to your study skills workshop
Jan 12, 2015
to your study skills workshop
Who am IWho are youWhy are you here
What do you expect?
When you go to the cinema you plan beforehand what you’re going to see
Time goes at varying speeds
With deadlines to meet time can weigh very heavily on your mindIf you’re bored it really drags
Objectives
How you remember things
Making learning easier
General principles not subjects
How your brain works
be sceptical
Memory check
Relax You will not feel a thing
Peg words1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
gun shoe tree door hive sticks heaven gate wine hen
Peg words1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
gun shoe tree door hive sticks heaven gate wine hen
hydrogenheliumlithium
berylliumboroncarbonnitrogenoxygenfluorineneon
Memory checkYour brain has about 100 billion active neurons or nerve-cells. Each one grows branches like a tree, to store information: up to 20,000 branch like dendrites with each cell. Each connects to other cells by sending electrical-chemical messages along a long axon.
Memory check
100 billion neurons
Assume an average of 2 seconds to count each number and 8 hours a day downtime for essential functions:
16rs =3600 x 16 secs
= 57600 secs
= 28880 numbers
With 365.25 days each year it is possible to count 10,519,200 numbers per year
which is 1,051,920,00 per 100 years
so 100 bilion would take slightly less than 10,000 years to count
Could you count to 100 billion?
The penny drops
periodically1 hydrogen2 shoe3 4 door5 boron6 sticks7 nitrogen8 9 fluorine10 hen
Peg words1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
gun shoe tree door hive sticks heaven gate wine hen
hydrogenheliumlithiumberylliumboroncarbonnitrogenoxygenfluorineneon
Image chains
Tree
House
Guitar
Pencil
Phone
Image chains
DogTable
ElephantTree
Pencil Mouse
ChocolateDonkey
PlaneWindow
WallClock
TVFlowers
BusClown
Different parts of the brain
LanguageLogicNumbersSequenceWordsOrder
RhymeRhythm and music
PicturesPatterns
CreativityImaginationThe corpus callosum links both sides
Are responsible for different
functions
Part used for words in list is restricted to seven discrete pieces of information (± two)
The visual part has no such
restriction
Image chains the list of five
TreeHouse
GuitarPencil
Phone
Image chains
DogTable
ElephantTree
Pencil Mouse
ChocolateDonkey
PlaneWindow
WallClock
TVFlowers
BusClown
O T T F F S S ?
What’s the next letter in this sequence?
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
O T T F F S S E T T F F S S E N TT T T T T T T T T TT T T T T T T T T FF F F F . . . . . . . . . . .
One Two Three Four Five Six --------
TE N
Richard of York
YGVOIRB
R IchardO FY OrkG AveB AttleI NV Ain
Single letter mnemonics
MyVery
Energetic
MotherJust
SwamUnder
TheNorth
Pole
The Planets:MercuryVenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePluto
Naughty Elephants SquirtWater
Is it relevantIf the story was made up from key words for an
exam
16 ~ we’ve just done it20~ should now be easy50 ~ should be possible for most people after
some practice
200 ? Think you’re good enough?
practice and see!!
A way to study
UnderstandCondenseMemorise
Review
UnderstandLink things until the penny
drops
Ask questions of friends, books, internet, parents and teachers
Respect your sources
Who are you?
Famous person or cartoon characterOnly questions with a yes or no answerRandom guessing is not efficient Try to structure questions
condense
Only important words
Do not worry about spellings
condense
Animals
30+ too many25 – 30 excellent10 – 25 good
<10 weak
Practice using tapes
condense
If you found the last exercise difficult it might be because of your learning style
Preferred Learning Styles
Some students are very visual:They have to see everything.
Others don’t want to see something written down: they are the more auditory types.Others are kinaesthetic: they have to stand and move.
Visual Auditory Kinaesthetic
Learn Learn best by best by seeing seeing pictures, pictures, diagramsdiagrams
Learn Learn best by best by hearing hearing and and speakingspeaking
Learn best Learn best by doing, by doing, moving, moving, experiencingexperiencing
Visual• Draw pictures and diagrams• Colour code your work• Use different colour paper and pens• Use your own system of symbols, etc.• Create images or scenes in your mind
Auditory•Say your work out loud•Give presentations to an imaginary
audience•Record notes (etc.) on tape•Hear the information in your mind•Use silly noises to remember things•Play instrumental music
Kinaesthetic•Do actions when learning key facts•Walk about when learning•No need to sit at a desk•Add emotions and textures to
exaggerate information.•Try to experience what you are
learning
condenseNow try previous exercise visually
All animals can be divided into two types, those that have an internal backbone and those which do not have an internal backbone. Animals that have an internal backbone can further be divided into those that have a constant body temperature and those that have a body temperature which keeps changing. Some animals which have a constant body temperature are birds and mammals. Animals such as fish, amphibians and reptiles have a changing body temperature.
Those animals with no internal backbone can also be divided into two types; animals with only one cell and animals with many cells. Animals with only one cell are called microscopic animals. Some animals have no backbone have a jointed hard covering over their body. Animals such as insects, spiders and crabs are of this type. There are also some animals with no backbone and no jointed covering. Examples of this type are worms and snails.
animals internalbackbon
eno internal
backboneconstant body temp changing
birds mammals fishamphibians
reptiles
one cell
many cellsmicroscopic
jointedinsectsspiders crabs
no jointworms snails
memorise
loci
review
Give your neurons a chance to establish solid networks
Surf the waves of memory!
mappingA way of ordering your
notes
Draw a diagram plot the key words in whatever way you feel most comfortable
mapping
Spider diagram as seen by visual brain
Association map ~ animals
visual brain only
Association map
The one rule of A-mapping?
The information should be placed ON the lines of the A-map,
( so your mind can find the information more easily)
What should I revise?
Choose subject individually
Work in pairsWork in groups
Time managementPriorities ~ make a list of 10 things you need to get done tomorrow ~
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Watch tv
Go to bed
Catch bus
Have breakfast
Get washed
Get dressed
Go to school
Do homework
Phone friend
Wake up
Wake up
Get washed
Get dressed
Have breakfast
Catch bus
Go to school
Do homework
Phone friend
Watch tv
Go to bed
Re-arrange them into the best order
Time management – long term
How many hours to go
How many hours for each subject
How many hours for each subject per week
Try to keep to these weekly targets
Time management- short term
review for
review for
review for
review for
10 minutes later10 minutes later
1 day later1 day later
1 week later1 week later
1 month later1 month later 2-5 minutes2-5 minutes
2-5 minutes2-5 minutes
10 minutes10 minutes
5 minutes5 minutes
Time managementRemember to include time for review
Time management
Remember and understand things by finding the keywords/storyline first.
Enter the information into your brain using your imagination in a logical way.
Visualise as much as possible.
I ncorporate a continuous review of your notes into your schedule.
Easy does it – relaxed concentration is the key to excellence!
W ork in short bursts: 30-45 minutes then 5 minutes stretch break for greater levels of understanding and memorising.