The study skills are an organized set of actions that a student performs in order to achieve the comprehension and memorization of concepts, principles or facts in a permanent way. After observing the study methods of students who get good academic achievements the most effective skills have being identified. Regular use of such skills allows novice students to make a better use of their intellectual resources and thus improving their academic results.
Study is an essential learning philosophy within the education process of young people of our time. Far from being out of fashion, it is a necessary activity to complement other learning activities such as project elaboration, opinions exchange and comparison or the use of practical activities. To study means to relate what is new with already integrated knowledge and being able to remember it at the right time; to understand it and memorize it in a permanent way.
Study skills are part of the learning strategies, which can be grouped in three sets: organization strategies, classwork strategies, and study and information memorization skills.
- The organization strategies contribute to doing the necessary things in an orderly and efficient way.
- The classwork strategies are those that make the work performed in class more useful.
- The purpose of the study and information memorization skills is to understand and memorize concepts, principles or facts in a permanent way.
As it is usual with other learning strategies, some of our teens need a focused learning of those skills in order to improve their effectiveness as students. Others, in contrast, acquire them by themselves.
The study skills cannot be learned as an isolated learning but their training will be done by following the orientation guide explained next while following the school curricula.
To study is a process that requires four moments:
- Text comprehension.
- Concept selection and organization in such a way that the amount of information is lower and thus easier to learn.
- Memorization of the essential concepts.
Invocation of what was studied.