Larbi Ben M’Hidi University

Study Skills/ 1st Year LMD

Lecturer: S.AROUF
Managing yourself for study
Developing your Learning skills

There isn't a sharp divide between the skills needed for academic study and
those used elsewhere. This means that, whatever your previous education, you
will have experiences that you can draw upon and adapt to support your studies.
Similarly, once you graduate, the academic skills you use as a student will be
applicable to other contexts.
Being aware of this can increase your confidence in taking on academic study if
you have been out of education for some time or are uncertain about your
academic ability. It can also help you to feel more confident about progressing
into employment if you haven't had a graduate job in the past.

What are study skills?

What is a skill?
A skill is a learned ability rather than an outcome achieved through luck or
chance and can, therefore, be relied on reasonably securely when you perform an
equivalent task again. You can fine-tune skills through practice, feedback and
reflection, just as athletes improve their performance by developing underlying
skills in movement, breathing and pacing.
What are study skills?
The term 'study skills' is used here to refer to more than just 'academic' skills.
It includes a wider range of abilities that enable achievement in your studies.
These can be viewed as four categories of skills:
1 Self-management skills for study
2 Academic skills
3 People skills for studying with others
4 Task management skills.
The first of these, self-management, helps you to develop the other three sets
of study skills.
Self: managing yourself for study
Self-management is an essential study skill in Higher Education. It is needed to
enable students to cope with the responsibilities of taking charge of their
studies and to engage fully in the learning process.

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Self management skills in this context involve:
Independence
It’s not like at school where you were stuck in a classroom from 9 till 4 and
teachers told you what you needed to do.
– Ade, first-year student
You must be able to ‘stand on your own two feet’. However, there is help
available.
Self-motivation
Motivation is a great desire that comes from inside to do or learn something; it
can be affected by certain environmental factors like society, family, or friends.
For example, when we say that a student is motivated, most teachers and
parents can well imagine what we mean - a keen, committed and enthusiastic
learner who has good reasons for learning, who studies with vigour and intensity,
and who demonstrates perseverance. Thus, motivating yourself is fully your
responsibility (not the job for your teaching staff, your parents or friends). You
have to be able to work on your own a lot. Motivation problems can be a major
source of trouble for many students. If getting motivated is a problem for you,
the following suggestions may help you raise your motivation. Try them out. The
essence is to try and try. There is absolutely no substitute for experience.
a Buy an exercise book to use as a work diary and make a daily list of your study
tasks. Tick the study tasks as you accomplish them. The ticks become a record
of work accomplished. Looking over the pages of ticked items will give you a
positive feeling of achievement and spur you on to even more accomplishments.
b. Rewarding positive action is a good motivator. Select rewards which will be
personally appealing, such as going to a film when a major project has been
finished. It's best not to use food as a reward, as dietitians will rightly claim
that food should only be used as a source of nutrition. Make a list of other
rewards which are personally appealing and use them to prompt increased
motivation and enhanced productivity in your studies.
c. Invite several classmates from your most difficult subject to join a lunchtime
study group and meet weekly to discuss the topics raised in the last several
lectures. Choose people who are serious about their study. If each person takes
responsibility for preparing three questions, the lunchtime meeting can then
follow a disciplined format of discussion which is mutually beneficial to all.
d. Make a revision chart and post it in front of your study area. Every time you
look up you will be reminded of the necessity to maintain a steady and

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progressive campaign of revision. Remember, regular revision is the key to exam
success — and this key is best turned regularly every week. It will unlock many
of the problems facing you in the exam room.
e. If personal discipline is not your strongest characteristic, then consider
giving a list of the goals you plan to accomplish each week to a family member or
close friend. Arrange a regular weekly meeting with this person to report on
your progress.
f. If you feel like you are burning out from too much stress and pressure, then
be certain to take more frequent study breaks. Also, schedule the occasional
weekend away and completely free yourself from worries about studying. Just
enjoy some peaceful surroundings and perhaps the relaxing company of friends.
You will return to your books with renewed vigour and drive following such an
interlude.
Skills management: Understanding and using strengths, and improving your
weaker skills.
Concentration
In addition to increased motivation, just about every student would like the
formula to produce more concentration. Among the methods used in study skills,
there is the 15 × 4 technique. It is really a method of studying in short bursts
of fifteen minutes each. With short study bursts and frequent short breaks,
your mind can maintain high concentration. Here is how to apply the technique.
a. Buy yourself an exercise book for recording your study tasks.
b. At each study session, start by writing specifically what you intend to
accomplish in the first fifteen minutes. Be realistic and success-oriented, so
underestimate your goal rather than plan to accomplish too much. As you
progress, you will become a more accurate estimator in what you can accomplish
in fifteen minutes.
c. Accomplish the goal. Keep your head down and your mind glued to the task.
You will probably find that any thought wandering will be checked, as even a
three-minute daydream is compromising 20 per cent of your goal time.
d. Rule a column down the right side of the page for red ticks, the symbol of
task accomplishment. At the end of your first fifteen-minute goal, tick the task
and note the small, but pleasant feeling of accomplishment which that action
produces.
e. Take a one-minute break. That's just sixty seconds, so there's no time to ring
the love of your life to discuss the day's events. Be content to move away from

