Know what you want!
Set goals!
Reflect!
Create your strategy!
Learn study skills!
Set goals!
Reflect!
Create your strategy!
Learn study skills!
1. Why would you study?
Is it because you want to
* Develop yourself?
* Prove your abilities?
* Build self-esteem and confidence?
* Get your life on track?
* Experience university life?
* Get a broader view of life?
* Get a university degree?
* Learn more and increase your own skills and competence?
* Get a good grade?
* Improve your chances of getting a good job?
Select two or three of these objectives. Try to describe in more detail why you selected these.
- 2. Create goals for the study.
Long-term and short term goals
Short term goals are probably more important to elaborate.
When you formulate your short-term goals, it is important to be specific. Avoid expressing them as wishes. They should be expressed as something measurable. Eg.: "On 20 September, I will be able to conjugate the French verbs etre and avoir in the present, past and future tense and count to one thousand in French without hesitation."
or: "On 20 September, I will be able to give my class a lecture in which I explain the term "entropy".
Long-term goals may be that you should take the exam with B as a minimum result.
Once you have made up such goals, create a strategy to achieve those goals.
Celebrate when you reach the targets. Take a glass of champagne with your sweetheart or go for a walk in the forest.
- 3. Reflect
Reflect on how you can make it even better when you take on the next targets
- 4. Study Buddy
Find a fellow student - a "study buddy". It's usually nice to study with someone. Study Buddies are correcting and encouraging each other. You can air your doubts and try out new ideas.
A study buddy or study group may prevent the development of "idiosyncratic understandings" .
Modern employers are often interested in knowing how you function in a team. Make sure to get that experience.
In other words: get yourself one or more persons to "play ball" with
- .
.
- 5. Read the syllabus!
Your subject teachers usually have an idea of what you should learn. You should therefore study the objectives of the course and the learning outcomes that are desired for students to have at course completion.
- 6. Schedules
Make time schedules. Use the calendar and define the time frames for your activities
- 7. Learn to learn
Studies at the higher levels require much reading. Not only that - you should preferably understand what you read, too. Learn study skills so that you become more efficient.
- 8. Avoid self-sabotaging
Self-sabotaging may be to skip lectures, postponing studies to the last minute, shade away from the library, being passive, avoid asking qustions, forget deadlines, avoid participating in group work, spending too much time on a sweetheart, partying and all the other stuff. Read about attribution theory and describe your own psychological defense mechanisms that you apply when you try to avoid taking responsibility.
- 9. Learning Strategies
Make your own strategy for your studies.
Find out how to motivate yourself, set goals, use study techniques, make time plans, collaborate with others.
- 10. Be proactive
Be active. Ask! Ask for explanations when you do not understand.
Use the learning environment and learning resources that surround you.
Consider what it means to be proactive as opposed to being reactive.
Get used to take the initiative. Do not make yourself dependent on others.
- 11. The CREAM Strategy
C - Creativity
Find your strategy and your own learning style. Use your imagination!
R - Reflection
Analyze and evaluate what you do and what you have achieved. Can you improve? How?
E - Efficiency
Organize your time. Set up a task list and prioritize. Decide time frames and cut-off dates for your activities
A - Activity
Get engaged. Find meaning in what you do
M - Motivation
Keep track of the learning outcomes you can expect to have at course completion through your own specific short-and long- term goals
(Source: Cottrell, S. (2008) The study skills handbook, Palgrave)
- 12. The MASTER Strategy
M - Motivation
Attitude is crucial. You must want to acquire new knowledge and skills, and you must have faith that you can do it as long as you invest adequately in terms of time and effort.
A - Acquire information
Find and learn the main facts and concepts in the subject in a way that suits your learning style best.
Find your learning style - the best way for you to learn
S - Searching meaning
You must realize that there is a difference between knowing something and understanding it. Facts and information must be converted to something with personal meaning. The parrot method is not sufficient for higher studies. Being able to write on an exam that the French revolution took place in 1789 is simply reproduction of an information fragment. Being able to explain the background of the French Revolution and assess how and why it had great influence on later European and American societies is something entirely different; namely, deeper understanding. You must therefore be able to transform isolated facts into something meaningful and put it into context.
T - Triggering memory
There is usually a lot to remember. Learn memory techniques that help you store new knowledge in your long-term memory and how to retrieve it
E - Exhibiting what you know
Reify your knowledge by teaching your "study buddy" or create a narrative, a lecture, an essay, a PowerPoint presentation etc
R - Reflecting on how you have learned
Think about how you actually learned. What techniques and ideas worked best for you?
Are you able to improve your learning processes in any way? What can be done differently? What other learning methods and learning resources can you use?
(Source: Rose, C. & Nicholl, MJ (1997) Accelerated learning for the 21st century, DTP)
