Effective Study Skills: A Guide to Achieving Higher Grades, Exercises of Law

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STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: Table of Contents: Table of Contents: .................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents: .................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 3 SOME THEORY ..................................................................................................... 3 Remember the steps. ........................................................................................... 3 STUDY SUGGESTIONS ..................................................................................... 4 LEARNING FROM A TEXTBOOK ................................................................... 4 SQ3R ..................................................................................................................... 5 THE RESEARCH ESSAY ...................................................................................... 5 Some suggestions for better essay writing: ........................................................... 7 TAKING NOTES IN CLASS ................................................................................. 7 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR STUDY TIME ................................................ 8 PREPARING FOR TESTS ...................................................................................... 9 STUDYING FOR EXAMINATIONS .................................................................... 9 How to study: ........................................................................................................ 9 Subject and The Type Of Examination. .............................................................. 10 SOME SUGGESTIONS REGARDING HOMEWORK ...................................... 11 Some facts about Homework: ............................................................................. 11 MEMORY AIDS ................................................................................................... 11 CRAMMING ......................................................................................................... 11 USING READING TIME MORE EFFECTIVELY ............................................. 12 Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 2 of 13 STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: to convert the passive activity of reading into an active learning experience so that we can use the experience to gain knowledge, understanding and consequently a better mark in the subject area. Begin your reading with a quick survey of the material to be read. Ask yourself how this material fits into the previous lessons and assignments in the subject. Develop questions involving what you think are the main points in the section read. Headings, sub-titles and the introduction to each chapter will often help you choose these questions. Carefully read the material. Make a summary as you go. Do not copy whole sentences; ideas in point form are just fine. Some people add page numbers as extra reference points in case they want to look back at important facts. While you are summarizing, try to remember what you have learned. Do not go back and re-read whole sections at this time because this will break your thought pattern. Compare your summary notes with class notes if the work has already been covered in class. If you are reading ahead of the lesson leave room at the bottom of the summary sheet to add notes or facts learned in class. Once you have done this, review the material immediately. Go over key expressions and words, ask your questions and see if you can answer them without looking at your summary notes. Do you fully understand the important points? It is much easier to memorize facts that you understand. After two weeks review the material again, and again before a test or examination. You could find your marks improving steadily. One method of remembering these steps for effective studying is SQ3R. SQ3R S - Survey or quick look. Q - Question yourself about the section. R - Read the section, summarize as you go. R - Recite or record what you have learned. R - Review after summarizing and again in two weeks. THE RESEARCH ESSAY As you reach the senior grades, the research essay will play a large and important part in determining your final mark. Since these essays are so important, it is worth looking at the structure and content of a well- written essay. A properly presented essay will include the following: • Title (usually on a separate page) • Preface and acknowledgements (if necessary) • Table of contents • Introduction to the essay • The essay • Your conclusions Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 5 of 13 STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: • Bibliography (all resources used) • Appendix (if necessary) How to Proceed Usually, but not always, the subject will be given to you. Be sure that you clearly understand the assignment. Be careful to limit the scope of your essay to deal with the specific topic. Then proceed to gather information. Facts from teachers, friends, periodicals, texts, libraries will all be useful in preparing yourself for the actual task of writing the essay. Make use of sources of information that are available for research purposes. Some sources are: 1) The school library 2) The public library 3) The public reference library 4) Law and medical school libraries 5) Industrial-commercial libraries (eg. C.I.L., I.B.M., etc.) 6) “Standard works” eg. Encyclopedia Britannica, Colliers Encyclopedia, the New International illustrated Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of Social Sciences 7) Government libraries 8) Personal interviews 9) Personal experience 10) Abstracts (summaries of information found in reports, books, articles or journals) 11) Almanacs 12) Periodicals 13) General yearbooks 14) Atlases 15) The dictionary (for facts, spelling, common usage) 16) Vertical files 17) Specialized reference books (eg. Computer Data Handbook) 18) Professional organizations (eg. Ont. Medical Assoc.) 