Getting Ready...
Environment
Create a relaxing yet focused environment, you know the kind of thing I mean - comfortable chair, good lighting, nice temperature, no interruptions and background music (make sure it's not distracting). You want to make the environment as appealing as possible so your brain associates pleasure to being here and therefore aids you in learning and also helps to create some motivation. Ideally, every time you study this is where you should be.
Objectives
Studying is like most things in life, the clearer your vision the greater chance you have of achieving it. Split your objectives into 3 categories:
Super objective
What do you ultimately want to achieve? This is the 'big picture'. The image you have in your mind of the benefits you will achieve through your studying. If you are learning new skills for a different job, you would imagine being in that job, create the scene in your mind as if it is happening, think back and remember how you got here and really enjoy the what you have accomplished. The clearer you can make this in your mind, the more motivated you will be to achieving your goal.
Subject objective
You might be studying one or many subjects, it will depend on whether you are at school, college, mature student or in the workplace. Whatever it is the same rules apply. Make sure you know ‘why’ you are studying; Ask Good Questions! Your brain takes whatever you say to it pretty literally. If you tell yourself, "I don't know how to do that." it will accept it and stop looking for an answer. "How can I do that?" is a much better question. We can fall into the trap of using negative questions through habit. Create some good questions which set your brain up to learn, focus and remember information which is relevant. “What do I need to remember?”, "What are the key facts which will help me pass my exam?", "What information is important to achieve my objectives?", your brain will help you and go looking for the answers. You aim is to set up a mind set for learning.
Make sure you know the answers to all of these questions and create some clear subject objectives; these will be 'the things you expect to learn by a given date'.
Subject objective example: Muscles in the body - April 22nd
Once you know what your subject objectives are create a backlog of tasks (things to do) for each objective. This list of tasks will be what you focus on in your study sessions. I should point out here that your objectives may change, if they do, roll with it and update your tasks accordingly.
Session objective
Choose a set of tasks from your backlog and focus on the specific things you need to do, learn and remember. Sum up what you are about to do into a sentence, this will be your session objective.
"Extract key information from name of book"
If you don't complete this objective it goes back onto the backlog of tasks and its up to you to prioritise whether or not you continue with this task in the next study session.
The Session
Recap your objectives, give the study session a time limit and stick to it! Optimum study time is 45-55 min session then 5 min break and another session if required. Focus on the more complex information at the beginning and end of your session. Make sure you have a drink and snack in case you get hungry.
In the breaks that you take, do something physical, get your body moving, take yourself outside of your study environment. Don't get focused on anything else though, you just want to give your mind a quick break and create some energy in your body.
Learning Strategies...
Review
Take no more than 5 minutes to review the material your are studying. To review simply skim through the material, don't stop or read in any detail, this is merely to give you a feeling for the information. While reviewing keep asking yourself key questions, "What do I need to remember", "What information is important to me?"
Notes
Make some preliminary notes which reflect your key thoughts and questions after your review. Ideally use a mind map for this. Your purpose here is to set up a scaffolding on which to build more information.
Read - create an understanding
Read the information thoroughly to gain a good understanding; don’t try and remember anything just yet. Your goal here is to create an understanding of the information. If there is something you don't understand continue to ask good questions, "What does this mean?", "How can I use this?", work through any problems but don't dwell too long if you get stumped.
Super Read and Dip
Your objective here is to track down and make a note of key information. To do this you will employ a simple technique:
- on each page of the book guide your index finger down the centre of the page letting your gaze take in the width of the page
- you should be able to skim through a page in about 3-4 seconds.
- At certain points something will catch your eye; stop, scan that sentence or paragraph and extract key information which you will place on your mind map.
- continue the process throughout the entire book
Mind Map
After you’ve read, create some detailed notes ideally using a Mind Map, which engages both sides of your brain and makes the information more memorable. To learn more about how to mind map visit our mind mapping section.
Rehearse
Stand up and talk through the Mind Map out loud, move about, imagine you are explaining the material to someone else. This will do 2 things, firstly make the information more memorable and secondly create a deeper understanding of the information.
Memorise
The next step after you have rehearsed your material is to memorise the key information on your mind map.
Whenever I’ve encountered a student who says they can’t remember it’s almost always down to the way they have been conditioned to memorise, (read it over and over again until it sinks in) for a lot of students this just doesn’t work and if it does a couple of weeks later all is lost.
By combining your logical and creative skills your memory will improve as well as your understanding of the information you are trying to remember. You can do this by using some simple yet very powerful memory techniques. These techniques can be miss-understood; they are not simple ‘tricks’ but more a ‘way of thinking’ about information, which with practice will become very natural.
The principle here is take what you want to remember, convert the key information into images and associate those images together, we remember the images therefore we remember the information, see our improve your memory section for more detail or jump right in and learn basic and advanced memory techniques with our interactive e-class Developing Your Mind.
Example of memorising a key fact using mnemonics
To remember a historic date, ‘The Great Fire of London 1666 started in a Bakers Shop’. First create a key image for the date 666 – the devil (this will be enough to remind us that it's 1666) - Imagine London on Fire and Towering over it is the devil wearing a bakers hat, as you imagine this scene you say ‘out loud’ “The great fire of London started in a Bakers Shop 1666”. This is fairly basic but you can take this concept and apply it to practically any information.
Once you have memorised your key notes I would rehearse the information again referring to the information in your mind.
Finishing up...
Revise
Optimum revision time - 1 hour after studying, then 1 day – 1 week – 1 month.
Set up a Q&A game with your friends, test each other out.
Rewards
Reward yourself at the end of each session. Go out with your friends, watch a movie, go shopping. Ideally give yourself small rewards over the week and at the end of a week/month etc give yourself a bigger reward. Get your family and friends to help you out here. This is an essential part of not just study skills but any goal you set in your life, whenever you complete or achieve something its important to recognize it and give yourself a pat on the back or get someone else too :). With doing this repeatedly you'll be amazed at how it will help to keep you motivated to achieving your goals.