Lower School
Study Skills
Booklet
An effective learner …
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is organised
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studies at regular times
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has a positive attitude
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settles quickly to work
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gives adequate time to difficult/uninteresting topics
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listens to advice from teachers
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asks for help when it is needed
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finds time to relax
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eats and drinks sensibly
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keeps things in perspective
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is self-motivated - knows why he wants to succeed
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avoids watching too much television
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never leaves things until the last minute
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gets sufficient sleep
Ideas for effective learning and revision
Here you will find a wealth of ideas to help you approach your
work throughout the school year – not just in preparation for
exams. Practising successful revision techniques in learning
preps will make you better prepared for times when you have
a lot of information to revise.
Vocabulary learning
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The best way to learn vocabulary is a little and often.
For most of us, it is much more effective to learn 10
words per night rather than trying to learn lots of words
less often
There are several strategies that can help you to
remember vocabulary more easily and effectively, described below.
Learning the meaning of words
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Link a new word in a foreign language to a word which is the same or similar in English (e.g.
the French word for aeroplane is “avion” which can be linked to the English “aviator” or
“aviation”).
You can also link a new word to an internal image which you create e.g. to remember the
French word for “cabbage” which is “chou” (pronounced like “shoe”) you could imagine a
cabbage growing out of a shoe. The more outrageous, ridiculous or humorous you make such
images, the easier they will be to remember.
Learning the gender of vocabulary items
There are various strategies that can help you to remember the gender of a foreign word i.e.
whether it is masculine, feminine or neuter.
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Colour coding – e.g. note all masculine words in blue, feminine in red and neuter in green.
Alternatively imagine a masculine word (e.g. un chat) as blue (so imagine a blue cat), and a
feminine word (e.g. une gare) as red (so imagine a train station painted red).
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Association - create a masculine image (e.g. a big, burly boxer) and a feminine image (e.g. a
pink, fluffy ballerina) and link the new word to such a person. To remember “un chou” (a
cabbage) imagine a big, burly boxer with a cabbage growing out of his shoe. To remember
“une gare” (a train station) imagine a pink, fluffy ballerina running to catch a train at the
station.
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Page position - note all masculine words from a topic on the left-hand side of the page and
all feminine words on the right-hand side of the page, for example. When trying to
remember the gender you can try to visualise whether the word was on the left side or the
right side of the page.
Repetition is the
mother of skill
Remember the five Ps:
proper preparation prevents
poor performance.
Learning what words mean and how to spell them
• Look, cover, write, check
Copy the word/phrase down accurately, look at it and try to remember it.
Cover it and try to write the word/phrase from memory. Uncover the original and check
whether what you wrote from memory is correct.
• Fanfold
Fold a piece of A3 paper to make 6 columns. In the first column copy accurately all the foreign
language words to be learned. In the second column write the English meaning. After studying
both columns fold the first column so that you can no longer see it and then try to translate the
English words from the second column into the foreign language. Unfold and check your answers
against the accurate version in the first column. Then fold away the first two columns and
translate column 3 back into English. Unfold and check. Continue folding so that you only see
one column at a time and keep translating from and into English until you have filled all six
columns.
• Excel
You can do the same learning activity as described above by typing/copying the list of foreign
language words into column A of an Excel spreadsheet. Then translate into English in column B.
Then use the scroll bar to hide column A and try to translate the words in column B back into the
foreign language in column C. Then hide columns A and B and translate the words in column C
back into English. Continue until you are confident that you know all the words on your list
thoroughly. The advantage of using Excel is that you can come back to the same list as often as
you need to and keep adding columns or deleting your previous work and starting again. You can
also highlight the words you find difficult so that you devote more time and attention to them.
• Listen to vocabulary.
There are numerous podcasts available for learning and revising vocabulary. Many are free on itunes. Your teacher may have created customised podcasts, also! Ask them.
• Teach/test cards
Write the English version of a word (or draw/ stick a picture) on one side of a piece of card and
the foreign language on the reverse side. Test yourself by looking at the English or picture and
trying to say or write the foreign language version. Then check against what is on the foreign
language side of the card.
• PowerPoint
Write the English (or insert an image) word and the foreign language version on a PPT slide.
Animate it so that the English, then the foreign language version, will appear, once you have a
had a chance to think of the answer, or vice versa.
• Mime and gesture
You could try learning vocabulary with an accompanying gesture e.g. for verbs such as listen,
write, read, jump, run, etc. In so doing you activate what is sometimes known as “muscle
memory”.
• Computer-based activities
There are many websites which contain interactive exercises. These provide instant feedback
and you can keep trying to improve your performance. Ask your languages teacher(s) for the
most useful websites.
• Read-cover-write/speak-check
Read through a topic or list of vocabulary carefully, then cover your reading material and make
notes of what you have just read (using, for example, the key facts technique described in the
“revision cards” section below). If you don’t want to make notes (if you have an auditory rather
than a visual learning preference) you can say the key facts aloud instead or record them to an
MP3 file. Always check to make sure you have not forgotten anything. If you have left
something out or have made an error in the spelling of a vocabulary item, repeat the process
until you have everything correct.
Flash cards
Flash cards are particularly useful when learning vocabulary, dates, formulae or key definitions.
Write the item to be learned on one side of the card and the answer on the other and test
yourself. You might store these by topic in boxes: if you get the answer right move that card
to the back of the box. If you get it wrong, keep the card at the front of the box and repeat
the process until all cards have been moved to the back. Review the whole set at a later date.
