Note-taking Workshop
Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas (TCSH) organised a talk on note-taking skills for all South Australian Matriculation (SAM) students on the 21st of January 2010 in the Alpha Theatre. The facilitator was Ms. Jennifer Shong of the Learning and Academic Skills Centre.
Among the main objectives of this talk was to stimulate critical thinking skills among the students, introduce the students to different techniques in note taking and ways to memorise them. The facilitator also explained to us the importance of making notes as it helps us increase our memory on a particular subject.
What was most interesting about the workshop was when the facilitator described the use of telegraphic sentences to take notes. To save time when making notes we were told to leave out unnecessary words, use abbreviations and streamline definitions. This method was familiar to the students as we are already using it in our daily lives when we send smses. In this workshop we learned how we to apply this technique, which comes so naturally to the younger generation, into our study methods. Furthermore, Ms Jennifer impressed upon us the benefits of reciting key points. Research shows that almost half of what is learned is forgotten within two hours so. In order to counteract this problem, she thought us how to transfer short term memory into long term memory by reciting points regularly.
Another useful study method that Ms. Jennifer taught us is the S2Q5R system. S2Q5R means survey, signals, question, read, recite, record, review and reflect. She stressed on the importance of using this technique when reading textbooks or reference books. This method also encourages us to make connections and links between the facts we learn our textbooks.
The workshop was fun and useful to the students. Information was presented at a steady pace allowing most students to absorb the contents of the workshop. The use of power point presentation and friendly interaction between facilitator and students also helped in maintaining the focus and attention of the students. There was also a hands-on activity where all the students were placed into groups of four to test the skills we gained during the lecture. Most of the students were willing to participate in the activity and even attempted to apply the techniques they learned when carrying out the activity. The only drawback of the workshop was that the time allocated for the group activity was not long enough; therefore, not all groups were able to present their results.
On the whole, I found this workshop to be extremely helpful in making our college and university studies easier and I hope that TCSH will organise more workshops on other academic skills in the future.
By STEPHANIE CHOO MEI YANN
Among the main objectives of this talk was to stimulate critical thinking skills among the students, introduce the students to different techniques in note taking and ways to memorise them. The facilitator also explained to us the importance of making notes as it helps us increase our memory on a particular subject.
What was most interesting about the workshop was when the facilitator described the use of telegraphic sentences to take notes. To save time when making notes we were told to leave out unnecessary words, use abbreviations and streamline definitions. This method was familiar to the students as we are already using it in our daily lives when we send smses. In this workshop we learned how we to apply this technique, which comes so naturally to the younger generation, into our study methods. Furthermore, Ms Jennifer impressed upon us the benefits of reciting key points. Research shows that almost half of what is learned is forgotten within two hours so. In order to counteract this problem, she thought us how to transfer short term memory into long term memory by reciting points regularly.
Another useful study method that Ms. Jennifer taught us is the S2Q5R system. S2Q5R means survey, signals, question, read, recite, record, review and reflect. She stressed on the importance of using this technique when reading textbooks or reference books. This method also encourages us to make connections and links between the facts we learn our textbooks.
The workshop was fun and useful to the students. Information was presented at a steady pace allowing most students to absorb the contents of the workshop. The use of power point presentation and friendly interaction between facilitator and students also helped in maintaining the focus and attention of the students. There was also a hands-on activity where all the students were placed into groups of four to test the skills we gained during the lecture. Most of the students were willing to participate in the activity and even attempted to apply the techniques they learned when carrying out the activity. The only drawback of the workshop was that the time allocated for the group activity was not long enough; therefore, not all groups were able to present their results.
On the whole, I found this workshop to be extremely helpful in making our college and university studies easier and I hope that TCSH will organise more workshops on other academic skills in the future.
By STEPHANIE CHOO MEI YANN
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