1. St Josephs Sixth Form
Study Skills Booklet
Name:
Form:

2. St Josephs Sixth Form Study Skills Booklet
Name:
Form:
What this booklet is for?
This booklet is designed to help you plan out your time this year to ensure that you get the best out of 6th form and make progress towards your target grades.
How you can use this booklet?
The booklet has 5 main Themes. It starts by asking you to think of your goals and targets. What you want to be. What do you want to achieve? There are techniques to help you to prioritizing tasks, plan your study and revision time. The middle section has a variety of different revision techniques to make sure that your practice works. The final two sections give you tips about how to over come the times when you are lacking positivity or feeling a little overwhelmed.
Contents:
Setting Goals
Planning your time- Study Skills
Revision techniques- Perfect Practice makes perfect!
Keeping a positive attitude
Grit and Effort

3. Setting Goals:
Use the two tasks on the next page to help you to think about what it is you want to achieve.
Make a note here, then get started on working your way there!
If you have a goal it can be easier to carry on working when it starts to get challenging.
So before you even start to revise I want you to think about why you are doing it? Think about all the things you want to achieve? The jobs you would like to do. The places you would like to visit.
Think of the words you would like people to describe you as.
Picture how you want to feel in August at the end of your course when you get your results?
How do I want to feel on results day?
What results do I want to get?
What will the results help me to move onto?
Use this to help you remember why you are doing all of the hard work!

4. Vision: Setting Goals The Perfect Day Your 21st Birthday!
When you were at primary school you will have carried out this activity.
What do you want to be when you grow up? It is likely that you drew a picture, wrote a sentence or two, it may have even been put up on the wall in a class display. At primary school we have uninhibited hopes and dreams.
We are asking you to do the same now. It is just as important now to think abut what you hope to be, where you hope to go.
So, on your own I want you to write down a description of your perfect day at work. Here are some questions to help get you thinking.
Are you working indoors or outdoors?
Do you work at home or away from home?
Who are you with?
Are you part of a team? Leading the team? Alone?
What time do you start? Finish?
What are you wearing?
What is your workspace like?
Your 21st Birthday!
Get a pen and paper ready. Imagine that it is your 21st birthday. This party and family gathering is going to be slightly different. Imagine that each of your family members or friends will be asked to stand up and describe the type of person that you are for them. What might they say?
Think about the following questions:
What would you like your friends to say about you? What qualities would you like them to admire in you?
How would you like your work colleagues to describe you?
When people list your achievement so far what would you like them to be?
When they describe your character and the type of person you are what would you like to hear?
When they talk about what you are still going to do, and the hopes they have for your future, what will they say?

5. Planning your time- Study Skills Making a revision timetable
Planning what you do with your study time over a period of time leading up to exams can be a bit overwhelming.
Sometimes it seems that we have so many deadlines and staff asking for work that we do not know where to start.
1. Making your timetable: This is basically a calendar
Divide however long you have until your exams by how many subjects you study. 
Divide all the topics and areas you need to cover 
2. How do I prioritize what I need to revise?
Which topics do you find difficult? Spend more time on these.
3. Regular refreshers
Don’t just cover an area once and move on. Fit in time to revisit material. 
4. Past papers
Use these to test yourself. Set a time limit.
5. Approach subjects differently
Use different techniques to keep you interested.
A solid revision timetable not only guarantees you cover everything you need to in time for the exam, but it also breaks everything down into more manageable chunks – much less scary! Once you start getting everything out on paper or screen, you'll have a proper idea of the task ahead. The ideal revision timetable will be prepared enough in advance that you have a bit of balance and don’t burn yourself out.
Revision Timetable aps:
My Study Life
SQA My Study Plan
Timetable

6. Add this to a study period on your timetable. Day: Period:
Weekly Review:
Add this to a study period on your timetable.
Day: Period:
Study Skills
The weekly Review.
Studies show that cramming or binging on learning is not as successful as snacking on it. Students do significantly better if they review their work regularly rather than if they leave it to pile up, and then just try to deal with it all at once.
This is a good habit to start to work on developing.
Follow these steps and set aside time for a weekly review. Make it a crucial part of your week.
Set up an hour a week. This must be sacred, do not let anyone disturb you! Put your phone away, find somewhere quite. Never skip this time. Friday afternoons or Monday morning are a good time to do this if it fits on your timetable.
Split up the hour evenly. 15/20 minutes per course. Be strict with yourself
Tips for reviewing
Check you can read and understand you notes
Summarise learning in a quick diagram, mind map, flash card
Highlight materials you found difficult. You may need to go back to this.
Go through jobs and to do lists and prioritise.
Once you have done this you should feel good, in control. You will know what needs to do done.
Students who make a habit of the Weekly Review are often much calmer and less stressed. They can leave school on Friday knowing they are on top of things. They've emptied their heads of the little niggles and worries.

