FEP Study Guide
Study Guide Tips
The purpose of this guide is to help you organise how you study best and study tips that you can use to be successful in the course you are undertaking.
The following sections provide a general understanding on the processes involved in effective studying that you can apply; particularly in a vocational education environment where applying skills and performing tasks is as critical as knowledge of a subject area.
When you study, you devote your time and attention to gaining knowledge and skills in a subject area. This often requires discipline where you need to do research, reading, identification of important information and note taking for the purpose of increasing your knowledge and skills in the topic.
By carefully examining a subject matter of a published report, online article, book, or journal, you are able to practically apply what you have understood during assessment effectively and perform certain tasks you have learnt.
Committing to study often occurs before employment or during a break from a person’s usual work. With the right study tips and process however, you can juggle study loads and normal work and family routine.
Learning how to study effectively is an important skill. When it is difficult to balance commitments, students can feel stressed and worn out from their life, work and course requirements and often end up struggling with learning, begrudging assessments or ultimately dropping out of a course.
Studying is a skill that you can acquire through proper discipline. Here are some practical study skills for success.
Time Management
Schedule a certain time of the week devoted mainly for studying. Make sure that your space for studying is uncluttered and free from any distractions.
Make a weekly list over the subject areas that you need to study. A planner or a calendar is helpful. Prioritise subjects that are challenging for you and allocate more time on these.
Plan ahead of time
Make a list of your priorities and when you draft your schedule, make sure not to draft it too tight! Make room for emergencies because you will never know when they might happen. At least you are prepared in case something happens.
Find your rhythm
It is important to find your rhythm when you study. You will also gain better focus if your body and mind are in unison. It would be hard to concentrate if your body keeps doing other activities (such as checking your mobile phone) as your mind tries to focus on studying.
Your body and mind should be doing things that can help you study better.
Practise healthy habits and lifestyle
You need to give your body the right sustenance it needs to stay fit and healthy. You need to rest when it is time to rest. Don’t stay up late! You need to be asleep at a reasonable time. As you sleep, your brain is busy converting all the information you gathered for the day into long term memory.
There are a number of different strategies that you can use to manage your time effectively and allocate study time.It is useful to consider how you spend your time every day. You can jot down your activities and try to eliminate the things that you find unnecessary. You might find it challenging to manage study time at first until a routine is established.
Prepare a schedule
Once you have your course schedule, you can prepare your overall weekly schedule to follow. When preparing a schedule, start with all your fixed commitments. From there, it is easier to consider study time and free time.
You need to plot your course schedule first, and you can put your study time and other important things that you need to do in the blank blocks. Make sure you prioritise well when plotting your schedule, and don’t forget to plot your breaks, including lunch and dinner.
Look for the ideal study spaces
In each location where you study – such as at home or work, look for the most ideal spot to study. This should be free from distraction. You also need to refrain from using your phone and other gadgets while you are in that area. Your goal is to maximise your concentration.
Do the most difficult task first
When studying, your mind works at its best if you are full of energy. Make it a point to do the most difficult task first when you still have ample amount of energy. You need to determine which subject or task is most difficult for you and start with that subject first.
Conduct weekly reviews
Weekly reviews can help you remember and refresh the things that you have learned so you won’t forget them. And it will also assist you monitor your own progress and keep you on track. It is important to determine the best time to do your weekly review, and learn to turn it into a useful habit.
Choose the best study time strategy that works for you. Remember that no two people are exactly alike. You need to find the best study time for yourself and stick to it.
Skim. Start by clarifying your purpose when reading material. This will ‘set the tone’ for your reading and comprehension. Skim the title, summary, and main points of the chapter. The headings and subheadings will highlight the key ideas in the text.
Question. You might devise questions as you progress through your reading based from the headings and subheadings. This will help you concentrate and test assumptions you might have of the topic.
Read. Budget your time over how many minutes you will devote for each chapter or section.
Recite or visualise. For some topics, these approaches are helpful for retention and memorisation. Take time off from reading and recite key points or ideas that you remember. For practical skills, visualise a person performing the task or job correctly – what is the person doing at each point to make sure the task is successfully completed.
Review. Read summary sections of the material where available or note your own summaries – these will be useful when reviewing the section in future for assessment.
Note taking. When note taking, write down only the most important points or key words, and elaborate them in your own words. This aids in developing your understanding of the topic. However, be careful to retain technical words, jargon or acronyms as they are given.
Never crowd your notes. Focus on keywords that are important. Unnecessary information will just confuse you. Using different colours for note taking can help to retain the most important aspects of your notes. Review notes within 24 hours of taking them – this will assist in your recall of the information in future.
- Make sure you know what the requirements of the assessment are in advance, and also any options that might be available to you.
- Identify areas of weakness in your skills or understanding so that you can devote your time more on subjects you are not familiar with.
- Make flashcards of key information for every subject area of your notes.
- It is not ideal to ‘cram’ before an assessment. The most effective approach is to review topics progressively until you have comprehended or memorised all key information.
Logical thinking or critical thinking is defined as the way in which you think, view, assess, and create a structure in order to deepen the comprehension and analysis of your study. A range of thinking techniques above may assist in your study.
Mnemonics
Mnemonics are used as a memory device that will help you recall the numerous pieces of information, as it requires to memorise lists, names, characteristics, parts of a process, stages and phases. This is used to increase recall. Some of the ways in which you could use mnemonics would be associating information with letters of the alphabet, music or names.
