It’s a website with lots of research based tips and advice intended to give you a slightly better every day life during the pandemic.
In Autumn 2020, the University of Bergen initiated the project to help students and young people get through a challenging period. Covid-19 has affected our everyday life. We socialize less. We are not getting to know new people, we are homesick or bothered with «corona shame,» and struggle with feelings of missing out on the best of student life. This may have both physical and psychological consequences, and some even give up on their studies. The benefit of being a big university is that it encompasses enormous amounts of knowledge on how to master everyday life in all its facets. That’s why all the tips and advice are rooted in research and science originating from UiB itself.
Shortcuts for a better exam time
Read in intervals. For example: study for 15–20 minutes, take a break for 5–10 minutes, study for 15–20 minutes, take a break for 5–10 minutes etc.
Leave your mobile in different room to the one you are working in. Only check your phone during breaks. Turn off notifications and put it on “Do Not Disturb” to prevent you from losing your concentration.
Make a habit of reviewing lecture notes – preferably about an hour after the lecture. And review them again the next day and the following week.
Visualisation helps you see the overall picture and connections between different elements. It helps you integrate and organise the course material.
Formulate questions and answers for every chapter. Try to answer the questions and expand on them in your own words. Maybe you could also meet up with other students studying the same subject via Zoom or Teams and have a quiz on the topic?
Team up with fellow students and divide the syllabus into sub-chapters, chapters or themes, and then set up teaching sessions for each other. You learn from preparing the material and your fellow students learn from listening to you.
Provide written feedback on each other’s texts, such as field reports, term papers, exercises for an expected take-home exam or similar. Provide feedback on elements such as focus, form and formulations.
If the exam will be oral, practise orally. If it is written, practise writing. If it is a take-home exam, focus on the essence instead of the detail. If it is multiple-choice, practise using quizzes.
The study techniques best suited for so-called deep learning.
How do you tackle online studying?
The coronavirus regulations are causing restrictions on physical meetings and regular study routines. This makes it all the more important to know some good and effective study techniques. According to UiB researcher Lucas Matias Jeno, some techniques are better suited for so-called deep learning. This means a long-lasting change to long-term memory.
You achieve deep learning when you use the retrieval effect. By creating and answering quiz questions, reflecting in study groups, solving problems, or writing short summaries, you relate the new knowledge to what you already know. Only by processing knowledge in this way do we achieve long-term learning.
Repetition and short sessions
Another effective study technique is frequent repetition. This is demonstrated by the Ebbinghaus curve, also known as the forgetting curve. It illustrates that if you don’t take notes and revisit the material after a lecture, you will have forgotten 47 percent of what you have learned within 20 minutes. Two weeks on you will have forgotten as much as 94 percent. Repetition is, therefore, an essential part of remembering what you have learned.
Research has also shown that short reading sessions helps you stay focused and lets you work more effectively.
Good habits
How do you avoid procrastinating? Some research suggests that willpower is a limited resource, especially when you do not perceive what you are doing as being self-chosen. Being faced with a lot of choices wears on your self-control. By eliminating distractions and facilitating good habits, you have more energy to study and absorb knowledge.
Source:
Lucas Matias Jeno
Associate Professor at the Department of Education at the University of Bergen (UiB)
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