Studying Skills
that Improve Attentiveness
The learning process will become easier if you develop studying skills that increase your attentiveness. The more of an active role you take to understand the information the easier learning will be. Generally in most educational situations there are three main sources of information, your teachers/lecturers, your books and the library.
Active listening:
In order to absorb the most useful information you must take an active role when listening. It is so easy to slip into a daydream during a class or lecture. You must ask yourself questions about what the teacher or lecturer is saying. This will engage your brain.
When the topic of a particular class or lecture is introduced you can ask yourself simple things like;
- What do you already know about the topic?
If you start daydreaming and need to focus your concentration again ask yourself;
- What is the teacher/lecturer talking about now?
- What is the point they are trying to make?
To help you put everything in context you can ask yourself;
- How does what they are saying relate to the overall topic?
The point is that by asking yourself questions you are forcing your brain to think about the information being presented. It will also help you stop daydreaming. If you do find your mind wandering this questioning process will help you get back on track.
Active reading:
When reading it can be easy to lose concentration. Everybody from time to time when reading will get to the end of a particular page and have no idea what it was about.
Therefore you need to apply the same process of questioning when reading. Ask yourself;
- What is the point being made in this sentence?
- What is the overall message of this paragraph?
After you finish reading you can ask yourself:
- What new information have you learnt?
Active researching:
Fundamentally your mission anytime you go to the library is to find the essential information as quickly as possible. It is far too easy to waste hours at the library and come away with nothing.
This is why it is so important to make a plan. What do you need? And how are you going to get it? Answer these questions before you start wandering around the mass of information in your library.
Of course, the best way to make a plan is to start by asking yourself questions;
- What research information do you need to include to get a good mark?
- Where should you start looking in the library?
- What resources does the library offer?
- Which resources are you going to use?
Conclusion:
Simply put, effective studying skills are about how quickly you can find and get the important information into your head. The first thing you always need to do is ask yourself questions. This makes your brain focus on the topic at hand.