Post-its
Write keywords, facts, dates etc on post-its and put them where you are likely to see them
often such as on the door to your bedroom, above your desk, above a bookcase, on the fridge, on
a mirror and on walls around your room and home.
Sometimes it helps to recall the location where you stuck
the post-it in order to trigger the facts on it. For
example, “volcanoes” might be stuck on the second shelf of
your bookcase and it might be on an orange post-it.
You can also use post-its in files and books. For example,
you could write the French word for car “une voiture” on a
post-it (possibly pink for a feminine word) and then cover it
with another post-it with the English equivalent. You could
then test yourself by looking at the English on the top
post-it, try to remember the French and then lift or
remove that post-it to reveal the answer below.
Working in pairs/groups
Revising with someone can be really effective as it speeds up the process and makes it
interactive. This can be a very useful way to learn lists of vocabulary or dates.
Pupil as teacher
Another way of working in pairs or a group is for each member of the group to learn one part of
a topic thoroughly and then teach it to the others. You will soon discover that you can only teach
something if you understand it thoroughly. You will probably find that you will also gain new
insights and make interesting connections to other topics and even other subjects.
Revision cards
Don’t just re-write your notes. Provided they are legible you can, usually, already learn from
them.
• Choose a topic and read carefully through your notes, picking out the key facts and
either underline them or highlight them.
• Go through the notes again and list the key facts on an index card – your revision card.
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Study the revision card and try to learn the key facts. If there is a word you have
difficulty in spelling, use the “look-say-cover-write-check” method to try to learn it.
Test yourself either by covering up the revision card and trying to write out the key
facts or by getting someone else to test you.
Check to see if you have everything correct or if you have missed anything out. Use a
highlighter to mark any important points which you’ve missed and, if necessary, keep
repeating the process until you get it right.
Example revision card
Destruction of tropical rainforest (10% in 80s)
Causes
1.
Logging (5 million hectares per year)
2.
Mining (Copper, bauxite, iron ore)
3.
Roads e.g. Trans-Amazon highway
4.
Dams (for hydroelectricity)
5.
Subsistence farming (slash and burn)
6.
Ranching (beef)
Effects
1.
Tribal life and culture destroyed
2.
Global warming (increased carbon dioxide)
3.
Loss of plant species and possible medicines
4.
Extinction of wildlife
5.
Land degradation due to soil erosion
Traffic lighting
Use red, amber and green at the top of your revision cards or against aspects of a topic or
vocabulary to be learned. Red means that your knowledge is insecure and that you need to
devote a considerable amount of work to that aspect of your learning. Amber means that you
are half-way there, but some work is still needed. Green means that you are confident that you
know the word or have mastered that material and you don’t need to invest more time in learning
it. In this way, you will be able to see at a glance what you still need to work on.
Highlighter pens
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Use highlighter pens of different colours to distinguish themes, topics, genders of words in
foreign languages, etc.
Another use of colour could include writing your notes on “rivers” in blue, for example, or
labelling parts of a plant in green. In foreign language learning you could write masculine
words in blue, feminine words in pink or red and neuter words (for a language such as
German) in green.
If you try this you might be amazed at how much colour association can help recall.
Memory skills
There are a number of techniques which can help you to remember lists of items:
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Story technique – where you remember a list of items by weaving them into a story
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Journey technique – this involves pegging a list of items to be remembered to landmarks of a
familiar journey e.g. your route to school, the route round fixed items in rooms of your
house, classrooms or even imaginary rooms.
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Number shape system – this enables you to remember 9 items by linking them to images
representing numbers 1-9
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Number rhyme system – this enables you to remember 9 items by linking them to words
which rhyme with numbers 1-9
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Mnemonics: a device such as a formula or rhyme used as an aid in remembering. For example
an easy way to remember the order of the planets from the sun is “My very easy method
just set up nine planets” where the first letter of each word of the mnemonic is the first
letter of a planet i.e. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto
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Rhymes: silly rhymes help you to remember facts e.g. “In 14 hundred and 92 Columbus sailed
the ocean blue”. Think how many lyrics you can recite perfectly because they are set to
music.
Consider this example for learning different types of rocks (to the tune of Frère Jacques!):
Metamporphic, Metamorphic,
Marble slate, Marble slate,
Sedimentary’s limestone, sedimentary’s limestone,
Mudstone, shale, Mudstone, shale
Effective reading and note-taking
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Read through the whole passage from start to finish. Pay particular
attention to the title, any sub-titles, diagrams, tables and graphs.
Use colour coding systems, underline key words and draw symbols in
the margin to act as aide-memoires.
Make a summary sheet using the colours, key words and symbols.
Complete the summary sheet from memory and look back at the
original to correct any mistakes or omissions.
Try to write up the passage from memory in your own words or
teach it to someone else. Writing information in your own words,
and teaching others, improve memory and understanding. “What
you understand, you don’t forget.”
Variety
Use a variety of methods to study/revise as the brain thrives on variety, changes of topic and
new approaches.
Active learning
Don’t sit in front of books or notes for long periods of time reading and re-reading them: most
of us retain very little information in this way as it is too passive. It is much better to use more
active learning strategies such as reciting the information to yourself, writing out formulae,
definitions and vocabulary, and other active techniques mentioned above.
“Trying to learn without review
is like trying to fill a bath
without putting the plug in.”
“What you understand, you
don’t forget.”