STUDY SMART –

NOT HARD

Kevin Paul

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 Contents

 Your goal as a
student
 8 Study Skills
 6 Memory Tricks
 Presentation skills
 Reading skills
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What SHOULD be your goal?

 Become a Superlearner

 YOU ALREADY ARE A GENIUS

 The genius within you will emerge by

adopting certain ways of learning and

patterns of studying

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Who is a genius?

 Someone who is “Genius is 99%

marginally using perspiration and
his/her brain 1% inspiration!”
more than
average people
do.
 Einstein used
11% of his brain
 Average people
use 2% - 10% 4
What should you aim to learn?

 …Not just your course material!

 Everything that you will study in this
undergraduate program will become obsolete in a
few years

 Master the ability to

 …learn new skills on your own

 …to become a SELF-LEARNER

 Rely on no one, but yourself to achieve your

goals
 No one else can possibility to do it for you 5
You will have to SACRIFICE

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Preparing to study

 Feel relaxed, not stressed or

anxious
 Have an alert mind
 Breathe well FEEL POSITIVE
ABOUT YOUR
ABILITY AS A
LEARNER
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Class Activity: Learning to Focus
PRESENTATION
SKILLS
PART 2

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1. PREPARE THOROUGHLY

 Purpose
 Content
 Organize your thoughts
 Rehearse physically
 Visualize mentally
 Know the venue

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2. APPROPRIATE DRESSING

 Formal
 Dull, pastel colors
 Well ironed
 Grooming

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3. BE SURE YOU HAVE
SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY

 Believe in the
importance of
your message
 Believe in your
message
 Deliver with
conviction and
enthusiasm
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4. GET IN THE “CONFIDENT STATE”

 Act, walk and talk

as if you were
already confident
 Recall past
experience of
being absolutely
confident

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5. DON’T THINK ABOUT YOURSELF

 Focus on the
message
 Stop negative
thoughts
 “looking at me”
 “judging me”

 Show your natural

self
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6. BREATHE

 Naturally, in a relaxed manner

 Monitor during pauses

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7. BE CONVERSATIONAL

 Look each member in the eye

 Talk directly for a few seconds, then
move to the next person
 Talking to individuals is more
relaxing than “groups”
 Audience will also feel comfortable,
relaxed, and receptive

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8. IT’S OK TO MAKE MISTAKES

 Everybody does!
 Allow yourself
 Forgive yourself
 Accept yourself
 It doesn’t make you an idiot
 Don’t expect perfection

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 9. EXPRESS YOURSELF FREELY

 Show conviction,
enthusiasm and passion
 Let your natural feelings
show
 Achieve peak
performance

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10. STAY IN THE PRESENT

 Forget the past and future

 Forget the failures
 Forget the results
 A quality of peak performers

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11. NO “NEED TO GAIN APPROVAL”

 Just do your job well

 Its up to the audience to like you
or get persuaded
 Need for approval leads to
anxiety

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12. TRUST YOUR MIND
 It will deliver the right words at the right time
 They are all in your subconscious
 If you know it, your subconscious mind will produce
it
 Allow it, trust it.

 Be relaxed, confident and trusting

 The more you trust, the more your subconscious will
prove worthy of your trust

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13. TRUST YOURSELF
 Trust that you can handle whatever comes
your way
 Laugh it off, make a joke, then just proceed
 You’ve already handled at least one major
disaster in life
 The “So what?” attitude brings you in the
right state “I’ll handle it, anyway”

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14. BODY LANGUAGE DON’TS

 Hiding behind rostrum

 Showing profile
 Too much hand movement
 Oscillating back and forth
 Hands in pocket
 Avoiding eye contact
 Folding hands
 Unnatural gestures/posture
 Reading slides/index cards

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15 VISUAL AIDS

 Visual aids should be professionally

designed
 Don’t use too much color in text
 Highlight with color
 Use animation sparingly
 Don’t write long paragraphs
 5-6 points per slide
 Use meaningful, humorous illustrations/clip
art

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LEARNING SKILLS

PART 3

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8 STUDY TECHNIQUES

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Study Skills

1. Believe in yourself
 Remind yourself of past
successes
 Keep the company of high
achievers
 Challenge yourself
 Visualize yourself to be what you
want to be – feel the sweet taste
of victory
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Study Skills (contd.)
2. Prepare
 Not just the content of the course
material
 Prepare your environment for
serious learning
 Comfortable seating
 Good lighting
 No distractions
 Prepare your attitude for serious
success!
 Positive self-image
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Study Skills (contd.)

