The Y12 Blog has been posting posting a five part smarter study series based on webinars hosted by Karen Boyes (previous posts are here, here and here). She is an education guru that has become a leader in New Zealand for her thinking around studying and thinking dispositions. Her blog regularly contains informative articles and her company Spectrum Education has a range of useful products and resources that can assist a student in the market for a better approach to studying. Like the Smart Study Facebook page for regular study tips.
The following notes are taken for her webinar on study skills available in full here. The webinar presents a formula for setting successful goals and further study tips for success.
All Y12 students have a learning goal for the year that they set in Term One that is being monitored by their Form Teacher. However, for the purpose of effective study, these need to get more specific. To set goals for your study – take each of you subjects and write realistic SMART goals for each of them:
My goal in _______ is to gain ____ credits at ______ level.
This gives you something specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Study can now be focused towards achieving these goals.
Study Tips Continued
- Learn the information you don’t know – it’s easy to go over the things you do know, but you must challenge yourself to study effectively
- Everything is hard before it is easy – we need to learn to persist and to show resilience
- Learn from your mistakes
- Set goals and achieve them step by step
- Visualise your success daily
These are helpful guidelines and strategies – make sure you put them into practice! The final study smarter guide, part five, will be posted later in the term.