Join the HowToStudyMethod Email Community………..As a Welcome Gift you receive a 5-part mini email course, ‘How To Pass Your Exams By Avoiding Five Common Mistakes Of Students Who Fail’
-
Categories
-
Assignment Calculator
Assignment Calculator - here’s an interactive tool from QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Library website, to calculate how much time you have for each step of your assignments. (Click on the green square.) Please leave a comment on how useful this is.
Posted in How to study, Study Skills
Leave a comment
What Is The Worst Room In Your Home To Study?
Do you fall asleep when studying? During study, do you feel lonely or isolated or get easily distracted? Do you study in your bedroom?
Your brain associates your bedroom with sleeping. While it may be quiet and set up for study, it may actually be too quiet and too isolated.
What other peaceful place may be more productive? Here are two suggestions: Continue reading
Getting ready for University or College
Starting University or College is a big change from school and marks an important milestone in your life. Here are some tips to make this transition stress free.
1. Visit the web site. Minimise uncertainty by reading up on your chosen course and about student life. Find out what support is offered.
2. Get involved. Go to Orientation Week and attend welcome lectures. Consider joining a club or activity group; it’s an essential element to your university experience. Become familiar with campus layout and location of lecture halls so on day one you can easily find your way. Get your student ID card.
3. View the booklist and get your prescribed textbooks and materials early. Perhaps there’s an option to purchase second-hand. Before the first lecture, scan the Table of Contents and opening chapters so you are familiar with key concepts and terminology.
4. Find out your timetable and adjust outside commitments (e.g. part-time work, sport) to match.
5. Who do you know has been to Uni or TAFE before? Ask them for their tips on how to settle into student life.
Posted in General
Leave a comment
Practicing Retrieval Better Than Rereading or Reviewing Notes, Uni Study Reveals
A Purdue University (Indiana, USA) study shows that rather than reread or review notes students should self-test when studying instead.
Dr Jeffrey D Karpicke studied 200 students. One group created concept maps, diagrams showing connections between the ideas in the text; the second group read the material then practiced retrieving by putting the text away and recalling from memory. One week later when both groups
were tested, the second group who practiced retrieving had 50% better scores than the first group who created concept maps.
All students were asked at the start Continue reading
Learn 60 People’s Names In One Go
I am on a day trip by boat to a small island off Fiji, sailing on the schooner ‘Whale’s Tale’. A member of the crew, Victor, hands out drinks and snacks, and as he does, takes time to find out all everyone’s name - all 60 passengers.
Arriving at the island, we first gather in the community hut. Victor takes the group by surprise as he introduces each of us, one by one, by name.
I capture on video only the last 30 seconds, naming the last 15 people. (He’s already identified 3 rows of people - making a total of 60!)
Aferwards, I ask Victor about his amazing skill. He said:
‘I used to remember only around 6 passenger names.
Then 6 months ago I decided to try to remember everyone’s name,
and introducing everybody when we arrived at the island.
What I do - once we are sailing, I take time to get to know everyone. One by one, I ask them if they want a drink. At the same time I ask their name. When I hand them their drink, I use their name. ‘Here you are, Sandy’ and so on.
It takes me only 30 minutes to learn around 60 people’s names. The most names I’ve remembered at one time is 100.’
Victor is 47 years old.
Sometimes simply deciding to try to remember is the first step way to cultivating a better memory.
In summary:
1. Victor decided it was possible to learn to a list of names.
2. He had a process to capture the to-be-remembered information.
3. As part of the learning process he verbalised and self-tested.
4. The more he did it, the easier it became, the better he got.
Posted in Memory aids
Leave a comment
Uninterrupted sleep is key to good memory
A recent research study out of Stanford University demonstrates the importance of getting uninterrupted sleep, for the brain to create memories.
If you are sleeping with your phone and waking up to read
text messages in the middle of the night, is it undoing all the
hours of study you put in that day?
Switch your phone off when you go to bed and sleep right
through to morning.
Read more about the study at:
|http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2011/july/memory.html
Posted in Exam preparation, How to study, Study Skills
Leave a comment
Practice Past Exam Papers
Practice Past Exam Questions
What smart students do leading up to final exams is to practice retrieval using past exam papers.
By doing past papers, you are self-testing; finding out what you know and what you don’t know. You can then study up in those areas you are weak, to fill in your knowledge gaps.
If you are unsure where to locate past exam papers, Continue reading
Posted in Exam preparation
Leave a comment
How To Study For Exams Using The Sandwich Method
Attention Students on stu-vac or swot vac - here’s a tip on how to pass your exams using the Sandwich Method.
A sandwich has two slices of bread and a middle.
Study a subject you like, then a subject you don’t like so much, then another subject you do like.
Use this sandwich message when studying.
