Year 3 Study
Skills
Department of
Computer Science
Or…
how to shine in
your 3rd year
From image taken by FutUndBeidl, taken from
Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/cdaEDL used under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Question…
• Taking into account your time in lectures, time
on personal study and assessment, how many
hours of work do you expect to complete for
each 10 credit module?
Level Descriptors
• http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/regulations/credit/
Lectures
• Do you take notes in lectures?
• Why, or why not?
HOW DO YOU
EAT AN
ELEPHANT?
One bite at a time
Based on quote by Creighton Abrams, http://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/Creighton_Abrams
From image taken by Ganesh Raghunathan, taken from Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/cSHZh5 used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Reflection on the modules
• Be an active learner – regular “revision”
• Review notes after lectures
• (Possibly) write a blog or document to reflect on your notes
–
–
–
–
–
•
What was covered in the session?
Why was this covered?
What was your reaction?
What did you learn?
What are your goals?
Above is based on: Burns & Sinfield, “Essential Study Skills” Sage, 2012. General book
information at: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/burnsandsinfield3e/main.htm. An
example structure can be found at:
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/burnsandsinfield3e/study/Chapter%2023/Reflective%2
0learning%20diary%20template.pdf
See, Hear, Say, Do…
Different learning styles:
• Auditory
• Visual
• Kinaesthetic
Reduce the information into key points
• Index Cards
• Mind-Maps
• Short Audio
Recordings
• …
Panopto / AberCast
• How do you use Panopto?
•
•
•
•
Do you use it to add notes?
Do you know how to skip through the slides?
Do you pick up the stream via RSS or iTunes?
Do you know how to find all of the video
content for a module?
Finding Information
• How do you search for information?
• We are not expecting you to be researchers,
but we do expect you to spend time this year
exploring material related to the lecture
topics.
– You might be directed to some of this by lecturers.
– Use that as a starting point to other materials.
Reading
• You find a book in the library, or a journal or a
research paper.
• How do you read that material?
• Was the book/journal/paper the original
source for the idea(s)? If not, what was the
primary source? Can you get access to it?
Time Management
and
Study Location
From image taken by William Warby, taken from Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/62hNF6 used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Time management
• Who thinks they have good time management?
• Would you like to improve?
• Keep a diary of what you are planning to do and
what you actually did.
• If there is a tricky/difficult issue to get done –
make it your first task of the day.
• Seek out tool/technique to help you, e.g.
Pomodoro.
Where to study
• Get out of your home residence
• Make use of the labs and the library. There is
new space for you in Llandinam Concourse and
you can flip-down the desks in B23
• Information about terminal room usage
– https://blackboard.aber.ac.uk/webapps/portal/exec
ute/tabs/tabAction?tabId=_128_1&tab_tab_group_i
d=_27_1
When to study
• Treat your final year like a job
• 9 to 5 (ish)
• Allow time so that you have breaks
– Lunch
– Coffee/Tea/…
• Staying up until the middle of the night on a
‘school night’ won’t help
And finally
• Be curious
– About the material on the modules
•
•
•
•
How does … work?
What are the advantages and disadvantages..?
If … wasn’t used, would it make a difference?
What do others on your course think about topic …?
– About extra seminars, employability sessions, BCS
meetings…
– About the way that you learn – are there other
ways to help you?
One more thing
• AU’s Effective Study Collection
– http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/collections/effective
study/
• Effective Study Collections are located on
Level D of the Hugh Owen Library and on the
main floor in Thomas Parry Library.