Studying is the process of learning and understanding all that you have been taught about a topic. It should be a continuous process throughout the year, for all of your subjects. Study needs to become a habit, with well established routines.

People learn and recall information in different ways. Not all the tips provided here will be useful to you. You need to identify those strategies that best suit you. If you use them over an extended period of time you will reap the rewards.

Learning Styles – How do you study best?

How you learn and how you absorb information is a very important part of your learning. It is equally important to how you study.
It is important to be a flexible learner. Your learning style may alter according to many factors. Different styles work for different subjects and even the time of the day. You will probably learn by using a combination of these styles.
How do you learn?

Visual Learning – You learn best when information is presented visually and in a picture or design format. When trying to remember something, you can often visualise a picture of it in your mind. Study Tip – Use colour, draw frames or call out boxes around important information. As much as possible, translate words and ideas into symbols, pictures, and diagrams.

Auditory Learning – You learn best by listening and discussing. When trying to remember something, you can often “hear” the way someone told you the information, or the way you previously repeated it out loud. Study Tip – talk about information and ideas. Work with friends to assist you in learning course material. Or, work with a “study buddy” on an ongoing basis to review key information and prepare for exams. Get yourself in a room where you won’t be bothering anyone and read your notes and textbook out loud.

Kinaesthetic learning – Learn best by moving around and touching objects. You like to be physically engaged in a “hands on” activity. Study Tip – when studying, walk back and forth with textbook, notes, or flashcards in hand and read the information out loud. Think of ways to make your learning tangible, i.e. something you can put your hands on. Fiddle with a koosh ball or some blue tack.
Environment – Where do you study?

Suitable Surroundings for effective study:

• Well ventilated room, with a comfortable temperature
• Low lighting
• Music without words – Baroque is best
• Wear comfortable clothes
• Sit on a firm-backed chair at a desk or table
• Get everything organised before you study – avoid interruptions and distractions
• Study in a clutter free environment so that your subconscious mind is not distracted
Being “study ready” – How do you organise yourself?

Personal Management – effective use of your time is fundamental to your success:

• THINK about what you need to achieve. Write a list of all the tasks you need to complete.
Prioritise the list – urgent, important, some value, don’t do or do last if you have time
• Study at your best thinking time
• When completing assignments and/or preparing for examinations – divide into bits of manageable tasks and work to a plan.
• Drink at least 6-8 glasses of water a day.
• Take a break for 10 minutes, every hour and walk around.
• Eliminate procrastination and other time wasters – create more time by watching less television or get up 30 minutes earlier in the morning.
• Complete challenging tasks first
• Use a diary or progress chart

Remembering what you have learnt – What are the 7 keys to memory?

1. Primacy – Learn the most important information first
2. Recency – Revise the most important information last
3. Reviewing and Repetition – Go over your notes regularly – first day after learning them, one week later, one month etc.
4. Standouts – ‘Memorable moments’
Sometimes tools like Mnemonics, Acrostics or Acronyms may help jog your memory.
Highlight key points. For example: Use red for difficult and important facts, frame key ideas and number main points. Use rhymes, songs, and raps.
5. Chunking – Learn only 3 or 4 things at a time
6. Association – Create real life examples to make it easier to remember information
7. Visuals – Draw pictures and diagrams for key concepts
For example: flashcards, personalised pictures, diagrams or illustrations
Graphic Organisers – How do you organise your thinking?
Putting information into a useful format helps you to select and organise main concepts and supporting detail and to show relationships.
Some organising tools that may help are:
• Overlapping circles map – compares two ideas
• Cycle map – shows the order and relationship of the various stages that make up a cycle
• Spider map – represents a central concept and shows relationships between main and supporting points
• Fish-bone diagram – represents a variety of causes and their single effect
• Retrieval chart – displays relationships between concepts
• Adaptations – uses a series of questions or headings to help organise your thoughts
• Flow diagram – sequences information
• Time lines – structures information in time sequence
• Structured overview – presents a framework of a topic by showing the hierarchical relationship keywords to a concept
• Mind-map – a visual representation showing links between ideas. Incorporates meaningful drawings and colour.

