Study Skills

Introduction

1. The Sixth Form is demanding. There are huge opportunities for all to excel in fields such as music, drama, sport and all of the other extra-curricular activities on offer here such as the Enrichment Programme, Duke of Edinburgh, etc. As well as this, all of you will be given the opportunity to contribute to House activities, many of you will be Prefects, Form Prefects, House Captains etc and, at the same time, the various activities that you do outside school. The pressure on your time will be great. However, what is vital is to remember that your academic work is at the heart of all that you do here. Your academic work must take priority and the aim for all of you is to achieve final results that you are proud of and that are a true reflection of your ability and the effort you have made during your time in the Sixth Form.
2. Your academic performance in the next two years will, to a large extent, determine your future. Certainly in the short term university places will depend on this.
3. The aim of this booklet is to provide you with a simple, clear guidance to help you to study effectively and maximise your learning potential.
4. Read it carefully, think about the issues raised and act upon the advice given. Remember there are always people here to turn to if you face problems with your work: your Form Tutor, your Subject Teachers, Assistant Head of Year and Head of Sixth Form. The Sixth Form should be a coalition where we are all working together towards the common goal of all round success for each and every one of you.

The essential study skills – a scheme for success

1. Always ask for help if you need it. All of your teachers will be able to give you a lot of tips and advice on techniques on how to study well in each subject, how to write essays, how to make notes, how to revise etc. You should notice that many of these are the same; therefore, the benefits that come from working on the techniques will help across your subjects. Be prepared to experiment. It may be that you will simply have to try something new because you are studying a new subject, remember that just because a technique you used at GCSE level worked it does not necessarily follow that it will work under the pressure of A-Level courses.

Non-Contact Periods

1. In Year 12, depending on your course of study, you will have between 4 and 8 hours of supervised study per fortnight to assist you with your study routine. Use all non-contact periods wisely.
2. For the bulk of your time in supervised study you should be engaged in work, reading, planning, preparing for lessons, taking notes, completing exercises etc. It is absolutely clear that the students who do best in the Sixth Form are those who throughout their time have used their non-contact periods sensibly and actively. We do not expect students to work intensively every non-contact period but on the other hand it is not productive to waste this time. Remember that the A-Level courses are very tight for time; it is only nine months from September to the UCAS Predicted Grade exams in May.

Time Management

1. This is a difficult one to offer advice on because everyone works at a different pace and level. Also each subject has different demands, for example, essay writing subjects may seem to require more time than problem solving subjects.
   1. Having a timetable and sticking to it is advisable. In your daily/weekly routine you would be best advised to map out your time. If, for example you know that every Tuesday evening you are going to receive a piece of Maths homework then you must set aside the hour or so it requires to complete it – that becomes a regular part of your scheme of work.
   2. If you have problems settling down to study this may be to do with motivation and you may need to think about why you are here.
   3. Having time off is vital, breaks do help, a balanced programme of study and recreation time is ideal.
   4. Make lists of everything you need to do each week in your planner.
   5. Break big tasks down into manageable sections. It is, for example, unlikely that you would write an entire history essay in one sitting. So the scheme might be:
      1. Wed period 1 receive the title, note the deadline – one week
      2. Thurs & Fri PS lessons – do the reading
      3. Sat one hour – make notes from the textbook
      4. Sun – Plan and draft
      5. Mon evening – write the essay – several hours
      6. Wed – remember to hand it in!
2. Review all of your work as you go along. Revising all topics as part of your ongoing work will help improve long term memory. Make summaries. Draw up conclusions. Read the conclusions to chapters in textbooks.
3. Many of you may take up paid work whilst you are in the Sixth Form. This is no bad thing in itself in terms of financial management and independence. Universities may well look favourably upon someone who organises themselves and their studies so as to be able to cope with added time pressure a job will entail. It may show that you are good at coping with people BUT you must consider the time factor. How much does it eat into your time schedule?
4. Again it may be useful to discuss this with your Form Tutor. As a rule, we do not encourage students to work more than 10 hours per week.

Resource Management

1. As this booklet suggests there are a host of resources you can use to help you study. Different resources work for each individual and it will depend upon you preferred learning style but there is no escaping the fact that you will benefit tremendously if you:
   1. Ask questions in class
   2. Get used to the style of your teachers. Some may, for example, make use of the whiteboard, others may lead discussion lessons etc.
   3. Listen attentively in lessons for key words
   4. Discuss work with students
   5. Read widely, books, magazines, newspapers, journals, podcasts, blogs and articles
   6. Make notes
   7. Use the Internet and websites to gain information and to improve your skills
   8. Watch quality TV programmes
   9. Make visits to cultural sites, museums and art galleries
   10. Do not wait to be told to make notes. Also, do not attempt to write down what your teacher says word for word – this is not dictation!

Learning Skills

1. To maximise your success and get the most out of your time in the Sixth Form you will need to consistently improve and refine your learning style. A number of skills can be worked upon and improved by:
   1. Organising your time by thorough planning.
   2. Using your initiative by, for example, reading something that is not set by the teacher and bringing that experience into lessons.
   3. Evaluating.
   4. Try to be neat, accurate and thorough in all of your work.
   5. Read around your subjects
   6. Analyse, not just your own performance but also all that you do, what works, what does not?
   7. Respond positively to comments on your work made by teachers.
   8. Research, know where to look for information and ask if unsure.
   9. Develop your own ideas, think critically, challenge and confront, argue logically
   10. Problem solve, share ideas.
2. Being an effective learner is going to be very helpful in all of your subjects. Work you do in form time will help you all consider these learning skills in more detail. Don’t ignore advice; don’t think that there is no more to learn about how to learn!

