Slide 1: Personal Skills and IT HN1104 Session 2 Reading Note Taking Exams
Slide 2: Take notes during this session Use the method/technique with which you are familiar/comfortable
Slide 3: Reading  Speed reading  ‘After a speed reading course I was able to go through War and Peace in 20 minutes. Its about Russia.’ Woody Allen HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 3
Slide 4: Reading (cont.)  Read the text provided ‘Eye Movements’ #  Note start and end times #  Remember the important points  Approx. 700 words. Divide this by the number of minutes to give speed in words per minute #  Exercise # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 4
Slide 5: Reading Exercise  1. False. Poor readers fixate more than once on some words. This backtracking is a major cause of slowness  2. True. Provided it is a specially designed practice.  3. False, according to the text (3-6 fixations per line). Really true!  4. False. Need to practise the techniques regularly to maintain high speeds HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 5
Slide 6: Reading Exercise (cont.)  5. False. Rapid reading may increase comprehension  6. True.  More than one wrong, need to improve retention skills  Speed of 250 or more words/minute with reasonable retention OK  Exercises to increase reading speed Tony Buzan # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 6
Slide 7: Reading effectively  Be selective - you do not have to read everything BUT you have to read something  Develop a strategy - SQ3R  Survey the material - quick preview  Think of questions you might find answered in the text  Read the text carefully  Recall the main points  Review the text HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 7
Slide 8: SQ3R- Survey       Book cover - subject area Title page - date of publication List of contents Index Preface, foreword/introduction Body of text, particularly chapter summaries HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 8
Slide 9: SQ3R - Question  Contents, title page etc.     What do I know about this subject already? Is the book sufficiently up to date? Would it be helpful to me? Why does the author give a whole chapter to topic x?  Text  What are the most crucial ideas in this text? And what use are they to me? HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 9
Slide 10: SQ3R - Read  Don’t just ‘suck up’ other peoples ideas     Does this text have what I need? What does this statement really mean? Are these facts or opinions? What alternatives are there? Are they worth considering?  How does it relate to my experience? HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 10
Slide 11: SQ3R - Recall  Usually remember 50% of what you have read 10 minutes later unless you actively attempt to recall information. This:  Aids concentration  Keeps you active because you are participating in the event  Minimises future revision  No hard and fast rules for how often you should stop and recall - depends on text  Spend at least half your time on recall HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 11
Slide 12: SQ3R - Review  One way is a quick repeat of the previous four aspects  Make brief notes from memory, then check these against the text Use the ideas flexibly. Find out what works for you. HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 12
Slide 13: Note Taking
Slide 14: Note Taking - Benefits  Only record in some cases i.e no hand outs  Useful for revision  Highlight key points, aiding concentration/recall/understanding  Useful to inter-relate material HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 14
Slide 15: Note taking - Problems  Can’t find them later among all the other notes taken before or since  Can’t read the writing  Can read it but don’t know what it means HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 15
Slide 16: Note-Taking - What you need  In University aim for students to progress from initially providing descriptions of factual information towards identifying principles, concepts, arguments and being able to criticise and evaluate i.e. asking why information, concepts or arguments are as they are  3 categories of information HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 16
Slide 17: 1. Underlying principles, concepts, theories, lines of argument  What are the ideas behind detailed, factual information?  What are the crucial principles?  If you had to explain a theory to a Martian, what would be its absolute essentials?  What are the steps in a line of argument? HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 17
Slide 18: 2. Detailed factual information (inc reading or sources to follow up)  What is the concept/ argument/ principle/ theory which needs supporting?  What evidence is needed to support it?  Are there any essential steps (e.g. stages in a mathematical calculation) which must be included? HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 18
Slide 19: 3. Your own questions, criticisms, opinions of the information      Why is the information like that? Who says? On what assumptions is it based? What alternative views might there be? Is it accurate? HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 19
Slide 20: Note Taking - Methods  Prose summary  Condensed version or precis of the original  Skeleton outline  Lists, headings, subheadings, indentation etc.  Diagrams  Also used in presenting ideas, aids to problem solving Examples in your handout # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 20
Slide 21: Creative Note Taking  Use of key words rather than detailed notes aid recall Key words are defined as those which incorporate the most relevant sense in the shortest way possible The stepping stones in the swamp  Human minds recall in key words and images not sentences. HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 21
Slide 22: Creative Note Taking (cont.)  Jot down all the sentences of ten words or more which you have heard during your lifetime (not songs or poetry)  Few, but you have encountered tens of millions HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 22
Slide 23: Creative Note Taking  Exercise # (cont.)  Check the notes you have written so far and circle the key words/phrases  Count the total number of words and the number of key words  Divide number of key words by total number and multiply by 100. HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 23
Slide 24: Creative Note Taking (cont.)  The mind can also process relationships between key words  Highlight these using colour, size variation, outlining, underlining HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 24
Slide 25: Faster Note Taking  Abbreviations  Shortening words sys anal (systems analysis) Beware: prog (progress or programming)  Removing vowels: Fr xmpl I m sr y wll hv no dffclty rdng ths bbrvtn Beware: frm (from or form?)  Speed up your writing by practice HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 25
