The Grammar year group attended a Study Skills Seminar today (Wednesday October 5th) presented by Geraldine and Jesse from the Study Smart Tuition Centre . The centre was established five years ago to assist and enable students to reach their full potential, achieve improved exam grades and be supported with the subjects they find the most challenging.
The first and most important fact we were told in the seminar was that study was a skill not a talent. A talent is something you are naturally good at, a skill is something you can work on and develop. Throughout the seminar we looked at the habits of successful study (mind maps, memory cards, SMART study) and learned all about how our memory works.
It wasn’t all just talk however, there was plenty of action. We did lots of activities to discover what type of learning style we fitted into. It turns out that we all learn differently. What might work for one, may not work for the other. Through these activities we discovered some of us were visual learners (using lots of diagrams and colour), others were auditory learners (using sound and language) and still others were kinesthetic learners (active learners, making lists, flash cards).
The final activity was goal setting and study planning. We have a very busy day at Clongowes so this was particularly important to make sure we divided our study time equally.
Overall we found the seminar really helpful. We all have a much better idea how to study and what is right for us as individual learners. In the case of study, one size does not fit all!
Mr Cormac Rochford