Evaluation Skills

1. Evaluation is one of the most important intellectual skills. It is a key part of most A-Level assessment, and is even more significant at A-Level than at GCSE. This, of course varies from one subject to another, and you should check the precise details in the Assessment Objectives for each of your A-Level subjects. Many of you will want to go on to University where this skill will continue to become more and more important, again depending on exactly which subject you study.
2. Most of school education can give the false impression that a student's job is to learn a set number of facts without question. Learning and thinking about the world is much more importantly about deciding what you personally think about a whole range of issues, many of which have no one definite answer. Of course, you can't just have any opinion you choose because you feel like it. You have to have good reasons for your views; good arguments and good evidence. You have to be 'critical' which means not taking other people's word for it, and only agreeing with their opinions after you have thought for yourself and decided that persuasive reasons have been given.
3. How you evaluate, and get the marks for it, looks different in different subjects, and you need to learn the skill within each subject. But, broadly, how you evaluate is to say to yourself 'hang on a minute, there's more to this than meets the eye; let's see what reasons there are to agree or disagree with the point of view I am being given here'.

Taking Notes

1. This is a vital skill in all subjects. Somehow you have to transform large chunks of information taken from books, articles, teachers, lectures etc into easily manageable chunks. Again every individual will have their own preference but you may:
   1. Use colours, bold headings, underlining, highlighting.
   2. Use a form of note taking that you are happy with. Diagrammatic notes, linear notes, spider diagrams all work well for some students.
   3. Build up your own shorthand and abbreviations.
   4. Review your class notes as the course goes on.
   5. At revision time even more refined notes and note taking come into play.
   6. Ask yourself questions, What are my notes for? Do they help achieve the purpose?

Revision

1. It is not a good idea to leave revision to the end of your courses. Revision is an ongoing thing, part of the day by day process of reviewing, learning and ultimately preparing for the A-Level exams. Learning is maximized when the new information is gone through, consciously and deliberately, at the end of the day. There is some suggestion sleep plays an important role here. This embeds the new learning, and identifies things that need checking (perhaps with the teacher) the next day.
2. How to do it? You are veterans of revision following GCSEs.
   1. Revision should be active, reading material through may be a key part of your revision scheme but it is not the last part of the process. You should actively be practicing what you will actually have to do in exams i.e. doing practice answers, solving problems, going over past papers.
   2. Organise your revision. A plan will pay real dividends.
   3. Take breaks.
   4. Break topics down into manageable sections.
   5. Use methods of abbreviating, spider charts, linear notes, diagrams, and topic cards.
   6. Try new techniques e.g. recording information onto media devices or explaining a difficult topic to a friend.
   7. Discuss the work with your peers. Set up Arbeitsgemeinschaften (small groups of students go off and talk about their work in their non-contact periods).
   8. Ask your teachers for past papers. Look on the Internet. Try to get hold of exemplar marked sample scripts from previous exams. By studying these examples you will understand better the mark schemes and be able to target the skills demanded by each component of each of your courses. Look at the syllabus and ensure you understand the Assessment Objectives. These are available from your teachers and the exam websites. Make sure you know the assessment grade boundaries.
   9. Obtain Examiners’ Reports from previous examinations.
   10. Make sure you know what the format for your exam papers actually is.
   11. On the day of your exam do not arrive late.
3. Many of the skills discussed on the forthcoming pages are cross curricular. Skills gained in one subject may supplement another subject and vice-versa. Have an open mind and learn all you can; Year 12 only lasts 9 months – you need to pick up good study skills fast!

VESPA

VESPA booklet

How to use your Form Tutor

1. What will your Form Tutor do?
   1. Give you advice and support throughout your Sixth Form career
   2. Liaise with your teachers and build up an idea of how you are getting on
   3. Liaise with the Head of Sixth Form in the event of any problems over work, behaviour, attendance etc.
   4. Offer advice and help with careers and university choice under the guidance of the Manager of UCAS and Careers
   5. Write your tutor reference for university entrance
2. When should you see your Form Tutor and what should you discuss

Within the first few weeks of starting Year 12

1. How are you settling in?

At the end of the first term

1. Your work routines, how your courses are going, the pressure of extra curricular activities, self-appraisal, your results, termly assessments.

At the end of the second term

1. Planning for mock examinations, your general academic progress.

Once or twice in the third term

1. Your plans for the future, university? Work? Gap Year?
2. Plans for revision

Start of the fourth term

1. Your revision programme, the UCAS Predicted Grade exams

Start of fifth term

1. UCAS Predicted grade exams, are you coping?

Start of the sixth term

1. UCAS applications, courses, post 18 career plans,
2. Personal Statements written
3. Try to build up a good relationship with your Form Tutor. The Sixth Form is a collaboration between staff and students – these are your exams and your responsibility BUT your tutors offer key support across the two years!

Top Tips

1. Don’t ignore the advice included here – time spent thinking about how you study, how you learn and then doing something about it is time well spent.
2. Be honest about your own performance. It is an old cliché but one that’s true; “you can’t fool the examiners”. By pushing yourself hard throughout the Sixth Form and always reviewing your own performance, you will be more sure that you are doing yourself justice and achieving the right level for you as an individual.
3. If things are not going well do ask for help and do discuss your work with your colleagues and your teachers. We are expecting students to have problems at some point in the Sixth Form and it is so very important that you approach someone. We are here to help.
4. Enjoy the work. Be optimistic, look ahead and for everything you do keep the purpose in mind – passing the exam, improving the essay technique, finding a job, and getting into university.
5. Use non-contact periods as an active part of your programme of work.
6. And finally... enjoy your studying.