Print Version

 

 

 

UNIT VIII: STUDY SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES

INTRODUCTION

             
Good study skills and strategies help facilitate successful completion of courses.  Research suggests that there is no right or wrong way to study. What follows are some useful study tips. Use those that work best for you.

MOTIVATION

  1. Take Some Small Steps toward Your Goal Now!  Get a sense of satisfaction from achieving small goals each day.  Break a study task into small pieces.
  2. Be an Optimist.  Fill your mind with positive thoughts and outcomes. If you falter in your studies, do not listen to the self-defeating voice inside you.  A failure is just another opportunity to succeed. 
  3. Be a One-Minute Course Manager.  Take at least one minute each day and write down what you must do in your course to achieve your goal. Chart a course.  The time you spend in mapping out a study strategy will enable you to move more quickly.
  4. Pay Attention to Your Thoughts.  Thought always precedes an action.  When we limit our thinking we limit our motivation to act.  Use positive thoughts to put your goals into action.  Every day list some of your most creative and exciting thoughts.   From time to time during the day pause and think about your goal, picture it and talk about it in your mind.
  5. Analyze Your Study Plan.  Is there a way it could be better organized?  Is it organized to utilize your dominant learning techniques? Does your study place foster creativity and sharpen your focus? 
  6. Read Aloud for Your Next Reading Assignment.  Chances are you will retain more for a longer period of time when you read aloud.   Put key information from your reading on a tape recorder.  This will enable you to study while you drive, exercise, etc. 

TIME/SELF MANAGEMENT

  1. Set up a Time Management System that Works for You.   If you learn best in the morning, read and study before work.  When your things-to-study list gets boring try recreation.  Use planners and time organizers that are colorful and imaginative.   Make a time/study plan and follow it.  Have a study area where you can concentrate.  Establish a study priority list for the day and week.  Keep your stacks of work/study material out in your study area.
  2. Make Use of Integrating Time.  The strategy is combining different tasks at the same time so all are accomplished.  As you look at a number of daily or weekly tasks, ask yourself whether you could accomplish two or more at the same time. 
  3. Make Use of Several Study/Time Management Techniques.  Divide a big assignment into small pieces that can be done one at a time.  Start with an easy and enjoyable part of your study task.  Have a study area where you can concentrate.  Examine your procrastination patterns and break them.  Make a commitment to someone about your study plan for the week.  Get a tutor if you need extended assistance.

READING TEXTBOOK ASSIGNMENT

The reader of a college textbook must decide what is important to learn, and read with the goal to understand and comprehend information for long-term recall.

One of the keys to successful reading is concentration; accordingly, you should find a quiet place to study that is free of distractions.   There are several reading models around to put into practice.  One such model is “The Action Reading Plan” consisting of three steps: Get an overview, Read actively, and Recall the Material.

GET AN OVERVIEW

Why? Getting the big picture regarding a topic, chapter, or section will better enable you comprehend and retain the details you will read later.  Most of us learn details better when we can relate them to a meaningful whole. How? Quickly skim over your textbook to gain a sense of how it is organized and what it concerns. Review author’s background, index, table of contents, preface, glossary, headings, sub-headings, and summaries.  Skim through the sections or chapters before reading them in detail.

Try to answer these questions:

  1. How is text organized?   
  2. What is the general thrust of each chapter?
  3. What do I already know about the subject matter?

READ ACTIVELY

Why? This process will involve you in the material, facilitate comprehension and, and increase your retention.  How? The following suggestions will assist you in this process.

  1. Pre plan how much you intend to read at one sitting.
  2. Work on sections of the chapter rather than trying to read the whole chapter non-stop.
  3. Ask questions before each section or paragraph.  Comprehension and retention improve when you read for a purpose.   A suggested question is: What in the paragraph, section, or chapter do I need to know?  Questions you formulate may later appear on exams. 
  4. Actively read a paragraph or one short section at a time.  Read with a pencil or marker underlining key (but only key) concepts, ideas, or words.  After you finish a full paragraph or a headed section, jot in the margin, cues and small notes you find helpful.

RECALL THE MATERIAL

Research on retention of acquired knowledge indicates that immediate recall and practice is important.  How?

  1. After you have read a paragraph or section, answer your questions in a summary, using your own words.  If you have difficulty with this step you may want to review the paragraph or section again.
  2. Look at marginal or mapped notes you have made which serve as cues and try to recall the material they represent.
  3. After you have read several paragraphs or sections, try to tie main ideas, concepts, and facts together into a whole that is meaningful to you. 
  4. Link the main ideas to something you already know.

ORGANIZATION AND PREPARATION FOR WRITING

Writing papers can be an enjoyable experience when you take the time to plan and organize. The key is to have a format or “blueprint;” for your paper design. For example, if you intend to prepare a paper on how technology has changed marketing strategies, the following suggestions will assist you in this process.

