Improving Your Study Techniques

This is the third course on studying/learning that I've taken so far, and by far the best out of the three. It was spread across four weeks and taught me a lot, I don't know how much someone who already knows a good deal about studying would get from this but these were my most important take-aways: Topic-Comment (TC) method of note-taking, immediately after learning about it I began writing all my notes in this style and it has really helped with absorption; Previewing a book or article; Time-management (weekly, semester, long-term planning); the 'lecture hacks' were also really impressive; Revising and in particular planning for it as well doing additional revision in the evening; psychological techniques to deal with procrastination; the Pomodoro Method, the 5-minute plan, personal rewards; dealing with stress using basic psychological techniques; sleep and its effects on academic performance and finally the motivation equation.

Which again, makes up most of the course. Prior to taking this course I had tried some on some site where you could buy bundles, and they were of so low quality that I actually wrote off online courses altogether for years, I just started up again to prepare to have a try at programming, getting a BS in computer science, and knew I'd have to fix any issues prior to starting down that path, I made a list of lectures and relevant books, textbooks, etc. to try in my free-time prior to my plan, and again the two first one's really didn't give me anything - it was fairly vague, almost pseudo-self-help like the equivalent to a motivational talk and again I considered writing off online courses, but then I started this course and it completely blew me away, I finished it in 6 days, each day I'd dedicate more time to it because of how useful the lessons were and also how well produced it was. The students they interview are great as are the teachers, the quality is fantastic across the board and this will exist as a memory of my preparatory steps towards my goal.

This is an excellent course blending hard and soft studying techniques, which makes studying more enjoyable.

The instructors begin by introducing the three-step method for studying. As the videos include interviews to students using the method, I felt like the MOOC was interactive, after sharing my experiences on the platform. Furthermore, the course offered good strategies to prepare and to take open essay and multiple-choice exams.

What is great about this course is that the materials went well beyond the hard studying techniques. The lectures applied psychological theory to reduce stress and procrastination, which would increase your motivation. For example, one of the goals of the three-step method was in fact to reduce stress and to increase your motivation. They also introduced many good practices to avoid procrastination and to reduce stress, which are essential to increase your motivation.

Overall, this course was an eyeopener to me. It was well presented and enjoyable. While the main target appears to be college students, I strongly recommend this course to anyone who wants to study better. I wish I could have taken this course when I had formal education.

This course in how to improve our own study techniques was incredibly helpful for me.
It has helped me mainly in realizing daily bad behaviors or thoughts that I have when studying.

Some little things we regularly do may seem not important but they will have a great impact on what we actually manage to learn and our motivation and stress levels.

One thing that I learned from this course and that I will definitely try to keep in mind when I study is to plan realistic, time bounded, very specific and acceptable study sessions.
This will definitely reduce my stress because so far I have always planned unrealistic study sessions that at first seemed realistic which lead to feeling stressed for not managing to do them.

Moreover, this course made me realize the type of thoughts I have that belong to a "fixed mindset" instead of a "growth mindset". Realizing and recognizing these thoughts makes it easier to overcome them and to develop a "growth mindset".

Thanks to this course, I will soon start my master with better study strategies and techniques than those I had when I started my bachelor.

What a wonderful course!

There are so much to absorb: the TC method, reverse planning, interleaving, value-driven, dirty pain, the S.M.A.R.T principle, the backpack analogy, the 5-minute plan, and the list goes on

(i can't write it all here haha)

All of the graphic illustrations, quizzes and videos are super helpful and practical.

I used to study with traditional methods (attending lectures, reading materials and doing homework...) but now I am quite capable of studying smarter and more efficiently with transferable skills and alternative step-by-step approaches to my studies, procrastination, stress and motivation.

More importantly, I can know more about my study habits and gain different perspectives thanks to our dedicated educators and lovely participants.

Thank you all! I am looking to studying another course with you guys in the near future!!!

To anyone looking something great to make your studies better, please just take a look by yourself and see how many insights you can get from taking this course. Highly recommended!!

Best regards,

Duc Le

This is an excellent, excellent course. I am planning to undertake my Masters soon and was anxious about returning to University. This course really helped me prepare and made me feel that this is something that is doable. It has increased my confidence and faith in myself significantly.

The course itself covers: How to prep for studying, time-management (do the exercises! It will change everything.), summarising and note-taking (I used to hate note taking because I was so terrible at it, I didn't trust myself and knew I wasn't doing it properly. This has completely changed. I took notes on the course itself as practice and to prove that I could do it. Honestly, the difference is stunning.), memory and recall (how to maximise these when studying, and also what is actually happening that causes you to forget), and finally motivation/stress management/procrastination (this rounds things out. For many people, the problem isn't ability/intelligence/skill, but those very human shortcomings that lead us to be overwhelmed by our studies. This course really delves into these things and changes your internal landscape and thinking to help you manage all of these oft over-looked issues.)

This was a fantastic course. The videos and activities never take more than about two minutes individually, so each week of the course can be finished really quickly. I found it very easy to fit the class into my schedule. For a free course, they provide several great resources and great insight into studying techniques, as well as how to avoid procrastination and how to manage stress. I would recommend this course for anyone who struggles with long-term planning, short-term planning, and/or retaining information.

Fair warning: FutureLearn (the course's platform) will constantly try to upsell you to upgrade into their unlimited version. The reason the course is free is because you only have access to it for a month - with unlimited you can access it forever. If you take good notes, though, you won't need more than a month's access to the course.

this is summary of what I learnt on the course. It was well put together and made me think more deeply about several things which I knew in a general way

- topic comment summaries
- three step method - previewing texts, studying, revising
- revising all the way through a course, not just at the end
- Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
- everyone suffers from procrastination & self doubt; it can be controlled with the right techniques
- actually prepare a timetable and detailed weekly plans with buffer times to ensure course work stays on target
- fixed versus closed mindsets; (Ie the mindset that says "I can't do this ...yet")

If you want something to help you succeed in your studies this is the course to take.