I took me until my second year to get into the swing of studying, for various reasons. Firstly, I was not doing enough work. I also procrastinate heavily, and have a fear of failure. This seems paradoxical but can be explained. I self handicap by not doing much work, and then when I do badly, I blame it on not working hard enough. This avoids me ever having to face the fact I am not that good at certain subjects. Bizarre but true, and this took some admitting to!

Learning styles
Everyone has their own learning style, try lots of things out and compile your own list of what works, there is no universal magic system. Some have a visual style, some need to move about, some need logical flows and hierarchies. Get some Tony Buzan books or borrow them from the library. The guy talks a lot of sense. He made up the mindmap concept, which works great for me.

Robert Sternberg has written a book called “Thinking Styles” which is well worth reading. He failed intelligence tests at school and was told by his teacher that he would never be a Psychologist. He went on to be president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and has written untold amounts of books and papers. He knows how to learn.

Time

• Do it a bit at a time over a long period
• Don’t leave assignments till a couple of days before.
• Stop making excuses and get on with it, a little bit at a time.
• Give yourself treats for achieving your goals. Cream eggs or a pint, whatever it takes.

Location
Some people need peace and quiet, some need other people and music. Find out which you are and seek out the right environment. I like natural light and either deathly quiet or ambient music with no vocals or beats. I like a good view and fresh air. I have a spot on the silent study floor of our airy, modern library with a view of the cathedral and the waterfront. Very inspiring.

Mindmaps

• Make cascaded mindmaps – getting more and more detailed
• Use colour and pictures

Reading

• Skim the whole document to get the feel for the overall structure
• Take multiple fast passes at the material rather than one tedious and slow one. Repetition is key to learning. Skim texts 2 or 3 times rather than getting bogged down in details
• Speed read and use your finger to keep your attention moving. Don’t reread on the first pass, just get through it.
• Do 20 minutes at a time. Find your attention span and honour it. If you spend longer than you are paying attention, you are wasting valuable time. Have brain breaks.
• Map the outline of the text to give structure and goal
• Make notes as you skim the second and third times or afterwards, it’s up to you
• If you find a certain book or paper difficult, it’s either really hard, or the writer’s style is wrong for you. Some people use difficult language that you have to fight. If it’s a struggle, get a different book. If it seems like they are talking crap, they may well be. Being published doesn’t mean it’s any good.

Revision

• Short bursts and breaks
• Talk about it, rewrite it, explain it to others, draw pictures
• Give people comedy names, make it rude or do whatever sticks in your mind
• Revise from mindmaps
• Copy them out
• Create songs, acrostics and acronyms

Drafting
Bash out a rough version, then print it out and proofread it. Get others to proof it for you. Make edits. Repeat until it is great. You don’t score any extra points for only writing it once and handing it in. Professionals draft their documents to death and get loads of people to read it for them. Get multiple points of view!

Draw
Most of us give up drawing at an early age because cameras are much better at capturing reality. Forget that, draw lots of stupid pictures. It will make you and your chums laugh and release some stress! One particularly stressful session was liberated by the drawing of (barely recognisable) cows.