Effective study strategies

Effective Study Strategies

Understanding change, setting goals, managing your time, SAC resources.

During this workshop we will:

SAC Guided Independent Learning

Lecture Aims and Outline

Discuss the differences between high school and university.


High School vs. University


Differences between high school & university

High school

All the day is taken up with timetabled classes.

The classes are teacher led.

The students are told exactly what to do by the teacher.The teacher allows the students to be dependent on the teacher.

University

Fewer taught hours/hours in a class.

The classes are student centred.

The students have to become autonomous and manage their time.The teacher tries to make the students less teacher dependent.

At school your teacher was at the centre of everything and managed your time and studies.

Do this exercise.

Do that for homework

.

Read that part of the

book.

A good student does what the teacher tells them to do.

Study this for the test.


A Good Student


A Good LearnerAt university YOU are responsible for how you spend your time.


Different Aspects of University Life

Your university experience is made up of more than your studies and your grades.

A successful university life is a result of the combination of your studies, activities and the relationships you make.


Study Groups

Study groups have many advantages.


Leaving Your Comfort Zone A comfort zone is a situation in which your ability and determination are not being tested. This is true for study as well.


Re-defining your comfort zone: know yourself


Set your aimsIs has been said that the most successful students are the ones who set long-term aims for themselves (Byram 2004). You also need to set short-term achievable goals.


Set your aimsIs has been said that the most successful students are the ones who set long-term aims for themselves (Byram 2004). You also need to set short-term achievable goals.

How does what you are doing today lead towards your future?


What Makes A Good Aim? When you are writing a learning aim, make sure it is useful.


What Makes A Good Aim? When you are writing a learning aim, make sure it is useful. Aims should be:

SMART



SMART

pecific Is it clear exactly

what you want to

do?



SMART

pecificeasurable

How will you know you have finished?



SMART

pecificeasurablechievable

Are you able to do what you want to

do?



SMART

pecificeasurablechievableelevant

Is it directly

related to your

learning goal?



SMART

pecificeasurablechievableelevantimebound

Is there a time limit?


What Makes A Good Aim?

SMART

“I want to learn 30 new words a day.”

What are the problems with these aims?




SMART

“I want to learn 30 new words a day.”



chievable

Is it…



SMART

“I want to improve my listening.”





SMART

“I want to improve my listening.”



pecificeasurable

imebound

Is it…


Writing and prioritizing study aims

Are your study aims SMART?

Write study aims for some aspects of your studies.

Example: “Practice note taking from lectures during the 4 weeks until the listening exam.”Prioritize your study tasks according to your personal goals. They could be by the day, week, semester or year.

What is most important for you?When do you need to finish things?


Self-evaluation of Your Skills

An evaluation of essay writing ability

Use the self-evaluation table to help determine how well you you are able to plan, research, write and edit an essay.

Decide how weak (1) or strong (5) you are at each of the Features of writing academic essays.Then think of different strategies that you could use to improve your weak areas


Make sure that your study strategies are SMART!

Follow the same procedure for all your language and study skills. Use your course notes and tutors’ advice to help.

Skills Improvement Strategies

How much time do you think a university student spends

It can sometimes be difficult to find the time to do things. But you may actually have more time than you think.

If you use your time effectively you will be able to do all the things you need to do to be successful in your studies.


So how much time do you have?

http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/TMInteractive.html

In lectures

ReadingIn

seminars




Study effectively

Passive knowledge (e.g. word

recognition) is very large

Active knowledge (e.g. ability

to use a word) is

comparatively small

Goal: increase your active knowledge


Improving your ListeningThere are numerous self study sites on the internet, resources in the SAC, on WebCT, etc which you could use for listening practice.

No matter which resources you choose to use, it is important to remember to be an active listener:

• have a purpose when you are listening

• stop thinking about outside distractions

• having a listening plan that addresses the problems with listening that you have previously identified


Improving your ReadingIn addition to the reading you do for your degree, you should be reading something every day.

What you read mostly depends on you. Try to select reading material that you are interested in, or could become interested in. If you like computer games, read a magazine about the latest developments in the gaming world, or if you like fashion, find websites or magazines that look at different fashion houses, etc.


Improving your ReadingAt UNNC there are numerous reading resources in the library, SAC, on webCT, etc.

* Graded readers * The Internet - SAC

* Magazines * Novels - National Geographic - SAC

* Newspapers - China Daily - library collection


Improving your WritingAlthough some studies show that good writers do more writing than poor writers, increasing the amount of writing that students do does not increase their writing proficiency.

Language acquisition comes from input, not output, from comprehension, not production.

Thus, if you write a page a day, your writing style or your command of mechanics will not improve. However, other good things may result from your writing, such as improved communication and improved clarity of and stimulation of thinking.


Improving your WritingIt is very likely that increasing the amount of reading you do will lead to you have a better understanding and experience of different styles of writing and will eventually help you improve your writing. For example, reading novels will provide at least some of the features of essay style, and reading lots of essays will develop essay-type style.

Furthermore, you need to identify your weaknesses in writing (if you have any) and concentrate on improving your writing in those areas.For example, if your problem is grammar accuracy, get a good grammar practice book and work your way through it as well as doing the exercises on WebCT.


Improving your SpeakingImproving your speaking is not difficult.

It does involve work from you, but the results of targeted practice should become apparent within a fairly short period.

What you have to do first is identify the areas where you have difficulty and concentrate on improving them.

Working with a partner or a small group outside class to have discussions and to present information about books read, tasks completed, lectures attended, etc and receiving feedback from your peers will help.Also, speaking English in all situations, academic and social will help improve your English.

Passport to Autonomy in Collaboration with Tutors


Project PACT

What else?

Improve your English.Develop your independent study skills.

Get guidance from a senior student.Meet people & make friends.Develop social, organisational and time management skills.

Why not become a Mentor next year?


Why join PACT?


The structure of PACT

Tutor

Mentor Mentor Mentor Mentor

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member


Academic Support Unit


Resources provided by the Academic Support Unit include:

Use DVDs and CDs to improve your listening

and start discussions

Use EASE to practice

listening to lectures

The workshops

help develop a range of skills

Study Skills PronunciationSpeaking Presentations Listening Reading

Writing Reading and WritingListening and Speaking FictionNon-fiction Graded readers Dictionaries

Grammar Vocabulary General English Careers Scientific EnglishEngineering English and more…


Resources available in the SAC Classmark Categories

HOW TO STUDY AT UNIVERSITY BLOG

www.eapworld.net Practical advice on how to study – what to

do next Get an email for each new post or subscribe

by reader Search for past posts Ask questions and get replies Created and maintained by a UNNC Tutor


http://www.eapworld.net/

Cottrell, S (2008) The study skills handbook. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd

Byram, M (2004) Routledge encyclopedia of language teaching and learning. London: Routledge

Self study http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/errordetector.htm#egessay Use the British National Corpus to discover how words

collocate and if they are appropriate for academic writinghttp://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/


References

Effective study strategies

Education

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