Many students hope to find the special technique which could help them to study successfully because of the variety of materials and tasks with which it is necessary to cope every day.
Nevertheless, there is no only formula which can solve all the students’ problems, but there are a lot of methods effective for developing students’ study skills and abilities.
All the study skills are important for students, but it is useful to focus on the effective listening skills and time management which improvement can contribute to the students’ high academic performance.
Effective listening as well as the developed skills in time management are the ways to help students to organize their studying and everyday activity successfully that is why these skills should be discussed in detail.
Listening is the part of the people’s everyday life because of a lot of communication. The process of studying also depends on communication which is realised during lectures and seminars.
Students communicate with lecturers and their classmates in order to get and share the knowledge. This process is effective only when students concentrate on listening to the speaker.
Effective listening is important during lectures when students should focus on the information presented by the lecturer and think over it because the passive listening cannot be discussed as effective one.
Students succeed in listening to lectures when they not only make the necessary notes but also react to the presented material.
Moreover, there are a lot of situations when it is necessary to ask the lecturer or tutor about the details of the material. Asking the question, students should pay attention to the answer, but not concentrate on their own ideas.
Providing some pieces of advice on the effective listening and communication, Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007, p. 122) state that “you must listen actively to the answer”. To listen actively means that students should react to the answer, and it can be useful to ask the additional questions.
The developed skills in time management are useful not only for study but also for organising the life effectively. The problem is in the fact many students have poor time management skills, and it can limit their possibilities in overcoming a lot of challenges in learning the material and planning the work.
Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007, p. 2) determine that students can be “less organised than is desirable, not always able to manage time effectively” and discuss these problems as their weaknesses.
The poor skills in time management should be improved because students have more tasks every day, and the inability to organise their time can make them procrastinate.
Time management skills can be improved with focusing on daily planning with the help of calendars and diaries. Thus, Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007, p. 174) advise students, “along with diary management also do a daily to-do-list for the following day”.
To-do-lists are effective for increasing the level of students’ productivity and help them to avoid procrastination.
It is important for students to improve their study skills in order to achieve the high results in their academic performance.
The developed skills in time management and listening to the speaker are useful not only for studying but also for everyday life and career because they help students to become organised, active, and dynamic without procrastinating habits, but with focusing on productivity.
Reference List
Burdess, N 2007, Good study, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, N.S.W. Australia.
Lee-Davies, L & Bailey, S 2007, Developing work and study skills, Thomson, Australia.