7. Energy Line- Prioritising tasks
Study Skills
Extreme
High
Medium
Low
Idle
Energy Line- Prioritising tasks
“TO DO” lists are good, but they don’t tell you what you need to do first.
Start with post it notes to enable you to review and change priority of the tasks.
Add you tasks onto the post it notes.
Try prioritising actions across the energy line.
How much are you going to put into getting them done?
Some will need a bigger energy push- you will need to be working on them a little each day.
Others will tick over, you can return to these once a week.
Once you have decided which tasks will need more energy and more time write them onto the chart. Try using this method to help you organise your work when you have deadlines.

8. Study Skills
This is a simple system to help you plan long term projects. For example an essay or piece of coursework that you have two weeks to complete. Planning what you do when will help you to build a solid outcome. Rather than leaving it to the last minute!
2-4-8 Rule. Time Management
Short Term Project: “you have two weeks to complete this”
May subjects may give you two weeks to complete a project. Here's how to use the rule to plan.
Target 1. Two days. Make a note of what you would like to achieve to get the project started. A side of writing, reading, research. Set yourself two days to complete this.
Target 2. Four Days later. Make a note of where you want to be half way through the project. 4 days is a good point. All the prep complete and project started.
Target 3. Eight days later. Be ready to hand in your work. Give yourself time to read over and make any improvements to your first draft.
Long Term Project: “finish by next term/month”
If you have longer deadlines it may be worth working backwards on the targets.
Target 3. Three months until submission. Find examples of what you are trying to achieve. Research. Outline key chapters or elements of the project.
Target 2. Three months until submission. How many sections will you have complete by this point. Aim to be half way. Have you checked the project with anyone? What is the standard?
Target 1. One month until submission. What elements need to be completed? Have you redrafted? Have you changed parts based on feedback?

9. Reviewing your progress and organisation
Study Skills
QUALITY
High Quality
Reviewing your progress and organisation
This is a simple way to keep track of where you are with everything that you are working on. When you are taking different subjects, working, volunteering and applying for University things can become a little over whelming.
This will help you track where you are. Then you can prioritise and plan.
On the horizontal axis is time. Projects ahead of time go to the far right, projects you are behind on go to the left. On the vertical axis is quality. Projects heading for a high quality finish go towards the top. Projects that are running low on quality go towards the bottom.
Add your current projects and tasks onto the Chart. Then make a plan.
TIME
Ahead of schedule
Behind schedule
Low Quality

10. Learning from Mistakes Mixing up your Practice
Revision Techniques
Over the next few pages there are descriptions of different Revision techniques:
Graphic Organisers
Flash Cards- 4 Box’s
Two slow, One Fast!
Right Wrong Right
Learning from Mistakes
Mixing up your Practice
Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Once you are ready to sit down and start to revise, how do you actually go about it?
You may feel that you are spending hours each day looking over notes but not actually seeing any progress in lessons and mocks. You need to make sure that your practice is perfect practice.
Try these different techniques to help you learn the content for exams.
Some of them will be challenging at first. They are meant to be! Exams are not easy. You have to work at it. But the more often you test yourself with the harder things the easier they get and the less stressful the exam will be.

11. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
For Example summarise everything you know about a topic using the metaphor of a tree
What Key information forms the trunk?
What underlying information makes the roots?
What are the important braches?
What subsections of information become the twigs and leaves?
You can use other metaphors
A castle with separate turrets and strong foundations
A stream growing into a river then a lake
Graphic Organisers
There is a difference between information and Knowledge
Information is a loose collection of facts, with no connections, and no overall understanding. Information will not help you to pass an exam or master a skill.
Knowledge is connected information. Your job is to turn information into knowledge.
Graphic Organisers can help you to connect the information into Knowledge:
Make a mind map
Make a comparison table and pull out similarities and difference between two studies, methods, characters, or historical events
Make a flow chart to summarise a process
Make a graph to represent the data
Notice each says make, you need to be active and engaged with the information to make the connections.

12. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Flash Cards- 4 Box’s
Many of you will have used flash cards during GCSE. You will have make up subject cards for different areas and themes with key themes, facts and information to recall. Scientists who have studies the use of flash cards suggest that we spend most of our time when using them on the cards that you already know, as we find these easier and feel better about the revision. We then avoid the difficult ones. The information that we need to know.
Box 1. Here you put your items for frequent practice. The stuff that your are not remembering well. This needs to be your first point of review. Around 40% of your time should be spent on this.
Box 3. You spend abut 20% of your time here. You should nearly always get this stuff right. You should feel confident, even when the materials is complex. However if you make multiple mistakes on a card here it needs to be moved to box 2.
Box 2. About 30% of your time is spent here. It’s the things you have just moved out of box one. You may sometimes get a little confused over them. You move it into box 1, if your still not understanding it. Or down to 3 if your getting it correct.
Box 4. You begin with a small number of cards here. This is the materials you consider easy. You should always get it right. So you only need to spend about 10% of your time here.
If you practice recall this way you will cover all the information, keeping your focus where it needs to be, on the stuff you keep forgetting!

13. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Go Slow
To begin with you should try the equivalent of a drill. You are not thinking about the uncertainty or stress of an exam, you are focused and calm. You can take as much time as possible to work through a question paper, go over an argument, solve a problem or redrafting essays.
Go Fast
Then you need to apply the learning in a “game” situation. The test! Pick an exam question, work out how long you would have and see if you can perform as well under the pressure of time.
Two slow, One fast describes the best sequence for developing a skill. Do it twice slowly, paying attention to exactly what you are doing and why. Then do it fast and see how you cope. You will not be perfect first time, but you will certainly accelerate the speed in which you get better!
Two slow, One Fast!
This idea is borrowed from the world of sport. The “drill” is used to practice a specific set of skills with care, taking time. This is different to the game where you apply your skills.
We can do this for your subject too. The drill becomes the practice. The Game becomes the test.

14. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Try it:
Using your example copy the skill. You must do it right. It might be that you write a paragraph that borrows the best bits from the example, or you might solve a similar maths problem following your example
Then do it wrong. Do it the way that you have been doing. Or find examples of where you have gone wrong in the past. Examine the differences. Where exactly do you go wrong? What is the result of the error? Where does it lead? How does wrong look different?
Then copy the skill right again.
You go, right, wrong, right. The two rights start to support understanding in your brain. The wrong in the middle helps you to understand why it was wrong.
Right Wrong Right
One way to help understanding in your brain, particularly a skill, is to find someone who does it well. It might be your teacher or a fellow student, someone in your class or someone in the year above. Find an example of them doing it right. It might be a complex mathematical problem worked through, a definition, example question or paragraph outlining an argument.
Once you have the example you can do the following activity. We have found it works well at helping students to see the difference between a successful answer and an unsuccessful answer by making you focus on the differences between wrong and right.

15. Learning from mistakes
Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Type of Mistake
Possible response
1. Active mistake
The wrong process is carried out. For example the wrong method to solve a problem.
Find the correct methods. Attach methods and processes to problems, are you using the right one?
2. Slip-up
The correct process is being used but errors during result in a lower mark. For example not enough detail in a written answer
Practice the process. Look at examples of it being done well.
3. Blackout
The information needed to complete the task is missing or forgotten
Review notes. Check other people notes. Use course textbooks and exam syllabus. Ask teacher for help.
Learning from mistakes
If you want to get better at something sometimes we have to take risks and make mistakes.
Mistakes are good if we reflect and use them to correct things. Don’t avoid doing an essay, presentation or exam question because you are afraid of getting it wrong.
One way you can do this is by categorising your mistakes, and then decide the ways in which you can learn from them.
Try organising some of the errors and mistakes you may have made in your work recently. Then draw up a list of actions you could take to reduce the chances of it happening again

16. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
How can you be more flexible with the A Level practice?
Those students who practice in the same way over and over often have difficult exam experiencers. They will often say “the question was different to what I expected.”
Students who practice in a variety of flexible ways find it easier to access information when it is presented in a different way, for example the exam question.
Challenge yourself to
Seek out the weirdest question that you have ever come up with and try them.
Create strange questions.
Write 4 different versions of the same question.
Look at different exam boards and use their questions instead.
Mixing up your Practice
This is based on an experiment in practice makes perfect!
All students were given the same task. To throw a rolled up piece of paper into a bin from 3 meters. They were split into two groups. All students knew they needed to practice if they were going to succeed at the task. Group 1 were told to repeat the same throw over and over again. Group 2 were told to alternate between throwing at different distances.
Which was more successful? Group 2. Why? There is a difference between practice and flexible practice. Flexible practice builds in levels of challenge it makes you more adaptable, more successful.

17. Some extra ideas to help you revise
Some extra ideas to help you revise. Some are bit out there, but may work for you!
Stick Post-it notes everywhere.
Literally everywhere. Just being surrounded by your revision notes will mean that something will have to sink in.
Write down your revision notes in different formats.
For example, write one subject as a news story, another as a letter to a friend or relative, compose them into haikus or draw them as a comic strip. Be careful not to waste too much time on this though. It doesn’t need to be a work of art, just a different way of presenting the information.
Find a friend who is on a different course to you and teach each other about your courses. The act of having to explain things to help someone else understand something will help to highlight what you yourself have learned.
Read things out loud in different accents or voices. Then when you are trying to recall the facts, you’ll remember the accent and then hopefully the fact too.
Record yourself reciting key dates, quotes or equations and listen to them as you walk to and from the library/supermarket, while at the gym or when you’re cooking dinner. You won’t feel like you’re revising but you will be amazed at how much you retain.
Wear a particular perfume or aftershave while studying different modules and then make sure you wear the same one on the day of the exam corresponding to that module. 
Similarly, have different mints or sweets while revising different modules and then take those into the exam (if allowed). Associating certain smells and tastes with one area of study could help to jog your memory. 
Set up a sports game with people on your course and incorporate exam questions into the rules of the game. For example, during a rounders /baseball game, every time someone runs to a post they have to shout out a fact, quote or figure relating to the subject.

18. Keeping a positive attitude.
What to do on Days when you don’t feel like you can do it? Those days where you doubt yourself.
We can not all have a personal coach to tell us how fantastic we are. These task will make you remember how good you can be.
They will stop that nagging voice in your head telling you that you can not do it.

19. Attitude There and Back
What is impacting on you moving forward?
Looking at the different things which are impacting on you helps you to look at the big picture, to gain perspective and to weigh up the positives and negatives. Once you have identified the things stopping you from moving forward you can find strategies to reduce the impact on your studies. If you are finding it difficult to motivate yourself this may help you.
Start by listing the things which help you to focus and move forward (your goals, aspirations may help you). Then list the things which are stopping you.
Once you have identified these think of solutions.
There and Back
You will need to do this one outside of school. So read about it and plan a time to have a go!
This activity has been successful for students and adults experiencing difficulties at work. The aim is to free up your mind and let you make sense of your worries, thoughts and fears. So if your in a muddle and do not know what to do next this may help you.
This activity involves walking. The exercise sends blood to your brain and also takes you away from distractions. Set aside an hour to complete this and follow the rules.
Choose a destination about 20 minute walk away. While you are walking there you are only aloud to think of positive thoughts. Things you are good at, thankful for. Nothing else can entre your mind. You may want to jot some notes down at the end of the 20 minutes, or record your thoughts on your phone.
Then turn around and return to your starting point. While you walk back you can address your problems. But here is a rule. You can think about your problems only if you also think about how your going to solve them. When you arrive back take a few minutes to make a note of your plans and thoughts.
You can repeat this activity as much as you need to help you to refocus.
Positive. What motivates me?
Negative. What is stopping me from working?
Solutions

20. Stopping Negative thoughts
Attitude
Coaching Exercise:
Stopping Negative thoughts
Take the statements below and express them with a positive outlook.
I’ve never been good at exams.
Positive
If my report is bad mum and dad are going to hate me.
I’m only going to fail, what is the point of trying?
My teacher hates me.
If I fail this test there’s no point in trying the rest of the term.
Sometime when things are going wrong and your having a “bad day” it is easy to look at life with a negative point of view.
Have you had some of these thoughts before?
“I don’t deserve this? It shouldn't happen to me?”
“I can’t, I’m useless, why bother?”
“It’s his fault.”
“Everything wrong happens to me.”
We want you to try to reframe those thoughts positively. You are in charge and you can change the way that you look at a situation.
For example
“I did what I could, I could do this bit better next time.”
“Every time I find it difficult I learn something new.”
“It has happened, we need to deal with what we have and make it work.”

