Study skills statement

Study skills are essential for appropriate and effective learning, they are a set of important transferable life skills which will also aid in competency of your line of work. Some key elements of study skills include:

  • Organization
  • Time Management including use of timetables
  • Learning Styles
  • Note-taking
  • Writing styles
  • Effective reading
  • Essay planning
  • Revision skills
  • Referencing

Having good study skills can improve your memory, reading and listening skills, note taking skills as well as coping with exam anxiety.  

Finding how best you learn is essential while studying, there are a couple of models which help determine the best style of learning for an individual. The most widely accepted models of learning is called the VARK model, this stands for visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic.

Visual- Those who learn best by seeing. For example, watching videos or PowerPoints.

Auditory- Those who learn best by listening for example audio books or recording lessons on a Dictaphone and replaying it back.

Reading/writing- Those who learn best by writing information down and reading back over it and re-writing it numerous times.

Kinesthetic- These are physical learners who learn best by moving and doing for example heart dissection when learning the anatomy of the heart.

By understanding your own process of learning and thinking, you can be more efficient in studying and learning (Loveless, 2019)

Taking part in the VARK questionnaire will enable you to find out which learning style you learn from best, how you retain information and how you can revise effectively. I have attached a link for the VARK questionnaire which may be of use. http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

I am a visual and kinesthetic learner, meaning I learn best by watching something being done then doing it myself. However, I do also benefit by writing and rewriting information out, I feel like this helps me to retain the information needed. I also learn best when I am organised, and when I have lists of what I need to focus on or complete. I also complete timetables which show my available time for study, this helps me envision my time, it gives me allocated time for family time, university and home study, see attached image.