Study...

[Kittyhawk]

Ok I have intelligent like questions....

What techniques are effective for studying??

Any good books out there which can be reccomended for learning to study with good results?

What works and what dosent?

[Macstar]

You need to work out what kind of person you are and what stimulates your brain. For example so people are visual learners (me) and I need to do mind maps with connecting lines and pictures and things. Other people learn / memorise my discussing theories aloud and going over concepts etc. Some people need to read and then write things out over and over again. Acronomes etc etc. A lot of techniques out there. Can't recommend any books but I'm sure if you spent 2 minutes online you'd come up with a few books. Your education provider should also have some advice to offer in this department too.

[Curious_AJ]

yeah, i'm a writer, but I also like to learn by reading and talking aloud to myself... I find that if you use many different techniques it sticks better.

[Grahameeboy]

Find a subject you like first?

[Sanx]

Vodka. Large quantities of.

Doesn't make you remember stuff any better, but you cease to be concerned about your inability to do so.

[Headbanger]

I find its easiest if you start off knowing everything already.......

[HTFU]

Firstly, stop posting on KB at this hour of the night, get good sleep and do you study early morning rather than at night. (some of us are working so have an excuse). Secondly, by the time you have read the book on how to study you more than likely would be sick of learning anything more. Keep it simple is the best thing this late into the exam season.

The following is a technique I personally used and now use with Secondary Students.

I get my students to firstly break down each topic by using A3 sheets of paper to summerise every aspect of the topic they may be examined on. Its like a big overview of how everything fits into the topic and they do this using the notes they have taken during the year. A3 works well because you can start to see the links that may exist and this wider view gives you a general knowledge from which you can attack a more specific question.

If the exam was on how does a motorbike work then I would do the following.

Put all the bits of a motorbike on A3 so you know you have covered every possible area of the topic, you can add a little of the specifics of each part but not too much at this stage. Use colour, pictures, mnemonics etc on this overview sheet to aid memory and then before moving on to the specifics, try and rewrite this sheet from memory, trying to put down each part of the bike as you had it on the original. When you can do this you can then be confident you know the basics of the topic. The Bread and Butter and more than likely, a C pass or an achieved with very little work.

Once you can do this it is then time to take each of the areas and make a A3 sheet up for each of them, so one sheet would have the clutch and how it works on it, another would have the brakes etc.

I see a lot of students get bogged down in study because they have tried to tackle the real fine points of a topic first, like working on how the clutch works first before learning about the whole bike and its parts.

I have found most students prefer this method to looking at A4 sheets of notes, although there are exceptions of course. But arming yourself with A3 sheets of paper with all you notes summerised in one area, it makes it easy to learn a topic as well as memorise it. I always aim to use this to learn about a topic then the memory takes care of itself.

[0arbreaka]

A room with everything you need to learn and nothing else, no distractions or anything along those lines. Allow yourself breaks every 15-30mins.

[Nasty]

Speak to Mrs Kendog .. she has been studying for a while at home etc. and has some good techniques.

[BarBender]

Ok I have intelligent like questions....
What techniques are effective for studying??
Any good books out there which can be reccomended for learning to study with good results?
What works and what dosent?

What is the exam format?
Is it essay, multichoice, practical etc....

Do you know your prefered learning style?
http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

[yungatart]

The most effective form of study is the one that works for you taking in to account your particular learning style.
Me, I need healthy food to nibble on, some good music (classical, baroque), playing softly and decent lighting. I can not study at a desk or table, much prefer to be lying on the floor ar the couch. Don't overload yourself...20 mins to half an hour bursts are best, then go do something completely different, before returning to the books again.
Good luck!

[Ragingrob]

Mornings are magic. Honestly, if you get up early you can do two hours of said study and it's only 9am for your first break! Compared to the whole getting up at 10, doing an hours worth of distracted study, then watching the day fade into night as you just watch tv and muck around.

Get started early as and it motivates you.

[Stickchick]

Hey Kitty. I'm styudying through the Open Polytechnic and they provide you with a booklet on Study tips. it provides different tips for different types of people. They may ahve something online that you could read in regards to it, not really sure as I have never at a look but here is their website

www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz

Good Luck with your Study, its not easy but its definitely rewarding

[Mikkel]

Mornings are magic. Honestly, if you get up early you can do two hours of said study and it's only 9am for your first break! Compared to the whole getting up at 10, doing an hours worth of distracted study, then watching the day fade into night as you just watch tv and muck around.

Get started early as and it motivates you.

Depends on how you're put together.

I function best from 8 pm onwards and don't even start getting tired until 3 am. I can force myself to adapt to a "normal" schedule - but the night thing is what I naturally adapt by myself if given half a chance.

[Romeo]

I've just completed 30,000+ words of documentation for my <acronym title="Bachelor of Information Communications Technology">degree</acronym> - 60 hours worth of writing spread over 6 days.