  1. List several focus ideas you have for the paper you intend to write and rank them in logical sequence. 
  2. After you have decided on the direction your paper will take, begin to collect the data and documentation, and sources from which you will draw in preparing your paper.
  3. Jot down thoughts regarding your course of study during the week at various times.
  4. Begin “free writing”—just write as it comes—refrain from judging what you’re writing or from trying to choose correct words.  You can edit later.  Use clustering as “free writing” put your subject in the center of a piece of paper and write as rapidly as possible all the thoughts that “pop” into your brain.
  5. From the “free writing” form a rough thesis sentence—what the paper is about.
  6. From this sentence make an outline and begin writing by filling in your outline.
  7. Try this form to structure your outline:
    • Introduction- your opening statement or quotation, questions you will attempt to answer and terms you may need to define if it is to be a technical paper.
    • Body - The first aspect you choose to introduce is based on what you are trying to emphasize. The second aspect should flow from the first aspect. The third, fourth and other aspects are tied in to each other and continue to make the body of the paper.
    • Conclusion- this section of the paper summarizes your findings and answers the questions you presented in the introduction.
  8. Hints to keep you on track with your paper.
    • Maintain an idea folder for the introduction, body, and conclusion section.  As ideas occur, write yourself a note and put it in your folder.
    • Divide the paper into sections and start writing the one you can do now.  No need to start with the introduction first.
    • If you are working on one section and ideas about another one occurs simply write some notes and insert them in the proper section.
    • Do take breaks while writing; particularly if you start thinking self-defeating thoughts such as, “I’m sick of writing this paper.”  Leave it for a while and do something that you enjoy. 
    • Work on small parts of the paper you can do now rather than trying to tackle the whole project.

MEMORY IMPROVEMENT

Improving your memory requires knowledge of various techniques. Select from these methods appearing below, those that work best for you and practice.  Just because you have read and understood your textbook assignment does not mean you have retained this material.   Most of what you have read in the last l0 minutes is in your short-term memory.  More than likely you won’t be able to recall this material tomorrow unless you use methods to move it to the long-term memory.   Review the following long-term memory techniques.

  1. Get the “Big Picture” of a subject area before you attempt to learn the specifics.  Skim your whole textbook, section, and/or chapter before you read page by page.  The concept is that we remember better when we can relate the parts to the whole.
  2. Space your learning over a period of time.  Try to take large and small breaks between study times.  For example, you are likely to be more successful in retaining material in three two-hour sessions than one six-hour session.  Even in the two-hour session you should pause occasionally and reflect on something other than what you are reading.
  3. Create meaningful associations.  When you have to remember a number of details, group them together in a common association that has meaning to you.  For example you may want to create a chart that groups common terms and definitions by color.  You could make a form of diagram that groups common theories or concepts.
  4. Practice the principle of recitation.  Simply recite aloud to yourself the key ideas you have just read from you textbooks or notes. For many people this is the best memory technique of all.
  5. Visualize relationships. Create a picture of the information you are trying to learn.  Draw the main topic in the center of the page.  Arrange subtopics about the main topic around the center. Use words numbers, symbols, and colors and pictures to organize your information.
  6. Use mnemonic methods for aiding memory.  Mnemonics techniques require that the items to be remembered be organized in personally meaningful and concrete ways.  For example, the acronym MASH is encoded as Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

EXAM PREPARATION

 Following are additional methods associated with increased success on tests.

  1. Plan an overall study strategy for the exam.  Survey what you need to know for the exam. How do your notes, the text or any assignments relate? Decide how much of the material you already know and what you do not know.  Write down any information that you need to know.  Review flashcards, outlines and any summaries you have made during the term.
  2. Know what was emphasized and what you are expected to know.  Review you course study guide and text.
  3. Study and Review actively.  Read actively by reviewing chapter sub-headings and topic sentences recalling the important points.  Recite them, write them, say them, hear them, and picture them.
  4. Read the test questions and directions very carefully.  Be alert to read the questions as they are, not as you would like them to be.  Make sure you understand the kinds of answers expected.
  5. Answer easy questions first.  Working on questions that you are prepared to answer is one method to reduce test anxiety.
  6. Be aware that in objective and multiple-choice tests the question may have a best answer and not necessarily a correct answer.  If this is the case, work toward selecting the best answer from those available.
  7. Pay particular attention to the wording of questions.  Watch for qualifiers such as all, must, some, great, much, little, and no.  The test maker is interested in knowing when and under what circumstances something is or is not true.  Examine all questions containing negative wording such as not or the prefix un.  Read these questions very carefully to assure full understanding.
  8. Handling excessive test anxiety.  Some amount of test anxiety is beneficial.  It can facilitate test performance by increasing alertness and motivation.  However, excessive anxiety can result in poor concentration, carelessness, and poor test performance.  If find the prospect of sitting for your exam particularly unsettling, follow these suggestions:
    • Avoid stressful situations just before exams.
    • Think calm and relaxing thoughts about yourself, and talk to friends who make you feel good about yourself.
    • Arrive at your exam room only a few minutes early, and review what you know about the subject.