Year 3 Study SkillsDepartment 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

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/)

Based on quote by Creighton Abrams, http://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/Creighton_Abrams

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%20learning%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?

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 Managementand Study Location

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_id=_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/effectives

tudy/

• Effective Study Collections are located on Level D of the Hugh Owen Library and on the main floor in Thomas Parry Library.