3. Set priorities
 Choose the most important task
on the basis of
 deadlines and
 impact on your goal

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Study Skills (contd.)

4. Discipline yourself
 Exercise your will power
 Belief, preparation and priorities
are important – sticking to them
is CRITICAL
 Your goals and dreams are not a
restriction on your freedom

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Study skills (contd.)

5. Divide and Conquer

 Analyze your study task
 Divide it into smaller separate
tasks
 Prioritize each task
 Get on with it!
 Confidence booster

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Study Skills (contd)

6. Review, review, review

 Don’t expect to retain 100% of
what you absorb

 Review frequently to refresh

your memory and improve your
understanding
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Study Skills (contd.)

7. Don’t fear mistakes

 Making mistakes is an indication
of being out of your comfort zone
– of trying
 Mistakes make you better
 Learn from them and forget them

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Study Skills (contd)

8. Take frequent breaks

 Primacy and Recency effect

 You are prone to remembering

the first and last thing you
studied

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Study Skills Summary

1. Believe in yourself
2. Prepare
3. Set priorities
4. Discipline yourself
5. Divide and conquer
6. Review
7. Don’t fear mistakes
8. Take frequent breaks
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6 MEMORY TRICKS

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TRICK # 1:
Multi-sensory effect

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TRICK # 2:
Primacy and Recency effects

 Primacy effect
 You have a better recall of things
that happen at the beginning of an
event
 Recency effect
 You tend to remember things that
happen most recently

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39
40
TRICK # 3:
Repetition effect
 Short-term memory:
 Information is retained for a short
period of time until it is useful and
then forgotten
 Long-term memory:
 By making a deliberate effort
through rehearsal and review,
information is transferred to long-
term memory
 Information is not lost – maybe
blurred
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TRICK # 4:
Similiarity effect

 Rose  Daffodil
Group
 Car  Star
 Table similar
 Pen
 Desk  Chalk items or
 Light bulb  Train objects
 Airplane  Jasmine for better
 Bed  Matches
recall
 Crayon  Pencil
 firefly  Tulip
 Chair
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 TRICK # 4 (Contd.):
Similiarity effect
 Flowers  Furniture  Writer
 Rose  Desk  Pen
 Jasmine  Chair  Pencil
 Tulip
 Table  Chalk
 Daffodil
 Bed  Crayon

 Vehicles  Light
 Car  Lightbulb
 Truck  Star
 Train  Matches
 Airplane  firefly 43
TRICK # 5:
Association effect

 Make associations for better recall

 Example: Associate a name with a

physical/facial feature

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 1. Parrot
Cat
TRICK # 6: 2.

3. Ant
Weirdness effect 4. Dog
5. Rabbit
6. Snail
 You are more 7. Snake
likely to 8. Zebra
9. Goat
remember 10. T-Rex
11. Duck
things that are
12. Fly
unusual, 13. Turtle
14. Butterfly
outrageous or 15. Peacock
16. Pigeon
out of place
17. Squirrel
18. Alligator 45
Memory Tricks Summary

 Multi-sensory effect
 Primacy and Recency effect
 Repetition effect
 Similarity effect
 Association effect
 Weirdness effect

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READING SKILLS

Part 4

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You will never
have any
mental muscle
if you don’t
have any heavy
stuff to pick
up. 48
3 Approaches to Reading

1. Skimming
 Quick overview
 Focus on first sentences, (sub)
headings, highlighted text, figures,
diagrams, graphs, charts
2. Scanning
 More careful, slower
 Looking for specific information
eg. concept, example, supporting
fact 49
 3 Approaches to Reading
3. Critical Reading
 Read to understand content,
explanation, and answer
Good note making is:
 More concentration
- Thinking first

 Questioning mind - Writing in your own words; or

shorthand
 What is the point? - Keywords or phrases in
 How is it supported? margins

 How is it different? - Underlying important words,

sentences
 Reflect
- Simple diagrams

 Pause to think about what you’ve

read 50
 Top Tips for Effective Reading
 Preview before  Read major headings
reading and sub headings

 Read the title and think  Read the first

about what to expect sentence of each

 Read the introduction paragraph

and conclusion first  Examine pictures and

 Read the summary graphs carefully

 Read review questions  Do study reading –

slowly and in detail
Handout: How to attend a class
Activity: Study Reading  Question and reflect