Study Skills

Week 3, Video tasks

In the series of videos that I watched, I learned many study skills from them to set myself up for success and make my college life a little bit easier.

In the first video, 'The 3 Best science-based study tips' uses many different resources from universities and professional studies. Mike states that he is a doctor working in California. He shows evidence-based learning strategies about how to study for exams and how to train our brains effectively while backing everything up by science. 

What I learned is that the more brainpower and effort one uses, the more retention one will get. This is because you can learn more under difficult conditions since it would be harder to forget. This had made me realise why many people in my life had told me that trying to study lying down or on your bed won't work as well, this now makes sense as to why. 

There is a study by Kornell that states ultimately quizzing yourself is a great strategy for studying. I am still learning and taking in knowledge even if I get questions wrong because it is essentially putting my brain to work. I had used this method throughout my leaving certificate by practicing many exam questions.

Mike also explains that spacing or spaced repetition is part of the road to successful studying. This means spreading your study time out and that cramming should not be the case for studying. This has changed my way of studying since now I understand that spending hours and hours in one day does not necessarily mean that the information will stay. Ebbinghaus conducted a study and discovered the forgetting curve which declares that after 24 hours, 50% of the information one gathers will be forgotten so it is best to learn smaller bits over a few days rather than all at once.

Several studies say that mixing different subjects is better than just studying for one subject for hours. This is because it allows multiple parts of our brain to function. I had never thought or heard about this before and I find this very fascinating. I imagine that this will allow my mind to stay fresh and awake.

This video alone has taught me a lot. I learned that taking breaks while studying is very important. It allows us not to be burnt out by hours and hours of studying. By using these three methods, I believe that I can make a difference in my way of studying and that I can improve myself academically. The main message I got from this video is that more effort equals more retention.

In the second video, Thomas talks about five reading strategies or habits for textbook assignments. I found this particular video very helpful since I had always struggled with retaining knowledge from a textbook or a book of some sort. 

Learning about pseudo skimming was very enlightening to me since I've never thought about reading in that way. Beforehand, I would read every single paragraph in-depth but now I understand that some paragraphs are there for filler. 

The one tip I could really relate to is marking up the book with either pencil or possibly sticky notes. I found using different coloured sticky notes or flags really helpful since each colour represented something of importance. 

This video was incredibly helpful as Thomas gave us five simple strategies for reading and then towards the end gave good examples of him using the strategies.

The third and final video is a TED talk by Andrea Quijada. I personally love ted talks no matter the topic. I find them notably informative and helpful to our daily lives. 

Andrea's use of real-life experiences and examples is a very authentic and personal feeling. 

Although I enjoyed the way Andrea expressed the message behind what she was saying, I did find it somewhat difficult to grasp and understand.

From what I gathered, the point of this video is that the media can misguide oneself. It makes me think more about how I personally see the media.