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Your study technique toolbox

Getting off to a good start

Where we left off ...

Danish academic culture is based on the individual,

critical response
• Knowledge (not information) and analysis
• Your ablity to reflect on what you have learnt
• Sharing/discussing your thoughts with others
• Communicating your ideas CLEARLY
’Read, mark, learn and
inwardly digest’
...inward digest?

• Retaining what you’ve

learnt
• Making your knowledge
useful - to yourself and
others

For this, you need good

study techniques...
..but you also need motivation
Get into good habits

• Check course
requirements
• Plan your term
• Have fixed working hours
(independent study)
• Choose your study
environment (’work
place’)
• Refine your study skills
The basics of a good study technique

• Read (appropriate technique)

• Reflect on what you read (process your material)
• Share your thoughts (teachers/colleagues)
• Review your material regularly
Your study technique tool box

• Planning
• Reading technique
• Note-taking technique
• Active participation in
class
• Generating ideas
Planning your time
Planning your time

Check:
• Course requirements
• Course plan
• Type of exam and date
• Reading load: primary/secondary literature
Work out a study plan
• Long-term plan (overview of
tasks month/term)

• Short-term plan (timetable for a

week/day)

• Include extra-curricular activities

• Prioritise your tasks (ex. colour

code)

• Set deadlines (be realistic!)

Reading techniques

Suit your technique to

the status of the text
Before choosing your reading
technique, you need to define

• text type?
• aim of text?
• relevance of text
Select your reading technique

• Overview reading
• Skimming
• Selective reading
• Normal reading
• Intensive reading
....or a combination
Overview reading (’library reading’)

Purpose:
• to familiarise yourself with various types of text

How?
• Read abstract or back cover
• Check list of contents
• Quick scan through text
• Perhaps read parts of introduction and conclusion
Skimming

Purpose:
• To get a general idea of the text’s content

How?
• Quick scan through text
• General notes when you’ve finished
Selective reading

Purpose:
• Find specific information/explanation which you
need to use

How?
• Read with a particular issue in focus
• Take notes to the specific topic
Normal reading

Purpose:
• understand the entire argument of the text

How?
• Read entire text
• Take notes as you read
• Summarise the text’s argument
Intensive reading

Purpose:
• Know the text in detail

How?
• Read text cover-to-cover
• Take notes as you read
• Final notes (progression of argument + your response)
The SQ3R reading method

• Survey: Skim the text through before taking notes

• Question: What’s this about/what do I already know

• Read: Read thoroughly and take notes

• Recite: Summarise the main points (orally/in writing)

• Review: Go over notes regularly

The ultimate reading test

Put the text’s

argument into your
own words.

If you can’t, you’ve

not understood the
text!
Taking notes
Class notes
Purpose:
• Record what went on in class
• Writing as an aid to memory
• Short and concise
• Use your own shorthand/page
layout
• Important notes in quotes
(watch out for plagiarism!)
Shorthand examples

• Def. definition
• Ref. reference
• Ex. example
• + and/addition
• => leads to/results in
• = equals/the same as
• < or > larger than/smaller than
• ~ almost the same as/corresponds to
Note-taking methods

• The Cornell method

• The outline method
• The mapping method
• The charting method

Reference:
sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetaking.systems.html
The Cornell method

• Left margin for

’cues’/headlines/main
points
• Notes to the right
• Bottom of page for main
ideas (review)
Outline method

• Headline/main point
• Space indention for
subpoints
• Outlines content
relationships + levels of
importance
• Need accurate
organisation
The mapping method

• Visual/graphic
representation of content
of lecture
• Overview
• Emphasizes critical
thinking
• Easy to add numbers,
underline, colour-coding
The charting method

• Columns and headings

• Clear identification of
lecture categories
• Easy to review
• Limit amount of notes
The four methods
Exercise - lecture notes

• Listen to the extract from part I of Anthony

Giddens’ lecture series, Runaway World - on
Globalisation
• Select your note-taking technique
• Take notes while listening
• Compare notes in pairs - discuss pros/cons
Ex. lecture notes (Giddens)
• Intro. anecdote => impact of glob.
• ’globalisation’ (term) - over past 10 years - meaning not clear - great debate
=>
• Two camps
• A. ’Sceptics’
– Status quo - economy not different - regional exchange, not global (ex.
trading blocs, EU, NA, Asia) => the old left (free market agitators)
• B. ’Radicals’
– Global market highly dev. ( % nation states - a fiction)
• Giddens: Radicals are right!
• World trade, services, finance - ’new electronic global economy’
• BUT:’glob is political, technological, and cultural as well as
economic’
What to do with class notes?
• Fair copy of your notes when you get home
- use headlines
- summarise/put into your own words
- classify topics into seperate files

• Recap: read over your lesson notes before the next

seminar/lecture

• Questions? Clarify issues asap with colleagues/lecturer

Reading notes

’An unmarked text is an unread text’

Reading notes
• Use the margins (content notes and your own comments)

• Highlight the text (colour coding/post-it notes)

• Use note-taking techniques (cp. class notes)

• Synthesize your reading notes

• Devise a logical filing system

Exercise - reading notes

• Read through the text on the hand-out

(Giddens/globalisation excerpt)
• Select a new note taking techique and use it for
your reading notes.
• 10 min.
Checklist for text summaries
(synthesis)
• Topic?
• Issues addressed (synopsis)?
• Argument?
• Methods used (and why)?
• Conclusions (and why)?
• Your response
Mindmapping - generating ideas
Exercise - mindmap your thoughts

Draw a mindmap of your associations to any of

the following topics:
• Disaster management
• Networking
• Improving public health in the third world
• First impressions of Denmark
Active participation in class
Your sessions

• Lectures
• Student presentations
• Class discussions
• Group work/discussions

Active participation from you is expected!

Active participation

• Take the floor early on - get use to speaking in

class
• Contribute to discussions
• Ask questions
• Listen to your colleagues - share your thoughts
• Make sure your contribution is relevant and
constructive
Studying is work in progress ...

and study techniques

only get better
through constant
practice