Preparing for taught sessions

Freshers week is over, the timetables are in your diary and the academic year starts in earnest. What are you doing to prepare for taught sessions? How long are you spending after a session adding this new learning to your exisiting knowledge base?

That all sounds a bit out there – surely you turn up, make notes, make more notes from that and then hide the notes until exam time? If that sounds familiar then thats not a surprise, its how many people approach lectures and taught sessions.

But I am here to tell you there is another, and better way to do this, and the good news is it probably takes less time than you are spending now! Welcome to the Rule of 4!

Created by me whenI worked as an study skills tutor the Rule of 4 (R4) will provide you with a 20-30 min guide to learn more from taught sessions and leave your notes ready for action at exam time.

There’s 4 simple steps across Cards Against Procrastination cards 22 – 27

Step 1 BEFORE 10 minutes

Before a taught session spend no more than ten minutes reading the learning outcomes. Link the information to thibngs you already know – not all the information will be new. Finally if there are words that are new do a basic dictionary check for the definition. Importantly don’t try to define the new words in their subject context, thats what a lecture is for.

Step 2 DURING

Yes, take notes. But take notes in an active fashion. Use a template like Cornell notes to provide you with a structure for placing new information, learning outcomes and what to do after the session. Not all information needs to be given the same attention – some things you already know, some things youll pick up easily, somethings need a bit more work. R4 helps work this out!

NB, a sample of a Cornell notes template is in Cards Against Procrastination!

Step 3 AFTER 5 minutes

Yes, after a lecture, that day or the next day review what you have and carry out a version of a One Minute Paper, again included in the cards! The One Minute Paper asks you 3 questions

• What was the main point of the session
• What was new information
• What questions do you still need to ask to understand the learning outcomes

Step 4 The FUTURE 5 minutes

Yes, the final 5 minutes are now you using the One Minute Paper to answer the questions that are not yet answered. Check the core reading, check the next sessions learning outcomes, ask friends or check with your tutor. Then leave a note of the new information that you most likely will need to review first when revising. Moving it from short term memory to longer term memory.

Like Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs to follow, with R4 you can leave a trail for your brain to follow and easily add new information as you learn it.