Study Techniques

Okay might seem a bit hypocritical for me to be telling people how to study when I'm not doing a whole lot of it at the moment, but I thought I might jot down a few things that worked for me when I was in China, plus a couple of study techniques that my friends and I used last year in Year 12.

The Brainstorming Method

One revision technique that our music teacher taught us was to get a blank sheet of paper and pick a topic related to your subject (for example, if you're doing music you could do one of the periods of music or one of the set works) and then brainstorm everything that you can think of related to the topic. You'll be surprised at how much you actually remember, particularly if the topic in question is one that hasn't been covered in class for a while. While brainstorming, I normally make a mental list of things that I'm not sure about or just can't quite remember no matter how hard I try (normally stuff like dates or composer's names or whatever). After brainstorming, I go back through my notes and find out the stuff that I wasn't sure about, and then add a few more details based on interesting facts that I find in my notes.

The Annotations Method

This "method" of sorts is basically my way of being obnoxious and getting away with it. There are two ways I use dumb annotations to help me in my studies:

1. When reading through the textbook or through notes, I sometimes write annotations in response to interesting facts or anything else that catches my attention. This helps me stay focused when reading while also helping me engage with the text.
2. When I was in Year 10, a technique that worked well for me was to compile all my notes onto a OneNote document during the term, and then at the end of the term I printed out my notes and wrote annotations on my notes. (Yep, notes on my notes...)

So where does the "obnoxious" part come in? Well, some of my annotations were a bit obnoxious. When I was in said Year 10 Modern History class, my notes included some stuff about the Tsar wanting to expand Russia's territories or something along those lines and so every time I saw something about that I would just write "As if Russia isn't already big enough..." in the margins. That might not sound so bad though I'm pretty sure I wrote some really obnoxious stuff on my music notes in Year 12. Unfortunately, I can't quite remember.

The Summarising Method

Haven't really used this method myself, but it was a favourite of my friend who studied Human Biology in Year 12, a rather content-heavy subject. Her method of studying was to continually summarise her notes until they fit onto a small sheet of paper that could easily fit into her shirt pocket. Each time she summarised her notes she'd be refreshing her memory as to what was on them in the first place.

Sentence Method (Languages)

I have a couple of different techniques for studying languages. When I was in China, I started using my own variant of the sentences method, which can be found on several language learning websites, perhaps the most notable being All Japanese All The Time. The basic idea is that you add a whole bunch of sentences in your L2 to an SRS (Spaced Repetition System) program, which is basically a flashcard program that uses spaced repetition to help get things into your long-term memory. (Basically, in Spaced Repetition, you get shown hard things more often and easy things less often so that you don't waste your time reviewing easy things.) On one side of the card you add a sentence in your L2, on the other side you add the translation in your L1. You could also add other things, like notes on grammar points or definitions of new words. As you get more advanced, you might also put these notes in using your L2.

Since I had to learn certain vocab for my Chinese language course, and I was worried that some words would slip by the wayside if I just used pure sentences, my variant was this: I'd put the new word on the card, and then a sentence containing that word beneath it. The back of the card would just have the definition of that word. Then I would tweak the settings so that I could be tested on both sides of the card (i.e. give the definition of the word OR provide the word from the definition). However I wasn't super strict on myself when going back the other way (providing the word from the definition) as there are so many synonyms or near-synonyms in Chinese (or in any language really).

When reviewing cards, if I get the side containing word and sentence, I read the sentence out loud (or whisper it if there are other people around) and then check the definition of the word and give myself a score depending on whether I was right or not and how easy it was for me to remember the answer. If I get the side containing the definition, I write down the word and then check the answer. If I wasn't right because the word was a near-synonym or something, I normally mark it right anyway (though with a lower score, never with full points) and write the other word down as well.

Another thing I could do with my cards that might help me with writing would be to write out the sentences when I get the word/sentence side of a card. I'm too lazy to do this though :P

One thing to remember is that there's no set-in-stone "sentence method," so feel free to tweak around with the basic framework and find out what works for you.

Before I forget, I should probably mention which SRS programs are available. There are a plethora of them available and you could probably find them quite easily by Googling "SRS" or "flashcard program." One of the most popular is called Anki. It's good because you have a lot of control over the formatting of your cards, being able to add in colours, pictures, audio clips and so on. However, while Anki is free on Android and Windows, Anki is not free on iOS (it's over $20) so if you are a cheapskate using any Apple products you might want to consider an alternative. I used Repetitions Free on my iPad when I was in China, and it did the job though it certainly doesn't have any of the bells and whistles that Anki has (i.e. you can't add in pictures, audio clips or even coloured text). There are many others though, so feel free to experiment and see which ones work for you.

Other Language-Learning Websites

A couple of other language learning websites that I've dabbled with are Memrise and Duolingo.

Memrise- I've only used the Memrise iPad app- I haven't used Memrise online. Memrise is basically a flashcard program with a vast library of mnemonics to help you remember words. Some of the mnemonics are quite witty and amusing too, so it might help you learn those few tricky words that just don't seem to stick whatever you do. It also uses spaced repetition to remind you when to revise and make those words stick. I found the app quite fun but in some ways it was quite limited because most courses just test you on words and phrases (and like Language Perfect it suffers from that issue where you have to have the exact, sometimes bizarre, wording in your English translations for it to go through). However I'm fairly sure you can create your own courses on the web version.

Duolingo- I pretty much just got introduced to this website via a "quest" on HabitRPG (basically a to-do list where you get EXP and gold for completing tasks) and I really like what I've been seeing so far. I've been working my way through the French course (figured I might as well pick up some French again since Duolingo doesn't have Chinese on it). Duolingo is a bit like the sentence method in that it teaches you languages through whole sentences at a time. Each new sentence will contain only one or two new words. The lessons mainly consist of translating sentences back and forth (and it's reasonably lenient in that you don't have to get the super exact wording, but you still have to be more or less right) as well as dictations of phrases and sentences in the language that you're studying. If you have a microphone, you'll sometimes be asked to read sentences aloud. I used this at first but I found that my microphone never seemed to pick up my first couple of words and it begun to annoy me, so I stopped using it. (I've heard that some people have had the opposite issue- they've deliberately said the wrong thing and Duolingo has marked it correct.) Aside from these lessons, there's also the opportunity to read articles in the "immersion" tab and translate them or correct the translations of your fellow students. The main drawback with Duolingo is that there is only a limited language selection at the moment. At the moment, English speakers can learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Dutch (Dutch is in beta). Other languages being developed are Danish, Irish, Hungarian, Swedish, Russian, Turkish, Polish and Romanian. Speakers of many other languages can use the website to learn English. I'm almost tempted to use the "English for Chinese speakers" course to see if it will help me practise Chinese :P