Study skills

 

One of the most important skills you will develop as a university student is your ability to study. Although you may have developed effective study techniques in school, being at university poses some new and unique challenges.

 

Depending on whether you have come straight from school or whether you have spent some time in the workforce, you will have different approaches to university study. If you are a recent school leaver, you will have to get used to being an independent learner. You will notice some differences from high school study.

What is an independent learner?

 

An independent learner is someone who has found out enough about their subject requirements and their lecturers’ expectations so that they can plan their study effectively. It doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help, or that you are expected to know what to do the whole time. It does mean that you can draw on criteria for your decision-making, like how much reading you should do for a topic; what questions to ask; whether to spend another hour studying before bed.

 

Work, life, study balance

 

If you have not studied for a long time you may think you do not have the skills you need for advanced study, but you will probably find that your time management skills are a great asset.

 

Often the most pressing problem is having to juggle work, study and home commitments. Make sure those close to you understand what you’re doing and why. Let them know in advance your timelines and periods of greatest potential stress.

 

If you have already been managing home and work for some time, you can turn your time management skills to a new set of tasks.

 

* Try making a list of things that have to be done to keep life running smoothly.

 

* Then make another list of thing which could be done, but which are not really essential. They can be put aside till the end of semester, or even reallocated to other family members.

 

* Do a backwards diary from your furthest deadline to the present time, so you can see how many days and hours you have available to allocate to study task

Study goals

 

It is good to be clear about your purposes for study. Perhaps your aim is to achieve a more interesting career. For many students it is a question of meeting challenges, and of self-fulfilment.

 

Enjoying study

 

Possibly the best way of getting involved and drawing satisfaction from your studies is to try and enjoy your subjects for their intrinsic value. Your interest can be kindled and maintained by reading around the subject area, making connections between subjects, seeing links with real life situations and in discussing with students and lecturers.

 

Some people find it useful to distinguish between those subjects which they find interesting and those which are essential to complete their course. If this happens to you, it’s important that you employ some strategies to keep your motivation and focus on those essential but not-so-interesting subjects.

 

Getting your goals clear is the important thing.

Make it a game

 

Some students make it a game. You can give yourself points for completing tasks on time; or for time spent concentrating on your least favourite subjects. One student even devised a golf-style scoring system to make sure he spent enough time on all his subjects.

Task-oriented study

 

As with most things in life, the quality of your study is more important than the quantity. So you’ll probably achieve more with task-oriented study than time-oriented study.

 

Task-oriented study means setting clear tasks and prioritising your work to accomplish certain selected tasks in the time you have available. Rather than just saying ‘I’ll spend two hours on Biology this afternoon’, you’ll achieve more if you say ‘I’m going to skim read those three chapters for my class and write up my Biology prac’

 

Weekly timetables

 

You can use a study timetable to fit in study, work and leisure activities around your weekly classes. It is up to you how rigidly you allot the remaining hours from week to week. The danger is that you may set impossibly high standards for yourself so that the whole system collapses. But it is always better to have some system rather than none at all.

Your lecturer will tell you (or you can ask) how many private study hours, in their experience, are likely to be adequate to study their subject. For example it might be two hours for every hour of class time. This is a guide only, and there is evidence to suggest that, not surprisingly, the more hours of effective study you put in, the better you’ll do!

 

Monitor yourself

 

You will need to make some changes if you find that you are falling behind in one subject or getting confused by studying two subjects close together. If you are not a morning person you’ll soon find that scheduling intellectually demanding work first thing in the morning when you are only half awake doesn’t work for you. Adjust your weekly timetable to suit your own patterns.

 

Realistic timeframes

 

You need to develop a realistic sense of what can be achieved in a specific amount of time. Take note of how long it takes you to do typical tasks:

 

* reading through lecture notes

 

* looking for books in the library

 

* reading a ten page journal article

 

* drafting a 1,500 word assignment

 

* proof-reading a 3,000 word essay.

Don’t waste your energy trying to force a task into an unrealistic amount of time. With practice you will be able to judge the time you need to get specific things done.

 

 

 

Focus on your purpose

 

Be clear about what you need to achieve when you’re studying. Your approaches to study should be affected by the knowledge that some material simply needs to be understood, whereas other material should be understood and remembered. You need to adapt your reading and note-taking skills accordingly.

 

Keep asking these critical questions:

 

* What do I know already?

 

* What do I need to know?

 

Semester timelines

 

It is essential that you get a sense of the pattern of study requirements for the semester.

Find out as soon as possible when assignments are due. Mark these dates on a calendar where you work, and watch out for those horror stretches when all your essays fall due at the same time.

 

When you have a clear picture of the ‘trouble spots’, you can plan ahead, so that you can get all your assignments in on time. You might like to set up a timeline for the semester, to work out for each assignment the latest date on which you can afford to start work on it.

 

Manageable tasks

 

People tend to put off large tasks because of the sheer size of them. Try and make it a matter of course that you attempt to convert larger tasks into smaller tasks. Whatever we attempt to do is made easier by looking at it on a small, manageable scale.

Reward yourself

 

After you’ve completed a sizeable task, it’s a good idea to reward yourself.

