Learning

Learning Skills (Applicable to Secondary Students)

Students should understand and accept their own abilities, strengths, interests and limitations. They should have reasonable expectations and requirements on themselves. The preconditions for learning are proactive and positive attitude, effective learning skills and good daily habits.

Objectives of Learning

  • Acquire a wide range of abilities and skills with which you can make a living, improve your life and contribute to the society
  • Increase your knowledge, broaden your horizon and develop your own values
  • Train your thinking, improve your perseverance and patience, develop your character
  • Enrich yourself and build up self-esteem and self-confidence

Motivation for Learning

  • Curiosities, thirst for knowledge, eagerness to learn and question, adequate self-esteem and self-confidence, and encouragement from teachers, friends and family, can increase your learning motivation and willpower.
  • The beginning of a school year is usually full of novelty and enthusiasm. Seize this opportunity to make a good start
  • Learning from daily life can enhance your drive and interest. For instance, you can learn relevant knowledge and new vocabularies through participating in exhibitions, cultural events or travelling
  • Extra-curricular books borrowed from the library should be put on the table in the living room, or by the sofa or the TV set, so as to increase the chance of reading

Basic Skills of Learning

1. Use of Time

  • Treasure your time as time is a limited resource. Proper time allocation and time control will increase learning efficiency
  • When you prepare a timetable or a schedule, you should be flexible. Do not set it too tight. Adjust your progress when necessary to make up for the delayed schedule
  • Keep your study hours for each subject in proportion to your school timetable

2. Improve Your Concentration and Develop Good habits

  • When you do your homework or study, you should avoid the interference by noisy environment (such as the noise from TV or mobile phone), behaviour of others or trivial chores. Go to the library or a study room if necessary
  • Adequate sleep and rest can help improve concentration. You can consider taking a nap or a short break in the daytime so as to avoid excessive fatigue. If you feel bored or tired when you are doing your homework or studying, you may take a short break, have a snack, or even tidy up your desk. You may also do some stretching exercises or read some extra-curricular books
  • Keep regular hours and find out the suitable time when you are most alert to do your study
  • Well balanced diet and regular exercise are good for your health and concentration
  • Do not neglect extra-curricular activities. Such activities not only train your concentration and time management, but also enrich your life and help relieve stress from studying

Learning Skills

1. Preparation before a class

  • Read over the text once in advance so that you get an idea of the content and key points. It will then be easier to follow in class, to answer the teacher’s questions or raise your own questions
  • Mark the part that you do not understand. Then look it up on the internet or discuss with your schoolmates, or even consult your teacher

2. Attending a lesson

  • You should listen carefully to the teacher during the lesson. Avoid unnecessary interference that may distract your attention
  • Try to comprehend the lesson and grasp the key points
  • Have the courage to ask and answer questions. This will develop your skills in thinking and expression. Moreover, you can know then to what extent you have grasped the key points of the lesson and help you to remember

3. Taking notes

  • Jotting down the key points (such as the outline of the lesson, the content repeatedly mentioned by the teacher and the examples) during the lesson not only helps you concentrate but also enables you to look up relevant supplementary material after class
  • Take notes on loose-leaf papers and write horizontally. Leave the left side of the paper for adding headings and the right side for additional remarks and analysis. Insert coloured papers or cardboards in between the pile of notes for classification
  • Symbols and short-forms can speed up your note-taking
  • Colour or fluorescent pens can be used for major and minor headings or to highlight important points

4. Doing homework

  • Try to finish all your homework. Homework can help you understand the lessons and provide a chance for you to apply what you have learned
  • Pay close attention to the teacher’s comments on your homework and try to understand your mistakes. Learn from the correct answers in order to lay a good foundation

5. Revision

  • You may not have time to study the whole subject in detail before the examination, but with a well-organised notebook, you will be able to revise what you have learned within a limited period of time
  • After-class revision can help you consolidate what you have learned on that day
  • If you find something that you do not understand during your revision, do not just memorize it. You should think it out, or consult your schoolmates or teacher
  • When you do your homework or revision, arrange subjects of different nature together. For instance, you may go on with mathematics exercise after completing Chinese composition. This can increase your interest and reduce the confusion caused by similar contents in the similar types of subjects. For example, characters, incidents and important dates in Chinese Language and Chinese History are easily mixed up
  • Deepen your understanding towards the contents by means of diagrams, headings and flow charts
  • By drawing diagrams, repeating the content or giving yourself a test, you will be able to know if you have grasped the outline, key points and the application of the subject
  • Revise the subjects that you like first to spark your interest in revision. Set easier plans in the beginning to give yourself a sense of achievement
  • Form a study group with your schoolmates and study together
  • Go over some past papers so that you can understand better the requirements of the subject

6. Memory

  • Always keep calm and avoid excessive anxiety to improve your memory
  • First find out the meaning, logic, process, sequence and causality of the content, then reorganise to give yourself a thorough understanding
  • List the key points by means of diagrams and flow charts. Use your imagination to visualise the contents of the text with pictures and graphics to consolidate your memory
  • For two or more items, comparison will help you find out their similarities and differences and deepen your memory
  • For vocabularies, learn 3 to 5 new words each day and revise them every day by reading aloud or writing down the words
  • Apply what you have learned in your daily life, e.g. writing an article, keeping a diary, reading a map or doing your sums

Tips for Examination

1. Understand the purpose of examination

  • Examination aims to evaluate the academic progress of students
  • Examination result does not necessarily reflect the student’s intelligence level. The mark only reflects to some extent of a student’s understanding and application of a certain subject
  • On the one hand, face the examination bravely and be well-prepared. On the other hand, do not set too high an expectation on yourself, otherwise you will be very stressful
  • Prepare your examination properly. Do not cheat

2. How to cope with the anxiety caused by examination

  • The pressure of examination comes from the format of the examination, the level of the knowledge or skills to be tested, and the expectation from your family as well as yourself
  • Be confident in accepting challenges. Do not retreat when face with setbacks
  • Appropriate stress can help you tune in for the examination, while excessive anxiety may affect your efficiency and results
  • When you feel too stressful, close your eyes and take deep breath. This will help you relax
  • Share with your schoolmates your anxiety and solutions in order to obtain their support and encouragement

3. Tips for taking examination

  • Read carefully and try to understand the questions. Never answer the questions hastily just because you think you know the subject well or the question looks familiar, otherwise you may miss some finer points in the question or even misinterpret the question
  • When you answer, write clearly and neatly to facilitate the teacher’s marking
  • Space out your words in order to provide space for amendment or supplement
  • Never count your marks while you are answering, or you may not be able to concentrate and stay calm
  • Do not fret or give up if you fail to answer several questions in a row. Calm down and carry on with the paper. Just do your best

4. Review after examination

  • When you get back your papers, go over your mistakes carefully to avoid making them again in the future
  • Know your strengths and your weaknesses. Appreciate the efforts you have made
  • If you have a low mark, try to find out the reasons for the failure and the methods of improvement
  • Do not let success go to your head, nor be discouraged by failure. Move to your next goal


Conclusion

If you can master different learning skills, you will be able to study more effectively and smoothly. You will find that studying, thinking and applying your knowledge are not only fun, but you can also contribute to the society.

(Revised in June 2022)

PDF Printable version