study management
tutor: Mike Horne FGS
for the Centre for Life Long Learning
The keys to good studying start with good planning, being focused, being relaxed and enjoying it.
No body else can study for you - you have to do it yourself. No body else can tell you the best way for you to study - you have to find that for yourself. But it is possible to learn from other peoples' experiences and mistakes!
If you are studying part-time for a qualification I am full of admiration - it is not easy to fit studying in around your job and home and social life. if you are studying full-time then I would advise you to treat it as if you had a job - i.e. you develop your own routine to work so many hours a day, so many days a week.
Here are some ideas that might help you.
Planning skills.
If you are a part-time learner and don't think you have enough time to do the course in the time allowed - start reading up on the topic before you enroll!
Take some time to plan your studies. Write your plan down. Try breaking the studying up into smaller tasks. List these tasks and tick them off as you do them.
Identify the tasks that will take longest and start them first. If there are a few long/ongoing tasks (e.g. 'fieldwork, literature search, portfolio building) run them together - don't wait until you have finished on before starting the next - some of these tasks will take longer than you think.
Check that you are doing the right tasks and that they are proportional to qualification. You will have to spend longer and work harder on the bits of the course you do not understand. But do not spend so long on them that you neglect the rest of the course. There is no point in achieving a high score in one piece of work that only counts for a small proportion of the final marks, however exciting it is, if you flop the rest of the course! There is a limit to the time you have available - so don't waste it - make sure that you have understood the task that has been actually set by your tutor. And don't get sidetracked into something you find interesting but is not in the syllabus - you can come back to it for your own pleasure when you have got your qualification.
Set yourself deadlines; if possible try to finish the work before the actual deadline, then you will have time to review it and proof read it in a relaxed way.
Pressure Management -
As well as good planning, keeping a sense of reality will help you to study in a relaxed way. Just remember that there is no such thing as the "perfect essay" and that as soon as you hand it in for marking you will start to think of things you could have added! Realise that the completed work is just a representation of what you have done up to that date, representing your thoughts on the day that you wrote it. Hand it in, 'let it go' and start the next task!
Do not try too hard. Many dyslexics are perfectionists. They have an "all-or-nothing" mentality - for instance I cannot just be dyslexic, I want to know everything about it and use my dyslexic super-powers to save the world! But 'trying too hard' often causes stress and stress makes dyslexia worse! Learn to recognise when you are pushing yourself too far and take a break. You cannot study when you are stressed, you cannot do your best work when you are stressed and you are likely go to pieces in an exam. Build breaks into your study plans, use the breaks to achieve positive relaxation and pace yourself.
Beware stress from eye strain when using computers. I have seen a recommendation that you have a ten minute break from the computer screen in every hour and during that break don't read - your eyes need to focus on something in the distance. Also learn how to change the fonts, character size and colours on your computer screen to cut down glare and make the words easier to read.
Discover what you things you do best by yourself without distractions, and plan your day accordingly. You will probably find that the things you enjoy doing can be done almost anytime and anywhere because your mind is focused and ignores the distractions.
Revision skills
Start revising NOW. It is never too early to start planning your revision. Once we have read something we start to forget it - but if we keep reminding ourselves about it than we will remember more when we need it! The more we use the information and relate it to the other things we know, the more it will become part of our 'flesh and bones'.
Good revision depends on good accessible notes. So from the start of your study develop note taking, bibliographical and filing skills.
Know what you are good at. Know how to make the best of your study skills and learning style. And put extra effort into the bits that you find difficult.
As you get nearer to the assessment/exam start to refine and condense your notes. Make the most of your favourite learning style. Perhaps you could record your notes on to a tape or mini-disk and then listen to them rather than reading them? Start a revision plan and revision diary - tick things off as you do them.
Try to obtain old exam papers and see what sort of questions have been asked in the past. But try to avoid 'question picking'; just because a question came up the last three years does not mean that it will not be there this year.
Try putting yourself in the examiners position - if you were setting an exam what would you ask for so that you could test the students knowledge and understanding and mark it easily? What is the examiner looking for in an assessment? Remember that they have to be fair to all students but also be able to reward outstanding students.
Try some practice assessments/exams. Time yourself. Try this with a study partner.
Exam Skills.
Turn up to the exam in a focused and relaxed state of mind. Don't over-revise the night before. Don't turn up with a hangover.
Look at the whole exam paper and decide what you can do easily and how much time you need for each section of the exam. Plan how you are going to do it and plan each essay. Don't spend 50 percent of your exam time answering something that is only worth 10 percent of the marks!
I was told NOT to do the easiest question first (it is tempting to spend too long on the topic you enjoy) but to do the second easiest one first then the easiest. If you run short of time it is better to write something on the last questions rather than leave them unanswered. It is easier to get the first marks available for a question that the last few!
Look for clues in the questions. Are there clues to the answers of early questions in the exam in later questions? Watch out for trick questions that seem to point to an easy but wrong answer (particularly in multiple choice questions). Try putting yourself in the position of the exam markers - what key words and concepts are they looking for in your answer and that they can easily test in an exam? If the marks available are indicated are there clues there? Examples - "What are the 3 main types of rock? (3 Marks). Obvious. "Describe the main features in this picture (5 Marks)". Could there be five key features? "Write a short essay describing three significant features of the three rock types. (10 Marks) " Could the marker be looking for 3 key words/concepts for each type and giving one mark for essay style?
Answer the question that has been set and not the one that you would have asked!
Remember to give your answer structure to help the reader follow what you are trying to say.
If you run short of time it is better to answer the next question in note form rather that spend your time adding to one that is nearly finished. It is easier to get the first 50% of the marks available for an essay question than it is to get the last 20% !
copyright Mike Horne - 2019
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