Lines From Ms Lauren (July)
Expanding Your Repertoire of Learning and Studying Strategies – NOW is the time!
Coming from an education system that served Canadian students and graded them using 100% internal assessment, to Taylor’s College where all three programmes have a significant component of external assessment (100% for CAL, 70% for IB, 30% for SAM), has been very interesting for me. CAL, I have come to learn, is a system that has been in existence for over 150 years, and is highly respected all over the world. Getting As on a CAL diploma serves successful students with a ‘ticket’ to good universities worldwide. I have observed and talked to several TCSH students and teachers about your methods of preparing to achieve these As, and I notice an absolute dedication to a) going over past-year exam questions, often multiple times, and b) studying for long hours alone.
TC has a long-standing and well-earned reputation for helping students achieve As, so I am not about to suggest that you change a formula that so clearly works for so many. However, I would love to encourage you to expand your repertoire of learning strategies, and to recognize that your 1 to 2 years in Pre-U is also about learning as much as possible, not just about achieving your ticket.
Check out these photographs of a person’s brain when they are thinking quietly to themselves (left photo) and when they are discussing a concept with others (right photo):
Brain research and the connection to learning is a fairly young branch of Science, an area to which some of you will likely contribute in the future. Photos such as these, and indeed experimentation on live brains, only became possible about 15 years ago with the development of a technique called PET (positron emission therapy). If discussion with others utilizes so much more of your brain than working alone, wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to include this technique when you are processing new information, and also when you are studying to prepare for an exam? It has also been shown that the memory storage differs from these two ways of using the brain. The brain that has been ‘exercised’ in the way shown on the right will develop more neural pathways related to the information that was being learned at the time, making it more easily retrievable and retrievable for a longer period.
What do you think? I would hope that this might encourage some of you to try testing your flash cards on one another, sharing answers to a past-year exam question and giving each other helpful suggestions, or creating study groups to prepare for your next big assessment. Study groups can be unstructured, or can be structured in a variety of interesting ways, for example each member could prepare a session for the group on a topic that they understand well. The session might include a brief tutorial, and then a question-and-answer session, and some collaborative practice to follow up.The CAL trial exams coming up would be a low-risk opportunity to “experiment” and see if expanding your repertoire to include some collaboration or discussion with others helps you learn more effectively and retain your knowledge for longer. Remember that, whenever you try something new, it feels awkward at first, but if it is something as important as this, it is worth persevering and giving your experiment the serious effort it deserves. I would love to hear from some of you who attempt to expand your repertoire about how it feels, and particularly about the effect it has on your exam results. Good luck and happy learning!
Coming from an education system that served Canadian students and graded them using 100% internal assessment, to Taylor’s College where all three programmes have a significant component of external assessment (100% for CAL, 70% for IB, 30% for SAM), has been very interesting for me. CAL, I have come to learn, is a system that has been in existence for over 150 years, and is highly respected all over the world. Getting As on a CAL diploma serves successful students with a ‘ticket’ to good universities worldwide. I have observed and talked to several TCSH students and teachers about your methods of preparing to achieve these As, and I notice an absolute dedication to a) going over past-year exam questions, often multiple times, and b) studying for long hours alone.
TC has a long-standing and well-earned reputation for helping students achieve As, so I am not about to suggest that you change a formula that so clearly works for so many. However, I would love to encourage you to expand your repertoire of learning strategies, and to recognize that your 1 to 2 years in Pre-U is also about learning as much as possible, not just about achieving your ticket.
Check out these photographs of a person’s brain when they are thinking quietly to themselves (left photo) and when they are discussing a concept with others (right photo):
Brain research and the connection to learning is a fairly young branch of Science, an area to which some of you will likely contribute in the future. Photos such as these, and indeed experimentation on live brains, only became possible about 15 years ago with the development of a technique called PET (positron emission therapy). If discussion with others utilizes so much more of your brain than working alone, wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to include this technique when you are processing new information, and also when you are studying to prepare for an exam? It has also been shown that the memory storage differs from these two ways of using the brain. The brain that has been ‘exercised’ in the way shown on the right will develop more neural pathways related to the information that was being learned at the time, making it more easily retrievable and retrievable for a longer period.
What do you think? I would hope that this might encourage some of you to try testing your flash cards on one another, sharing answers to a past-year exam question and giving each other helpful suggestions, or creating study groups to prepare for your next big assessment. Study groups can be unstructured, or can be structured in a variety of interesting ways, for example each member could prepare a session for the group on a topic that they understand well. The session might include a brief tutorial, and then a question-and-answer session, and some collaborative practice to follow up.The CAL trial exams coming up would be a low-risk opportunity to “experiment” and see if expanding your repertoire to include some collaboration or discussion with others helps you learn more effectively and retain your knowledge for longer. Remember that, whenever you try something new, it feels awkward at first, but if it is something as important as this, it is worth persevering and giving your experiment the serious effort it deserves. I would love to hear from some of you who attempt to expand your repertoire about how it feels, and particularly about the effect it has on your exam results. Good luck and happy learning!
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