Slide 26: Diagramming Techniques  Mind maps  Relationship diagrams  Rich pictures HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 26
Slide 27: Mind Maps  Tony Buzan written a number of books including:  Use your Head  The Mind Map Book  Alternative names: Spray diagrams, relevance trees, fishbone diagrams  Start in the centre with main theme, branch out with each sub theme HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 27
Slide 28: Mind Maps - Advantages  Central idea more clearly defined  Position indicates relative importance  Proximity and connections show links between key concepts  Recall and review are more rapid and effective  Allows for easy addition of new information  Patterns differ, making them easier to remember  Using the patterns creatively, helps the brain make new connections HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 28
Slide 29: Mind Maps - Exercise  Try mind mapping the following information on Assessment # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 29
Slide 30: Mind Maps - Exercise 100%cw 75:25 cw:ex 50:50 Weighting Course work 25:75 cw:ex 100%ex Before last 1/2 hr Leave early In lab assess Hand in Assessment 1st attempt 1/2/3 hr After 1 hr Duration Central Liverpool Aintree Location Exams Referral Date Dec/Ref:Apr Questions May/Ref:Aug Multiple choice Limited choice Free choice HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 30
Slide 31: Relationship Diagrams  Useful in the early stages of analysis  Don’t need to start with the main idea  Consists of words denoting factors in a situation and lines showing some relationship between them  Helps identify key groupings of factors  Example of a use in early planning # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 31
Slide 32: Relationship Diagrams (cont.)  Guidelines:  Don’t cross lines  Distinguish strong from weak relationships use of thicker lines  Beware of complexity HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 32
Slide 33: Rich Pictures  Used at problem exploration stage of soft systems methodology (Peter Checkland)  Use the words and lines of relationship diagrams plus cartoon like pictorial symbols  No fixed symbols convention though stick men abound  Crossed swords for conflict, ££s for money, sketch graphs to indicate trends HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 33
Slide 34: Rich Pictures  Advantages: (cont.)  Used for individual or group analysis  Pictorial element is fun so encourages participation and enhances motivation  Supports an appreciation of a much fuller and more complex set of potentially important factors than written text  Better not to include them in reports! HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 34
Slide 35: Particularly Exams Assessment
Slide 36: The assessment system  How much do you know about it?  Exercise # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 36
Slide 37: Exams  Large number of exams #  Important difference between University and school: You are responsible for your own learning  You will decide what to learn, when and how  You will receive little direction about this  The aim is to encourage students to be independent learners HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 37
Slide 38: Exams - What is the Purpose  Exercise - what is the examination for #  Remember Examiners design papers to enable you to display your abilities rather than your weaknesses HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 38
Slide 39: Preparing for Exams  You will lay the foundations for exam success by studying reflectively and realistically throughout the period of the course  Revision-definition ‘to see again’  Look back over main ideas and issues throughout the course  Regular and early revising will make later material easier to learn HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 39
Slide 40: Revision Plans/Timetables  Make a list of topics you plan to revise  Decide what order to tackle them in  Space out the revision and make a note of which aspects you will do when. Decide whether you should revise more than one topic per day  Leave plenty of time for rest and recreation HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 40
Slide 41: Revision Techniques  Best techniques are active. You will remember if:     It is relevant to you It is associated with something else You remember things in sequence You do something with the information  Revision techniques # HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 41
Slide 42: Additional Help  Improving your Exam Performance leaflet Counselling Service #  How to Cope with Exams - Workshops Counselling Service - noticeboard HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 42
Slide 43: Types of Examinations  Multiple choice  Descriptive or discursive  http://www.cms.livjm.ac.uk/student/pastexams.asp HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 43
Slide 44: Before the Exam  If you require any special arrangements make the exams office, school office or your personal tutor aware of them  Check where and at what time the exam takes place  Check what you are allowed to take in with you  pens, calculators etc.  some exams are ‘open book’ HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 44
Slide 45: Before the Exam (cont.)  Arrive in plenty of time  If you want to discuss the exam with friends, do so; otherwise keep to yourself  Make sure you know the format of the paper  Ask in lectures  Look at previous papers 45 HN1104 Personal Skills and IT
Slide 46: During the Exam  Read the instructions CAREFULLY  Read the questions CAREFULLY. Decide which you will answer. Then recheck the instructions HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 46
Slide 47: During the Exam (cont.)  Determine what the question is asking. Underline the key words:  Compare/contrast - look at two or more perspectives  Evaluate - offer criticism or make judgements  Analyse - ask why, looking at underlying factors  Explain - lay out each stage in a process or argument or each aspect of an object in a logical way HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 47
Slide 48: During the Exam (cont.)  Avoid questions which contain words or phrases you don’t understand  Decide how long to allocate to each question, then keep to it. Allow 10 min. at the end for checking  Plan your answers. (Cross out these plans before submission) HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 48
Slide 49: During the Exam (cont.)  First 50% of marks is easy to obtain, then gets progressively harder  Write clearly  Quantity does not gain marks. Make relevant points once  Spend last 10 min. checking your work  DON’T LEAVE EARLY HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 49
Slide 50: Any Questions? HN1104 Personal Skills and IT 50