Developing skills: five study skills components

 
    1             Self-awareness and self-evaluation
    To develop a skill you need first to know where you are starting from. What are your current strengths and weakness? What do you want to achieve? Where do you need to improve? How are you going to improve? What are your resources? What could obstruct you goals? Ways of developing such awareness include:
    1. Using self-evaluation questionnaires
    2. Monitoring your progress
    3. Group discussion and chat
    4. Feedback and criticism from other students
    5. Feedback and comments from tutors.

    2             Task awareness: knowing what is required
    To score a goal you need to know where the goalposts are. In an academic context, this means finding out what is expected of you and what your lecturers are looking for whenever you are set a new assignment.
    Essential information is usually provided in course handbooks, webpages, through a virtual learning environment and in assignment briefs.

            In particular, for each subject, find out about:
    1. the curriculum – the course content
    2. the outcomes or objectives – what you must know or be able to do by the end of the course
    3. how marks are allocated – what gets good marks? What loses marks?
    4. the special preferences of each lecturer – if in doubt, ask.

    3             Strategy, method and organization
    It is easier to study and saves you time if you have a method for working and are well organized. A skilled student uses strategies, and with practice these become automatic.
                      
    4             Confident and sense of ‘entitlement’
    If you are to succeed as a student, you have to believe that such success is possible for you.
    However, many students feel that academic success is for other people rather than for them. This may be because of their experiences at school, or because nobody from their family has a degree. Often, it is because they hold particular ideas about intelligence, especially their own academic abilities, and so do not give themselves ‘permission’ to do well.
                  
    5             Familiarity, practice and habit

    All skills improve through practice, feedback and monitoring. The more you study and reflect on your learning, the more you become:

    1. adept at finding shortcuts
    2. aware of underlying skills, qualities and habits that you can improve
    3. able to see patterns in what you do
    4. able to able to focus on study for  longer
    5. able to perform skills automatically.

    The way to study well and easily becomes a habit. If you have been away from study or are not used to managing so much unscheduled time, you may find you need to build good study habits.