The best way for me was to implement a metric based approach and spread it out. Break your day down into half hour chunks, then spread exactly what you have to do over a few blocks of time. Then stick to the plan and tick off the chunks as you go - if you get behind, then thats just more stress to make you work harder. If your constantly falling behind then that's an early warning that you have to make some drastic changes.


TIME TASK + Goal OUTCOME
2:00pm - Task 1 (start) - [started on time]
2:30pm - Task 1 (350 words) - [564 words complete]
3:00pm - Task 1 (700 words) - [1,109 words complete]
3:30pm - Task 1 (1000 words) - [took a break]

4:00pm - Task 2 (250 words)
4:30pm - Task 2 (500 words)


Good stuff - it sounds kind of regemented and unnecessary. But if you're genuine about getting something large done properly, it's a good way to go.

[Beemer]

When I have an assignment due, my house is spotless, the biscuit tins are full and I'm still procrastinating! I am one of those people who can happily do all the reading and course work week by week as suggested by study plans, but I am no good at knuckling down to the actual assignment until the last minute. So far it has worked for me and I've just passed my final extramural Massey paper so I can graduate next year. But I'm still half-way through another extramural/online course so I still have a fair bit of study to do.

I try (and should be doing it now rather than mucking around posting on here!) to do any reading for the assignment in the morning and take notes along the way. Once I have a good outline of what I want to do, I then start typing up my initial draft. I write as much from memory as I can, then look at the books and other sources to check I am on the right track. I don't worry about word counts at this stage, I just try and get down all that I need to shape the final version. Once I have done this, I look at how many words I have and how many I need to add or remove to get the word count close to what was asked for. Sometimes if I am stuck I will take a sheet of paper and write down the important things I wanted to cover and then go back and ensure I have covered them.

It depends on where you are studying and how, but if you are studying extramurally there are workshops and books that can be sourced through the university - I know Massey has several. If you are studying internally, there should be student support services who can guide and help you along the way.

Because a lot of my course material is online, I get bored staring at a computer screen all day so I will take a break and go for a walk, or play a computer game like solitaire to give my eyes and mind a break, or I'll stop for a cup of tea and something to eat, or I'll email friends. It's good to keep working while you have ideas and feel motivated, but it's also good to take regular breaks so you come to the information fresh and ready to start again.

[BuFfY]

Check out the thread I posted ages ago called Multiple Intelligences (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=49019), the test on that will help you to realise which way you learn best.

Timed breaks are good, but I would suggest them every hour for about 10 mins, especially if you are working on a computer.

I would also suggest having some variation. It is suggested that we need to 'learn' something atleast 3 times before it is stored in our memory. They also say that we can have up to 7 facts in our short term memory (which only lasts 20 secs) so reading something, writing it down and then explaining it to someone else is an excellent way for this short term knowledge to be turned into understanding.

Being a teacher (weeeeeeee) we spend a lot of time getting to know how children learn and the best ways for them to learn different information. They say that physically manipulating something when a concept is new increases the chance of the knowledge being stored.

It depends if it is studying for a test, or studying something you actually want to remember for ever. And I think that if you really want it to be cemented in your mind then knowing how your mind works first is the way to go.

Best of luck aye, I have juuuust finished my degree and am so relieved I do not have any study for the next 3 months (but then in 3 months I will be working a hell of a lot harder!!)

[The Pastor]

I manage to get get C's with very minimal study. and thats all I need :D

[Beemer]

I manage to get get C's with very minimal study. and thats all I need :D

Although the letter may now have different connotations, I read a quote recently that I had to agree with "Ps (as in 'passes') get degrees". I got some As, some Bs and a couple of Cs - altogether it makes a pass so who cares?

[The Pastor]

egg heads and nerds care, life buffy (p/t)

[BuFfY]

egg heads and nerds care, life buffy (p/t)

You are right, I do care. I like to get good grades and I feel that if you deserve them you get them.

[The Pastor]

What does it matter to ya
When ya got a job to do
Ya got to do it well
You got to give the other fella hell

I've nothing agaisnt people who are after grades - they will probably earn more $$ than I ever will. Its just not me.

[TonyB]

Weeeeeeeelllll,this might be a bit hard to replicate, but I once discovered that anything being taught by someone that I am incredibly attracted to will stick very quickly and stay in my mind for years. Example- A girl who I was besotted with taught me the deaf alphabet in under 5 minutes, and it took about 10 years for me to forget it.

[Curious_AJ]

holy crap... my first exam is on monday... animal business studies... hmm.. not too worried... but still feel the need to study... accounting... yuck.. but then again i enjoyed the assignment and did well (59 1/2 out of 60 _b)

what's really set me back with y studying though is having to catch up 3, 10 and a half hour days in the unitec vet clinic this week (study week) but oh well, it was good to engrain some of the practical things i need to know and some of the stuff for my "clinical studies" paper... teehee.. injections are fun....