What are study skills?
Study skills are strategies and techniques that enables you to make the most efficient and effective use of your time, resources and academic potential to achieve your desired results. Developing and enhancing your study skills can help you:
To make a more efficient use of your study time, i.e. getting more work done in less time.
To make your learning easier, and help retain what you have learned longer.
To feel the work and effort involved is worthwhile, i.e. it helps pay rich dividends.
Who can benefit from study skills?
Anyone who is involved in learning can benefit from developing his or her study skills. Regardless of whether you are preparing for college, or have already started on a course of study, you can always improve your ability to learn, retain, and retrieve information.
Does this mean that all people learn the same way?
There is no one best way to learn for everyone. Some people learn their best by doing; others prefer to learn by listening or reading. Some learn best in group situations, while others learn best alone. The secret is to find the methods and techniques that work for you to achieve your ultimate goal(s).
The methods and techniques suggested are deliberately chosen to cover a wide variety of learning styles and preferences. You can build on techniques that support and improve your preferred styles by experimenting and adapting them. But remember that, whatever stage of learning you are at, it is always useful to practice learning in a variety of ways, experimenting with different styles of learning.
This book is simply a collection of practical suggestions and techniques that has worked for many of the students I have been privileged to work with both at high school and university over the years, and from whom I have learned so much.
I have tried to present it in an easy-to-read, straightforward manner. Use the methods and techniques that work for you. The result will be that your learning will be more efficient and more enjoyable, which is the true test of any worthwhile activity.
(a). Motivation, goal setting and time management.
(b). Organizing your resources, your environment, and yourself for effective study.
(d). Preparing for examinations.