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your desk, do some mild stretching exercises and then sit down for the next
bout.
f. Repeat the above cycle four times, being certain to specify sufficiently short
goals to maximise the opportunities for success, tick each task as it is
accomplished and take just a sixty-second break.
When you apply this technique, you will quickly discover that it's quite intense.
Your mind will be churning — no time for daydreaming! Following each cycle of 4
fifteen-minute work periods, take a slightly longer break, say five to ten
minutes. The breaks are very important as hard work requires adequate rest.
Concentration can be affected by factors such as noise, visual interference,
even aromas. Many students think that the library is an ideal place for
concentrating on their work, but when they get settled, they find themselves
frequently looking up and around. Their eyes scan the area for anybody
interesting who might provide an appealing distraction. If you fall into this
category, then find a place where you can not see anyone else. As for noise and
aromas, choose your study places carefully. If the TV or radio is blaring away at
home, exercise your diplomatic skills and ask the viewers or listeners if they
would mind turning the equipment down or perhaps using earphones.
In summary, concentration is a mental skill which can be developed with practice,
much like building more muscles with daily exercise. The 15 × 4 technique will not
only generate greater concentration skills, but it will also carry you through a
surprising amount of work. All of the best intentions to concentrate can be
destroyed by distractions. Get up early, before any potential distractors have
woken up. Get to your study place and get to work.
Procrastination avoidance
`Tomorrow' is the salvation for procrastinating students, as it means they can
ease off, avoid or delay the preparation today. However, the todays will roll by
and the threatening events, essays and exams, will come ever closer. Your
anxiety progressively builds with all of the delayed preparation, thus
encouraging you to procrastinate yet again. For many, the tension peaks the
night before the crucial event and then it's panic stations!
Here are some practical pointers for procrastinating students.
a. Try to determine why you have been procrastinating: fear of failure? fear of
criticism? self-demands for perfect work?

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b. If the reasons for your procrastinating habits elude you, then talk with a
counselor - a teacher or an experienced person. An objective view from outside
will help.
c. Plan each day and write down your tasks to be accomplished in a diary. Tick
the tasks as you accomplish them. For an additional prompt, give a list of your
goals to a close friend and meet several times a week to discuss the progress
you are making.
d. If perfectionism is a problem, try to adopt what I call an `acceptable level of
approximation'. That is, you prepare your work to a level acceptable to you, but
short of the perfect point, and then hand it in. Waiting until perfection is
reached can be a very long wait.
e. Make a wall chart of study tasks accomplished. Seeing visual evidence each
day of positive progress will help to keep your momentum going.
f. Try to make daily studying a productive habit. Get to your study place at the
same time each day and get straight to work. Start with an easy task to gain
momentum.
g. Prior to taking study breaks, which are important to keep your mind fresh and
alert, write down the time of your return to study and note the task to be done.
Planning ahead, even in this short span, will help you to keep focused and to keep
going.
Memory enhancement
There are two situations in which students will complain of faulty and/or
insufficient memory: when reading texts and when revising for exams.
Remembering what you read
How often have you finished reading a section of a text and that you have little
if any recall of the subject matter? More often than you would like to admit,
I'm sure. Remembering what you read, especially if the material is difficult.
Remembering what you read would be possible if you are prepared to work.
Preparation requires you to adopt some reading techniques such as the SQ3R
technique: survey, question, read, recite, recall. The surveying and questioning
are done as a warm-up before you actually start reading the material. As you
progress, pause and recite the major points from each section. Link these points
to the prime topics in the subsequent sections. This reading technique will
enhance your memory for what is being read. Your job does not end here as you
will need to revise the major points gleaned from your reading. Try to revise the
chapter by running your eyes over the underlined or highlighted phrases once or

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twice over the next several days. These revisions need not take very much time,
perhaps just five or ten minutes, but that small investment of time will be well
rewarded. To prove it, try it. You'll be surprised at how much you retain after
several revisions.
Remembering what you revise
Most students hate revision. It's hard work and the whole process is intimately
connected to the anxiety-producing experience of exams. For that reason,
revision is generally shelved until the very last minute. Folders of notes are
opened the night or two before exams, leaving only a small amount of time to
cover a very substantial amount of work. These last-ditch efforts are too late
for most students. The best approach is to start your revision in the first
weekend of the semester and learn your class notes from the first week. Use
the same procedure the following weeks, and you will find that these consistent
revisions will increase your memory. Remember, information revised and used is
information retained.
Revision/Memory practical pointers
a. Learn as you go. Revise each weekend for the semester exams.
b. Use the information you are learning: debate, question, argue, present,
criticise — even sing or dance to it if you can.
c. Revise your notes at least five times, focusing at first on retaining the major
concepts, then proceeding to subtopics, subsectional headings and finally to
supporting details.
d. Use coloured pens, highlighters, arrows, asterisks and any other visual aid
which will help you to recall concepts in your notes.
e. Be wary about recopying large sections of notes. Writing is a very time-
consuming process and you are likely to gain more from several readings of the
notes in the same time it would take to rewrite a section or two.
f. If your mind recalls easily geometric designs, try to arrange your concepts to
be learned as pyramids, squares, circular patterns or any other shape which will
facilitate your recall. Recalling one element of the design is then likely to
suggest the next part.
h. Use any sense, smell, touch, taste, sound, sight, which is likely to help your
memory. Who hasn't recalled a particular experience from their earlier years
when they hear a song from the past. Relating the information to external
factors helps you so much remember it.

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References

Cottrell, S. (2013). The study skills handbook (4th ed.). New York, NY: Palgrave
MacMillan.