Study Skills are essential if a student is going to succeed in education. They include, amongst others being able to organise your study time and space, having effective research skills, being able to produce different styles of written work. Like any other skills, these have to be learned and the SAs help their students to develop these skills. Pick up some ideas from the following Top Tips!
Top Tips for improving your Study Skills |
- Check your timetable and diary each week. Then set aside at least five sessions of one hour or more for homework and private study.
- When studying, give yourself short breaks every hour, move about, get some air and drink plenty of water.
- When writing class notes, use coloured pens, highlighters, post-it notes and symbols to make key points and sections stand out.
- Date all your class notes and file them in date order in a ring binder. Use dividers to separate each subject.
- Set yourself targets each week. Make sure that they are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time constrained.
- Teach yourself to skim read – check the first and last paragraphs of a section in a textbook, they often summarise or recap the main points.
- Use at least 3 different sources when planning an essay (more for coursework), including books as well as the Internet.
- Use a dictionary! If you don’t know what a word means – look it up!
- Plan all your written work. Even A Level essays and coursework need a beginning, middle and an end!
- Type those essays and coursework – you can do several drafts and cut and paste the best sections.
