Study Skills

Attending class, participating in lectures and discussions, and completing assignments are all important, but equally important are the skills students employ to become successful in class. In fact, good study skills are not just for the classroom. These skills also make employees successful in the workforce.

Listening

Listening is one of the most important skills attributed to student success. According to Ferrett (2009), there is a difference between hearing and listening. As a student, you listen to classmates make presentations and teachers give lectures. In the workplace, you will listen to presentations, communicate with co-workers, and receive customer feedback. Active listening requires discipline and the ability to focus.

Following are 7 strategies to engage you as an active listener.

  1. Recognize listening as being active, not passive. Being an active listener means listening with purpose, and actively seeking information through the speaker’s message.
  2. Listen first, speak last. Allow the speaker to present their message uninterrupted. Asking questions is welcomed, but you should wait until the other person has finished speaking.
  3. Be open to learning. When listening to others, it is important to be receptive to their message. You may not agree with the message, but you should not be judgmental.
  4. Be respectful. Concentrate on the message and be willing to understand different points-of-view. Understand the speaker’s point and intent.
  5. Take notes. Taking notes while listening helps you to retain more information. It also helps memory recall. Don’t try to write down everything, only important tidbits or words that will help you remember larger chunks of information.
  6. Ask relevant questions. Whenever you don’t understand something, make a note of it, and come back to it later. Use your notes form questions that will help you fully understand the speaker’s message.
  7. Observe. Pick up on both verbal and non-verbal messages. Sometimes body language can give extra meaning to a speaker’s message. Often your teachers will signal that particular passages are more important than others. Pay attention.

Taking notes

Taking notes is a helpful way of retaining more information. While attending classes and listening to lectures, you will receive more information than you can remember. Taking good notes not only helps you remember more of what you have heard, it also helps you make connections between what you have heard in class and what you have read in your text. There are many ways to take notes, so you, the learner, must decide what works best for you. Here are some suggestions you may want to consider:

Outlines. These use headings, subheadings, and sometimes bulleted points to present information in a brief, concise manner. See an example of an outline.

Listing. This is a very basic technique of simply writing a list of important words, ideas, and points about a topic. Students may write the first thing that comes to mind, or they may systematically order the information in ways that make the information easy to understand.

Concept maps. These are also called bubble maps, mind maps, and clusters. This type of note taking involves writing a central topic on a page and then branching related topics around the central topic. See a sample concept map.

In addition to the various types of lists available, the following 10 strategies will assist you with taking notes.

  1. Attend class regularly. It is hard to get all the information from your classes if you are not there. Even if you have a friend in class who shares their notes with you, it is still not as effective as hearing the lecture and taking your own notes.
  2. Be on time. Arriving to class late is not only a disruption to other students and the teacher, it does not give the student adequate time to prepare for the lecture and for taking good notes.
  3. Be prepared. Bring writing utensils to class, as well as paper, correction tape or white out, and any other supplies you need. Not being prepared wastes time prevents students from doing their best work.
  4. Sit up front. Sitting at the front of class not only helps students be more attentive, it also makes listening easier. In addition, teachers pay attention to who is listening, and often they will make additional efforts to be sure their students are getting valuable information.
  5. Make connections. After taking notes in class, review them and make connections to the material in the text. Often when giving lectures, teachers offer deeper explanations of the material from the text, and they may also offer anecdotes and stories that help students relate to difficult material.
  6. Use shorthand. You don’t have to write down everything. Instead, only write key words and phrases that will help you remember information. You may also choose to use symbols or even drawings that help you connect to information.
  7. Use a highlighter. When your teacher is going over chapters from the text, highlight key words, phrases, definitions, graphs, charts, and other information that allow you to remember information.
  8. Summarize. When recalling information, write it in your own words, if possible. In addition to learning how to avoid plagiarism, summarizing will help you by putting information into words that you can understand and relate to.
  9. Leave space for revisions.Sometimes pieces of information build upon each other. In order to keep your notes organized, leave room for more information to be added later.
  10. Review your notes. The less time spent between writing notes and reviewing them, the more information you will retain. Read over your notes while they are fresh. This exercise will sharpen your recall.

Studying versus cramming

There is a difference…Cramming is when students review large portions of information in an attempt to memorize as much as possible. This is usually done hours before a test, and it is not recommended as a sound method of studying. The problem with cramming, especially for tests that involve terminology, is that you may end of confusing terms and doing poorly on the test. This method may work fine or some students, but it is likely that you will only learn part of what you intended to. Cramming is ok as long as some effective studying has been done beforehand.

Effective studying

Before you begin studying, find a quiet place with few, if any, distractions. The library is an ideal place, but you may find a place at home that works just as well (like The Learning Center). While resting in bed or a comfortable recliner may sound ideal, it is not. Not only do you risk falling asleep, but you are not at your most attentive. A desk or table - a place where your concentration and focus are at their best - may be more suitable. Once you have found a proper place to study, determine the best time for you to study. Some people study better at night, and some study better in the morning. This may also depend on your available schedule.

Set aside time for each subject, and give each subject the adequate time it deserves. You may choose to devote more time to the subjects you are having the most difficulty with; however, do not neglect any subject. Even if you are doing well in a particular course, spend time keeping up with lessons from that subject.

Take breaks and get some exercise. Exercise helps get the blood flowing and that helps with focus and concentration. After studying for about half an hour to forty-five minutes, take a break. Some light exercises or a brisk walk will help keep your mind sharp. When you return to your studies you will feel refreshed and ready to begin again.

Memorization

Remembering facts and information is necessary in many courses. To make memorizing information easier, some helpful techniques can be used. First, focus on the information and try to absorb as much as possible. It may help to break bigger units into smaller parts. For example, you can break big terms down into smaller parts, and you can examine a process (like making a favorite recipe) into individual steps. Chunking is another technique that is used to memorize information. This involves memorizing information in portions. For instance, a telephone number is easier to remember if you remember the first three digits separately from the last four digits. Association is another technique. This involves thinking of related items. A medical student might remember the word “gastrointestinal tract” by thinking of a gas truck on a train track. It may sound silly, but that’s the point. A silly association will trigger your mind to think of the word or phrase you want to remember. Finally, repeat, repeat, repeat…Repetition helps reinforce memorization, so repeating a sequence of numbers or words may be helpful.

Memorization can also be sharpened by reviewing information right after class or just after writing notes. It is helpful to review several times over a period, as well. If you have a test coming up in the next week, try reviewing a few times throughout the week. It will keep the information fresh.

Resources:

10 Practices of Highly Successful College Students. (2000). Allyn & Bacon: Massachusetts.

Ferrett, S. (2009).Peak Performance: Success In College and Beyond, 7th. Ed., McGraw-Hill: Columbus, Ohio.