19) Internet sites Write out your ideas as you proceed. The order itself is not important since the ideas may be rearranged later. Group related ideas, and then place the groups in a logical sequence. Rearrange each group of ideas so that the sequence within the group is logical and shows continuity of thought. Your outline should include the following: • The introduction • The body of the essay • The conclusions. Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 6 of 13 STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: Your essay must be accurate, logical and clear. In addition it is important to use proper essay form, which includes logical sequencing of topics, correct sentence structure and proper grammar usage. Frequently, proper acknowledgement of sources is forgotten. Each direct quotation as well as indirect quotations must be acknowledged in a footnote. A proper footnote will include: 1) The author’s name, surname first. 2) The title of the book or article underlined. 3) The publisher and year of publication. 4) The page number. Here is a sample footnote: Lieberoff, Allen J., Good Jobs: High Paying Opportunities Working for Yourself or for Others, Prentice- Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1978, 415. Your bibliography should include all reference texts and articles shown in the same way as described for footnotes except that page numbers are deleted. Here is a sample reference: Lederer, Muriel, Blue-Collar Jobs for Women, E . P. Dutton, New York, 1979. Some suggestions for better essay writing: • Start as soon as the topic is assigned. Last minute efforts are seldom the best. • Create an introduction that outlines the nature and scope of your essay. • Ensure that your conclusions are consistent with your sources or with your data. • Do not include material unrelated to the topic. • Do your arguments make sense? • Check grammar and spelling. • Check your footnotes. • Is your bibliography complete? • Is your essay neat and readable? Now you can confidently submit your essay! TAKING NOTES IN CLASS In the section on learning from a textbook we talked about effective reading and taking notes. How can we extend the same ideas to the notes we take in class? First of all, don’t try to write down everything a teacher says. Even if you used shorthand it would be impossible to record all of the approximately 175 words per minute used during the lecture or lesson. A student who is listening effectively will: Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 7 of 13 STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: 2) Prepare a short, point form summary for each subject. These could be put on index cards for easy reference. 3) See what you know about each subject by asking yourself questions about the main topics covered during the term. 4) If you have maintained a study schedule throughout the term, you should need to complete only your summary of notes and text materials prior to the examination itself. Subject and the Type Of Examination. A. For Any Examination: 1. Read and listen to all instructions carefully. 2. Check the exam format. Is there a choice? If so, decide which questions you can answer best. 3. A check on the number of marks given for a question should show how much time should be allocated to each question. Why write pages answering a 2-mark question and not have time to answer a 20-mark question? 4. Plan to use the entire exam period. Pace yourself as you go along. Give yourself the opportunity to think. B. For Multiple Choice Exams: 1. Read the question carefully so that you understand what is required. 2. Think about the answer before you look at the choices 3. Consider the alternatives. Are they logical? 4. Choose the best answer. When you are unsure of the correct answer: a. Eliminate the answers you know are not correct; then, choose the best answer from those that are left. b. Sometimes information given in one question will trigger the answer in another. C. For Essay Type Questions: 1. Budget your time carefully. Do the easiest questions first. 2. On a separate page write down every single fact, formula or idea that you have regarding the question. 3. Write your answer clearly. Bad writing may lose marks because the teacher may not be able to read what has been written. 4. Re-read your answer. 5. If you run out of time, answer the question in point form. 6. Give an answer for each question. Even if you don’t know the answer, you may earn a few marks. Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 10 of 13 STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: SOME SUGGESTIONS REGARDING HOMEWORK We said earlier that homework was an important part of the step-by-step understanding of the material learned in class that day. Usually homework will consist of questions that will test or reinforce the learning of that day. As you review the lessons given each day you will also join your new knowledge in the subject area with knowledge gained in previous lessons. Some facts about Homework: 1. It is your responsibility. Do it for your own sake. 2. Most teachers will periodically check homework and often marks are assigned. 3. Keep all material related to a particular subject in one section of a binder. Do not scatter your materials; they may be forgotten or lost later. 4. If there is something you don’t understand, ask about it as soon as possible. 5. If you miss a day or an assignment obtain the notes the next day so that there are no gaps in your knowledge. It is your responsibility to complete missed assignments and to catch up on missed work. 6. The requirements for different subjects will often vary widely. Your teachers will let you know about the expectations in each course. MEMORY AIDS At the outset, let’s agree that memorization alone is not the answer. You should combine understanding with memory so that you will be able to retain the knowledge. However, from time to time we are required to memorize such things as dates, formulas, definitions, poetry to name a few. An understanding of why any of the above are important will assist in the memorization. Many of us have visual memories. That is to say we remember pictures better than sounds. Associate several facts with a picture. If you want to remember facts regarding the battle of Queenston Heights, imagine General Brock setting on a Queenston Heights bus in 1812 with his troops being pursued by a busload of American Troops. Other people memorize the first letters of a series of words; thus LAS could stand for Lincoln abolished slavery. Many people develop and use a series of flash cards in point form which nicely summarize the contents of a chapter or a series of lessons. Other people memorize the first letter of important points in order to create a memory aid. CRAMMING While we have explained why we should study carefully and methodically for exams and tests, from time to time there will be days on which you will need to cram. If you panic and do not attack the problem systematically, you won’t get very far. 1. Study the highlights of the material to be covered. Do the same thing with your notes. Chapter and classroom summaries will be especially important in this case. 2. If you have time remaining, study certain sections more thoroughly so that you have a better understanding of some material that you consider to be of particular importance. Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 11 of 13 STUDY SKILLS Name: Western Technical-Commercial School Date: 3. Worrying about a great deal of intricate detail will only lead to confusion and failure. Concentrate on the main ideas. USING READING TIME MORE EFFECTIVELY Let’s examine some ideas, which may help reduce reading time. 1. Some of what we read is not essential to the meaning or to the understanding of what has been said. The ideas are important; don’t become too involved with reading words. 2. Look at key words, usually the verbs and nouns. Underline, make notes, and then just scan the descriptive passages. 3. Try to read ideas rather than single words. 4. Don’t try to read when your mind is drifting; making notes will help you stay on topic. If you aren’t thinking about the material you read, you may as well not read. 5. Some people sub-vocalize (say what they read under their breath). This slows the rate of reading down considerably. You can read much faster than you can talk. Don’t talk. 6. Try to avoid having to re-read material for understanding. Read it properly the first time. Each of your courses has its’ own jargon or vocabulary. When a teacher refers to a certain word you are expected to understand the meaning of that word. Unless you do understand, the meaning of entire sections of your course material may be meaningless. For example, can you imagine doing graphs in mathematics without knowing what an “Ordered Pair” represents or in trigonometry without knowing what “sine, cosine, and tangent” represents? You should start building your subject vocabulary at the beginning of each year and each new topic will include some words that should become part of that vocabulary. There is a very special vocabulary associated with the writing of essay questions on examinations or in the writing of entire research essay assignments that frequently have a great effect on term marks. Listed below are some of these words and their meanings. Without a good understanding of these meanings your essay or your exam may be off the target and consequently so will your grade. Terms commonly used in Essay Examinations Analyze: To separate into parts or basic principles so as to determine the nature of the whole; to explain methodically. Compare: To describe the similarity or relation between one thing and another. Contrast: To set two things in opposition so as to show their differences. Criticize: To judge the merits and faults of; to analyze and evaluate. Define: To state the precise meaning of; to describe the nature or basic qualities of. Describe: To give a verbal account of; to tell about in detail; to transmit a mental image or impression of with words; to picture verbally. Discuss: To speak or write about; to examine by argument or debate. Teacher: Mr. Franzen, File: Study habits Page 12 of 13