getting in the way. They can act as memory aids provided that they are used in a sensible way and the method is taken seriously! Select as many small mascots, charms, souvenirs, etc., as you have subjects. These items might include decorated pens, charms from a bracelet, small toys, wrist bands and so on. Large items are a distraction and will not be allowed in the exam room. Link each item with a particular subject and always have it nearby, or even in your hand, while you are doing homework, revising, making notes or testing yourself. The pen option is best if you are easily embarrassed by small cuddly toys on your desk! Your brain will begin to link the learning and memory of each subject with the item chosen. This means that when you are in an exam, touching or handling your chosen "lucky mascot" for that subject will allow the link to "resurface" helping your brain to select the right information held in your memory. Do Lucky Mascots work? OK, it does sound strange - but many people who have tried the lucky mascot technique confirm that if you do take it seriously it does work. And what have you got to lose? If mascots are not to your liking, try rubbing a different scent onto your wrists for each subject, the smell being the trigger for recall. A number of cosmetic shops (for example, The Body Shop) stock a very wide range of different scented oils that could be diluted and used. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING: Eating sugary things causes your blood sugar level to rise suddenly. Your brain associates this with you just having had a large meal. In response your brain makes you feel dull and sleepy. During revision or even during an exam this spells disaster! Avoid eating or chewing confectionery of any kind during an examination. If you must, and if it is allowed, use sugar-free products. Better still, have a starchy meal (rice, noodles, bread, potato) an hour or so before revising or before your exam. This will stop you feeling hungry and provide a steady supply of blood sugar to the brain. Your brain will respond by working at its best. NEVER MISS A MEAL BEFORE AN EXAM. YOU MUST HAVE AN ENERGY SUPPLY. And Finally... I hope that this guide is or has been of some help to you. If you have any observations or comments or if you have a particular study problem that you need help with get in touch with me at the e-mail address given in the recommended links below. If you never ask, you'll never know¡¦
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