Remembering Information – What strategies will help you to remember?

There are many memory and comprehension tools to help you understand the information and remember it better. Some common tools are outlined here:

1. Review, Repeat, Rehearse
2. Memory Tools
a) LOCI - Memory Strategy
In this strategy visual imagery is used to link items to be remembered with items in familiar settings. Location of items in your home could serve as settings.
b) Rhymes, poems, songs
Mnemonics – A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering).
For example: “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have thirty one, except February which stands alone.’; and the fate of each of King Henry VIII’s wives. “Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.
Acrostics – A verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message)
For example: The planets in their order from the sun. My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). (I know Pluto doesn't count anymore!)
Acronyms – A word formed from the initial letters of a series of words – ie: all letters are reminders).
For example: ROY G. BIV may look like a name but each letter represents a colour of the rainbow – in the right order too! (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)
3. Comprehension tools
a) SQ3R – to ensure deep understanding
• Survey Familiarisation with the information and ideas
• Question Create questions around headings and images.
• Read Interpret meaning and relate to personal knowledge.
• Recall Recall key points
• Review Make notes of key points
b) Processing Information
Put all information up high – study notes, graphic organisers, Mind Maps, diagrams etc. When you are trying to recall information and apply your understanding in an examination and you cannot remember something – look up to activate your brain.
4. Paraphrasing Strategies
Memory Strategies linked to your Learning Style to assist with the comprehension of written material
a) RAT (Auditory/Kinaesthetic strategy) R – Read, A – Ask, T - Tell.
b) RAD (Visual/ Kinaesthetic strategy) R – Read, A – Ask, D - Draw.
c) RAP – R – Read, A – Ask, P – Put it in your own words.

Habits of Mind

Habits of Mind are dispositions displayed by intelligent people in response to problems, dilemmas, and enigmas, the resolution of which are not immediately apparent.

1. Persisting: Stick to it!
Persevering in task through to completion; remaining focused.

2. Managing Impulsivity: Take Your Time!
Thinking before acting; remaining calm thoughtful and deliberative.

3. Listening with understanding and empathy: Understand Others!
Devoting mental energy to another person’s thoughts and ideas: holding in abeyance one’s own thoughts in order to perceive another’s point of view and emotions.

4. Thinking flexibly: Look at it Another Way!
Being able to change perspectives, generate alternatives, consider options.

5. Thinking about your Thinking (Metacognition): Know your knowing!
Being aware of one’s own thoughts, strategies, feelings and actions and their effects on others.

6. Striving for accuracy and precision: Check it again!
A desire for exactness, fidelity and craftsmanship.

7. Questioning and Problem Posing: How do you know?
Having a questioning attitude: knowing what data are needed and developing questioning strategies to produce those data. Finding problems to solve.

8. Applying past knowledge to novel situations: Use what you Learn!
Accessing prior knowledge: transferring knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned.

9. Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision: Be clear!
Striving for accurate communication in both written and oral form: avoiding over generalisations, distortions and deletions.

10. Gathering Data Through all Senses: Use your natural pathways!
Gathering data through all the sensory pathways – gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinaesthetic, auditory and visual.

11. Creating, imagining, and innovating: Trying a different way!
Generating new and novel ideas, fluency, originality.

12. Responding with Wonderment and Awe: Have fun figuring it out!
Finding the world awesome, mysterious and being intrigued with phenomena and beauty.

13. Taking Responsible Risks: Venture out!
Being adventuresome: living on the edge of one’s competence.

14. Finding Humour: Laugh a little!
Finding the whimsical, incongruous and unexpected. Being able to laugh at oneself.

15. Thinking Interdependently: Work together!
Being able to work in and learn from others in reciprocal situations.

16. Remaining Open to Continuous Learning: Learn from experiences!
Having humility and pride when admitting we don’t know; resisting complacency.