21. Attitude
Kill your Inner Critic
Popular psychology regularly refers to the inner critic- the voice we have inside our heads which doubts our abilities, and pokes fun at our hopes and dreams. Some people have an inner critic so powerful that they find it difficult to commit to things as they fear they are going to fail. Here are some activities to improve your confidence in yourself.
Name your critic. Sometimes people find it easier to dismiss the voice if it has a silly name.
Listen to it. Recognise when you do it and the next time you notice recognise and don’t listen!
Kill all comparisons. Let the inner critic say what it wants for ten minutes, then all comparisons are banned. If it tries to tell you, “your not as good as…” shut it down. Refuse to accept comparisons to others.
Start working on something new but tell your inner critic that your just messing about. This is used by advertisers and movie writers to get over artistic block. You say to yourself “ I just messing about here, I’m going to start, but its just a bit of fun,” then you place less pressure on yourself.
Challenge your inner critic with data. Remind it about when you were successful, GCSE grades, a sporting achievement.

22. GRIT/Effort.
The next couple of pages have short reviews to get you motivated and get you started on days when you would rather do any thing else other than picking up your school work.
They will help you to build the courage to follow your goals when you feel challenged.
Being a gritty person means that you will stick to your goals despite issues, problems, setbacks and failures. These tasks can help you to grow a positive mindset and courage.

23. Recognising your “blockers”
GRIT/Effort.
Recognising your “blockers”
Ten minute rule
A “blocker” is a psychological barrier that stops you from working. It may be a pattern of thinking (I can’t do it) or a habit you are finding it difficult to break (picking up your phone). All of us have blockers. Thoughts and feelings that stop us doing the things we know we really need to do.
If you are going to be successful and put in the effort you need at A Level you need to be able to recognise your blockers and break down those patterns of thought.
Everyone feels like they can not be bothered at some point. The difference is what you decide to do.
By planning small changes in actions you are more likely to change your habits and put more effort in.
If you find yourself making excuses and putting up barriers which stop you starting to do work the ten minute rule may work. You may be doing these things instead:
Doing an easier piece of work such as copying out notes
Talk to someone about the topic rather than completing the written work
Look for someone else who isn’t doing it and think that its ok not to.
TEN MINUTE RULE- This is simple
1. Tell yourself that your going to do ten minute of work. That’s all.
2. Decide what you are going to spend it on, Prioritise!
3. Clear a space with the correct materials without distraction.
4. Start.
You can of course stop after ten minutes. Even if you do you have completed ten minutes longer than you planned. But what often happens is ten minutes becomes 20, becomes 30 minutes.
Once you start you will often realise the thought of it was worse than the work its self!
Tips for recognising and stopping your blockers
Change location
Go to a quiet place
Put your phone in a separate room, or on do not disturb
Start the task, even if it is just for ten minutes. Once you start it will be easier to continue for longer
Blocker
What you will do/change

24. Which job should you tackle first? Prioritising tasks
GRIT/Effort.
Which job should you tackle first? Prioritising tasks
This activity used advice from two separate academics. The “frogs” part comes from time management guru Brian Tracy who asked his readers to imagine that tasks are frogs that you need to eat. The idea is that a frog is off putting. His advice is “if you have to eat two frogs eat the ugly one first”
This is another way of saying that if you important tasks to start with the biggest, hardest and most important one first. So list all of your important frog tasks in order of ugliness!
The banister part comes from computer science professor Pausch. It doesn’t matter how much you polish the underside of the banister, you never see it. In other words don’t worry about the unimportant details. Put efforts where the results will be greatest. For example you may spend hours making flash cards look pretty but not as long on the content.
Is the work you have complete recently. Have you been eating ugly frogs (getting difficult task done) or have you been polishing the underside of the banister (completing easy jobs which are not as important)
Frogs
Banisters
Which jobs are you doing that you can stop? Which jobs are you avoiding that you should tackle?