23-04-2021

Study Skills Guidemr.'s Learning Website

When one considers learning and study, one should always keep in mind that there are three aspects that are of importance: STUDY SKILLS. The ability of any learner to study successfully depends to a great extent on his fundamental study skills, i.e. His ability to concentrate, to perceive correctly and accurately, as well as the ability to remember what has been perceived. Study skills are the skills you need to enable you to study and learn efficiently – they are an important set of transferable life skills. Our pages provide generic study skills advice – appropriate to learners across all disciplines and in different life circumstances: full and part-time students, those returning to education later in life, those engaged in professional development.

Time Management

Feeling Overwhelmed? (Video)
Autumn Quarter at a Glance, 2020-21 (PDF) [Word]
Winter Quarter at a Glance, 2020-21 (PDF) [Word]
Spring Quarter at a Glance, 2020-21 (PDF) [Word]
Summer Quarter at a Glance, 2020-21 (PDF) [Word]
Weekly Schedule (PDF)
Managing a 10-Week Quarter (PDF)
Procrastination: What's Really Going On (PDF)

Note-taking

List Of Learning Skills

Skills for learning, self-management, communication, and organization are the “top 20%” keys to success in school and in life! These skills are known by many names “soft skills,” “learning skills,” and (of course) “study skills.” In special education, they are commonly known as “executive function” skills. The resources on the site have been specifically designed to support you in your learning.For StudentsJournal articlesWeb activitiesWeb linksFor Lecturers:Web linksInstructor’s manualTo start accessing all the great resources supporting each chapter, click on the chapter you want to review on the left. The resources on the site have been specifically designed to support you in your learning.For StudentsJournal articlesWeb activitiesWeb linksFor Lecturers:Web linksInstructor’s manualTo start accessing all the great resources supporting each chapter, click on.

Note-Taking Guide for Online Classes (PDF)
Taking Lecture Notes (PDF)
Notes Template - General (PDF)
Notes Template - STEM (PDF)
The Cornell Method of Taking Notes (PDF)
Cornell Note-Taking Paper (link to website)

Reading

Reading Efficacy (PDF)
How to Read in College (link to website)
Textbooks (PDF)

Science

Chem 31 A/B Study Tips (PDF)
Chem 33 Study Tips (PDF)

Tests

Week Prior Test Prep (PDF)
Preparing for Exams (PDF)
Science and Engineering Taking the Test (PDF)
Multiple Choice Questions (PDF)
Managing Test-Anxiety (PDF)

General Advice

All Advice (from Academic Skills Inventory) (PDF)
Top 10 Study Skills (PDF)
Setting Long-Term Goals (Excel Worksheet)

Powerpoint Slides

Take Stock of Your Skills and Learn Some New Ones

The study habits that helped get you here are not necessarily the ones that will help sustain you, and identifying the additional skills you need is not always an intuitive process.

The Academic Skills Self-Assessment is intended to provide new techniques and approaches to try, as well as offer encouragement and reinforcement for the strategies you are already using. After you select which topics you want to explore, the inventory generates comments that are tailored to your responses. It takes about 5-15 minutes to complete.

Just Doing Homework is Not Enough to Ensure Success at High School and Beyond.

Before you consider working with us, we invite you to discuss your concerns about your child with a Specialist Teacher, either by phone or online.

Study Skills For Online Learning

Study First – Homework Second

By Year/Grade 8 or 9, your child should be doing at least 30 minutes of personal study per day – not just on top of his/her homework – but before even starting the homework and assignment. Any student who does not study before doing homework is not an independent learner and so is at serious risk of crashing in Senior High School or 1st Year University or College.

Cramming Doesn’t Work in the Long Term

Cramming just before exams only puts information into the short-term memory so it is usually lost soon after the exams. This is demonstrated every year when often more than 50% of students fail or drop out of 1st Year University despite ‘successfully’ completing matriculation and uni entrance exams the year before. The main cause for this terrible result is that many students do not learn how to be independent learners in High School.

How to Tell if Your Child is an Independent Learner

Independent learners are pro-active:

Independent learners study each topic before it is taught in class thus ensuring that they have learned and understood the vocab, and have a list of questions ready to ask the teacher. This means that by the end of each lesson the student fully understands the topic.
Independent learners prepare summaries and concept maps of a topic BEFORE beginning their homework and assignments on that topic. This ensures that homework is an opportunity to apply and test their knowledge and understanding.
Independent learners are able to get help from their teachers by asking very specific questions. Students who haven’t studied before asking questions often do not even have enough vocab to frame a clear question, let alone understand the explanation.
Independent learners know what they know, and know what they don’t know because they are able to test themselves and have a mind set of learning from their mistakes. When students who do not do proactive study are asked what they don’t understand they often reply ‘All of it.’ Most teachers are not able or even willing to help these students.

Exam Technique

Adequate preparation using high powered study skills is obviously necessary for high marks in exams. However, many students lose more marks from not answering the exam questions than from not knowing the correct answers.

Essentially it is an advanced comprehension problem with many students not knowing the meanings of:

The instruction words (such as describe, analyse, discuss, etc.)
The technical and jargon words (such as element, force, revolution, factorise, etc.)
The qualifier words (such as usually, often, or, and, always, completely, etc.)