Analysing Skills
Some subjects need deeper analysis. There is a need to know how to analyse concepts and ideas before you can properly explain them. Take the most important part of the subject and write your ideas on the right hand side of your notes. Next, draw relationships by placing arrows or lines on topics in which you think are related.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a technique to boost your mind’s creativity. If you are using this for problem solving or for group work, all you have to do is to list down as many ideas as possible. There is no such thing as a right or wrong idea so go ahead and list everything.
Once all ideas have been noted, look for the most appropriate idea or common threads. This will assist to achieve the task or solve the problem.
Questioning Skills
Questions are great ways in which you can hone your thinking skills. It will also promote a spirit of questioning. You can prepare questions that you think will be asked, then provide your answers from your readings or notes.
Interpretation Skills
This is your ability to analyse and communicate what you have understood and feedback this to others. You use your readings, observations and inference skills to make a good interpretation of what you have studied, and explain your understandings to others. Ideally the people you select are aware of the topic and can discuss their understanding and views also to provide you with feedback.
Remember your thinking ability will be aided by sleep, exercise, a balanced diet, quiet music, water and most of all giving yourself rest periods so that your brain will be able to function well!
Reports and projects
When preparing to complete an assessment consider the scope and limitation of your work. Plan a working outline of information that will be included.
This might include:
- Title page, which would normally include the title, your name and date.
- Acknowledgements when it is necessary.
- Table of Contents, which are in numbered form that states the corresponding pages.
- Introduction: The overview of your topic.
- Main content: Where the sections of the report or project are completed.
- Summary.
- References would be the list of authors or sources you used.
Intellectual Preparation
- Give yourself ample time for study. Don’t resort to cramming at the last minute. Do your reading days ahead of the slated day of assessment.
- Ask what type of assessment you will be taking. Short answer questions, essay writing or other activities may require different study techniques.
- Practise on old assessments if these are available. This is useful, most especially when you are familiar with the techniques used in the assessment and also reinforces the subject matter.
- Organise your notes. This is when your note-taking papers are put to good use. Because you took down notes in your own words, it is easy to memorise them come examination time.
- Use charts and diagrams. These will assist with your recall – particularly with more complex concepts.
Emotional Preparation
- Listening to relaxing music will not only boost your mood, but it will encourage the cells of your brain to function well.
- Plan your assessment day well. Make sure you have everything you need. Forgetting items you need may leave you worried and frazzled, which will not help you in gaining the momentum you need to answer questions.
- Group reviews are a great way of bonding with your friends, but will also lift up your mood. It will also leave you more motivated to study because you will share the burden of studying with friends.
Physical Preparation
- There is no better preparation than a good night’s sleep on the eve of your assessment. This will allow your brain to recover and the rest will assist your memory.
- You might like to eat so called ‘brain foods’ such as nuts, fish, berries, yoghurt and choicest fruits.
Referencing is an important part of any written assessment work you complete.
Referencing is a consistent method of acknowledging or citing another person’s ideas, which you have used, in your own project or assessment.
Referencing has several important purposes:
- To uphold intellectual honesty (avoiding plagiarism)
- To attribute prior or unoriginal work and ideas to the correct persons or sources; and
- To allow the reader of the assessment to determine independently whether the referenced information supports the position or argument put forward in the assessment.
There are generally two parts to referencing: the note within the text of your assessment where the information appears and within the reference list provided with your assessment.
For example, a common referencing approach is the ‘author-date’ system as outlined below.
Note in the text of the assignment consists of the author(s) name and year of publication given wholly or partly in round brackets. Generally you should .se only the surname of the author(s) and the year of publication. Include page, chapter or section numbers, preceded by a comma, if you need to be specific.
For example: (House and Willis, 2006, 56 – 67).
The full details of the source information should then be provided in a reference list at the end of your assessment. The reference list contains all the information that someone would need to follow up your source.
For example:
House, J., and Willis, P. 2006. Management fundamentals: A practical guide. 3rd edition.
Melbourne: Knowles Publishing.
This full referencing provides author names and publication details including year, title, edition, location and name of the publisher.
Cheating is the act of attempting to circumvent the assessment practices in an unethical or illegal manner. Plagiarism is a form of cheating. Plagiarism is the practice of claiming or implying original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else’s written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one’s own without adequate acknowledgement.
The following list outlines some of the activities considered plagiarism:
- Presenting any work by another individual as one’s own intentionally;
- Handing in assessments markedly similar to or copied from another student;
- Presenting the work of another individual or group as their own work; and
- Handing in assessments without the adequate acknowledgement of sources used, including assessments taken totally or in part from the internet.
Cheating and plagiarism are serious acts and may result in a student being excluded from a unit, module or a course overall. Where a student has any doubts about including the work of other authors in their assessments, they should consult with their facilitator or assessor before handing in their assessment.
There is a difference between online learning and the traditional learning format where students attend classes at an institution. With the virtual format of studying, you have the ability to study at your own time.
This flexibility has many advantages but, unfortunately, too much flexibility and freedom can also be the cause of failing to complete the course requirements on schedule. Taking a course online is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you do not know how to handle responsibilities or you lack self-discipline.
If you are interested in online learning or you are enrolled in an online course, following these tips can help you to be a successful online learner.
Establish a consistent study schedule
The lack of class schedules can always lead to procrastination. You may be tempted to delay your time for learning for another day that can negatively affect your studies. You have to create an effective working schedule for your online course and strictly adhere to it. Establishing a consistent study schedule is very important when you are taking online classes.