How to study from a handout?
It can be pretty disconcerting
when you’re given a sheet of paper in class with some information, some
questions and maybe a few dot points. What should a good student do with these
seemingly simple pieces of paper?
I used to diligently hold on to
them in the belief that the simple possession of these pieces of paper would
bestow upon me the concept that they were meant to explain.
This obviously is not entirely
true. Holding onto them, while useful, doesn’t teach you anything that you
didn’t already know.
To study from a handout you need
to classify it into three groups.
1. Simple concept
This handout is to cover one idea
within one topic. It usually contains a few paragraphs, maybe a diagram and
some summary dot points underneath.
Since this handout doesn’t cover
anything particularly vital to your course, don’t be too stressed about keeping
it in the handout form. The best way to get the most information from these
pieces of paper is to perform the following analysis.
A. What is the layout?
If the hand out sets out an
answer or information in a way that you don’t usually it’s important to
evaluate and compare your normal answer to the example answer. Sometimes you
may find that the example answer will reap higher marks or allow you to answer
something faster because it is more efficient and displays the information that
the examiner wishes to find.
B. Is this information in the
textbook/workbook?
If your course has been assigned
a textbook or workbook, you should check to see if this topic is covered in the
workbook. If it isn’t, it’s important that you transfer the information to your
notes so that you don’t forget about the topic. While it may not be critical,
it’s fairly evident you’ll need it on the final.
If it is in in the textbook, your
next step is to assess which information source is the best. Your teacher may
have said ‘I don’t like the way this is set out in the textbook’ – which is
more common than you think. If this or something similar as said make a note in
your book not to use this information and transfer the handout to your notes.
If nothing like this was said, compare the two answer and see which you
understand best.
It may be that explanation in the
textbook is better than the one in the handout – other students may find the
opposite, and that is why the teacher has chosen to explain two methods. Once
you’ve chosen the ideal information source for you transfer it to your notes
with a written example if necessary.
2. Underlying feature
These handouts will explain
something that is critical to the understanding of the entire course. Some
common topics that these handouts cover are academic theories, grammar and ‘how
to answer essays/questions.
To determine how to get
information from these is a little more involved that with a simple concept.
The process for getting the best information from these concept handouts is the
following;
A. Highlight keywords
Handouts which use words to
summarize will often hold critical keywords that will assist you in answering
questions. Specific jargon like; ‘marxism,’ ‘independent variable,’ or ‘market
value’ if used repeatedly will be a clear indicator that they are needed in
answer exam answer or essay.
B. Assess diagram quality
Sometimes information will be
summarized in a diagram. Depending on your learning preferences this may or may
not assist you in understanding how the information works together. If it does
help you, copy a version of this diagram into your notes. That way you’ll be
able to refer to it whenever you need without having to hold onto a piece of
paper.
C. Connect key phrases to form concept
paragraphs
Refer back to your highlighted
keywords. When you look at the ideas that surround these keywords, you should
be able to pick out smaller phrases that make up a larger idea.
For example, if you saw the
keyword; ‘legislature’ you would then look at this keyword and find phrases
about the legislature such as a definition. If after skimming through the
paragraph you find that the rest of the writing adds to the definition then
simply write the single summary phrase. Do the same until you reach the end of
the handout.
Make sure to highlight your
summary phrases as you go along so when you revise at a later date you can see
where these summary sentences have come from and draw upon the extra
information if necessary.
D. Don’t lose the handout
Because this handout covers more
information than a simple handout, it is best that you don’t throw it away. It
can be useful later if you find that you need extra help to cover the necessary
information on a topic.
To make sure that my files don’t
get crinkled I have a special handouts folder in my bottom desk drawer where I
can keep them all together.
3. Guidance Notes.
You should be able to recognize
these pretty quickly. Generally, they’re about five or more pages, and they
guide you through the entirety of a topic or course. Common examples of these
include your course syllabus or study notes. Other examples might be a reading
guide or tutorial outlines.
These critical to your academic
success and you should never ditch this beore you’ve synthesized the
information they provide.
A. Highlight keywords
Again it is important first to
skim read the document and highlight any keywords that you see. It may be
useful to cross reference this with your concept handouts so that you know
which words might be more important than others.
B. Highlight and summarize the first and last
sentence of every paragraph
This may sound odd, but most
would know that the first and last sentence contain the critical ideas of a
paragraph. When you structure your paragraph, the first sentence should
introduce the idea, and the last sentence should summarize and maybe explain
how it links to your next idea.
This means that when you’re
reading a long document like a guidance note you can use the first and last
sentence to construct a succinct summary of what the entire handout explains.
Depending on the length of the
notes, you could have a summary between 200-500 words.
C. Prioritize your reading
Documents like these can be very
overwhelming. So use your above summary and go straight to the paragraphs that
talk about the topics you are least familiar with.
D. Underline critical phrases and annotate
As you read underline the
critical sentences that succinctly explain the idea it is trying to convey. If
you’re reading a long paragraph, you may find that half of one sentence and
another half of a different sentence form an exact summary phrase. It is best
then to highlight these pieces and write them as one sentence in your own
notes.
As you go through each paragraph,
and highlight important phrases – summarize dot points in margins what the paragraph’s
critical points are.
For example, if you were reading
a paragraph about voting you might put dot points like
- Commonwealth government only
- 18 and over
- Right under constitution
- Preferential system
That way when you’re revising
this quickly, later on, you don’t have to read every word to remind yourself of
the important information.
Lulu Hensman
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