 

You could

 

* read a newspaper

 

* watch a program on TV

 

* ring a friend

 

* listen to some music.

 

Useful chunks of time

 

Do not expect that each subject will require equal time. And do not think that, if you have not been sitting in front of your books, you have not been ’studying’; many different activities qualify as ’study’, including the thinking that goes on in your mind when you take a break from your books.

 

It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a twenty-minute burst of concentrated work. However, most people find that fifty minutes to an hour is the longest they can concentrate fruitfully without stopping. So, when you find your concentration failing and your attention wandering —

Take a break

 

A break can mean

 

* doing some yoga or stretching

 

* getting a drink

 

* playing with the cat

 

* admiring the scenery out the window

 

* checking the letterbox.

 

It’s a good idea to stand up and move around. And it’s best to keep your hourly break to no more than ten minutes.

 

Healthy body, healthy mind

Do schedule some active recreation into your life. Three or four times a week is best, at least 30 minutes per time. Can you download lecture or other material on to a player and so study and exercise at the same time?

 

Energetic walking is cheapest, but depending on where you live, there may be a vast array of activities to choose fr

 

Exams

 

Remember that you are studying at university because you have already passed a lot of exams. What you need to do now is to continue doing those things that have worked for you in the past, and try and eliminate any bad study habits which have previously hampered your success.

 

At university level you are not just tested on simply what you can remember. University lecturers are not only interested in testing how much you know, but also in finding out how well you apply your knowledge. Try not to think of exams as hurdles between you and good marks or a degree. Instead, think about exams as an opportunity for you to demonstrate your understanding of material you have studied. Of course exams require you to work under conditions and time constraints which can be stressful, but this is just practice for dealing with the pressures and deadlines you will face in your working life after you graduate.

 

Exam preparation

 

Refuse to believe the student who says she only works just before exams and still gets through. Revision doesn’t begin a week before the exams, although it might be more intense towards the end of the semester. To maximise the chances of a satisfactory result in your exams, start your preparation as early as possible in the semester.

 

Here are five concrete things you can do at any time to prepare for exams:

 

* Get hold of appropriate textbooks early and familiarise yourself with them. Try to do some preliminary reading.

 

* Make contact with other students – they may wish to form useful study groups later on.

 

* .Make sure you’re acquainted with the course program, lectures, tutorials, lab sessions - what is or has been covered, and when?

 

* Think where your subjects fit in to your overall course and career objectives. Maybe more work on that subject you find boring now will pay off much later on.

 

* Work through past papers. You can access past exam papers from the Past exams database If working through a whole paper seems a bit too daunting, it’s a good idea to select some questions. . Time yourself and see how much you can accomplish within the allotted time. You might want to select questions that you have not covered during the semester, answer these, and give them to your lecturer. At the very least this will let the lecturer know you are interested in the subject – and it will give you good practice.

 

Exam strategies

Five important points to remember on exam day

 

1. Get there on time – make arriving at the exam on time as simple

and straightforward as possible so you feel relaxed.

 

2. Take care of the technicalities – budgeting time, bringing the right

equipment, writing legibly, improving weaker answers before

polishing good ones.

 

3. Read the instructions.

 

4. Breathe deeply and don’t panic.

 

5. Answer the question. Establish what it asks for; then recall, select

the relevant material, organise it, and formulate your answer.

 

Going blank in an exam

 

Here are two things you can do if you find that you have gone completely blank and you don’t know what to do. The first thing you can do is approach it on a physical level and begin breathing very deeply. Just let your mind go blank, flow with it for a few minutes breathing in and out as deeply as you can. Close your eyes if you like and just come around gently once your body is feeling more relaxed.

 

If you are just about to start writing on a certain question and your mind goes blank, just start writing anything at all on some scrap paper. Perhaps write the name of the topic, scribble down anything you can think of about the subject, and just see what happens. Hopefully this should jog your memory and get you thinking about the topic again. If it still does not work though, skip the question and come back to it later. Don’t spend precious time agonising over something that will probably return to you as your mind is prompted by other material on the exam.

 

Exam revision plan

 

 

1. Make a list of all your subjects’ exams and a brief description of the type of examination for each. (2 minutes)

 

2. For each one, note down what kind of revision you want to do and where you will start. (10 minutes)

 

3. How many days are there between now and the start of exams? Estimate how many of these days you can use as revision days. (5 minutes)

 

4. Using the notes you have made, work out a revision plan for yourself. (5 minutes)

 

5. Consider factors which will affect you in carrying out this plan. Make two separate lists: one of helping factors, such as membership of a study group or enthusiasm for the course; and the other of hindering factors, such as noisy accommodation or a tendency to panic. (5 minutes)

 

6. Now, look for ways of boosting the helping factors and reducing the hindering factors. Write them down. (10 minutes)

Study groups

 

Should I study by myself or in a group?

 

Informal study groups can work well if

 

* you have common objectives and everyone is keen to achieve them

 

* meetings are tailored with objectives in mind

 

* you have common topics you want to cover

 

* you get on well together

 

* you are all prepared to share what you know

 

* you leave time for private study too

 

* meetings are not just an excuse to get together with your friends

 

But most important: Start thinking about revising now, then do it!

 

 

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