I attended the first of the three pre-study workships today, on effective study skills. Interesting speaker, as she was able to capture our attention, but the session more or less covered almost everything I have done.
The first part was on Listening Skills. Listening to the keywords and the different stress on the various words uttered by the lecturer. Listen to change in tone, change in pitch, change in emotion. Most importantly, listen to whether the points fit the objectives being covered.
The second part was on Note-taking Skills. Often have people made the mistake of just scribbling everything and every word down vigorously. Actually, that is more ineffective as one concentrates so much on just scribbling down notes, but neglect to listen to the lecturer.
Note down keypoints during the lecture, and then go through the notes on your own. Take notes in a variety of ways - mind maps, summaries, tables, charts, equations, fishbone diagrams, concept maps, classifications, time lines, sequencing. I do believe I have taken notes in all of the above ways.
The next component was on Writing Skills, not just normal writing, but academic writing, ie how to write an academic paper effectively. This reminds me of the first day in university where we had to take a crash course on writing thesis statements, good bibliographing and footnotes.
Besides the usual parts on having the correct Grammar, using the correct Vocabulary, put in the correct Spelling and be careful of the Punctuation, Bibliography was also emphasised. Apparently, not many people know how to write a proper bibliography, or deem it unimportant.
I thought anyone who has gone through post-secondary education would be able to do it as they would be taught how to write an academic essay with referencing? The Bibliography is important as the reader / marker will want to know where we get our references from. Otherwise we can just "lift" a text from anywhere and pass it off as our own if there is no referencing.
I used to find it a chore writing Bibliographies, as after reading the book and taking down notes for my assignments, I still had to take the time to record down the exact title, author(s), editor(s), publisher, year of publishing, and location. In other words, the proper structure is something like this :
Thomson, Alfred L. (ed.), Randall, Robert S., A History Of The World, 2nd edition, Michelmas Publishing, 2002, London.
Note : This is just an example. The book does not exist. The names and title is my own creation. Any similarities to any real publication is entirely coincidental.
After the academic essays part, the speaker went through how to write proper examination answers. Many students made the mistake of writing too much but totally straying off the point. Thus, they may think that why they wrote so much but in the end scored so badly?
The trick is to read the question carefully, understand and focus on what the examiner is looking for, then answer accordingly. Structure your essay in such a way that it is well-organised and easy to read.
I know, easier said than done, especially during examination times. But I believe if the material is at the back of your hand, answering the question and writing the essay becomes so much easier. One only need to read the question and everything starts flowing. At least that was what I had experienced everytime when I needed to take examinations.
Answering examination questions also needed lots of time management. Answering three questions in a three-hour examination is not the easiest thing in the world, but instead of spending so long and scoring perfect grades for one question, but in the end skimmed through and did badly for the other questions simply because you have run out of time, it is better to just set aside a time limit for each question and then stick to it.
Better to score above average for all questions, then at least the overall grade is above average too, rather than so well on one question and so badly on the rest, pulling the overall grade down to below average.
Other things like self-discipline, time-management and not to achieve perfection all the time were also covered. The first two are self-explanatory, but the speaker said that since we are all working and studying and some of us have a young family as well, it is impossible to do everything so well.
Thus we should not be "super" by expecting all things to be perfect, but rather, just try our best and be happy with what we have. Makes a lot of sense, but on the other hand, some people will think what is the use of doing things if they do not seek perfection?
Overall, it is a pretty useful session, as it reinforces the things I have done before, plus a few more. It makes me feel a bit less stressed at least, knowing that I am not alone in this journey. Wonder how the next two seminars will go.
After the workshop, K invited me to his place to watch the DVD of "Memoirs Of A Geisha". My first movie of the year! Where the book is more tragic, the movie itself has a happier ending. The show did not give my friend good vibes as he said that it is "torturous" to hear non-native speakers speaking English.
Casting wise, not all of them are miscasted. Gong Li outshone herself as the bitch, Zhang Ziyi's Sayuri is strong and perseverant, exactly like the Sayuri in the book. Michelle Yeoh as the other geisha is a little odd though. Even though she acted well, but the role should be given to someone younger and more able to bring the character to life.
The show did justice to the book at least, but it paled in comparison to the book, as where the book has more drama, ie more intense bitching, backstabbing, cruelty and abuse, and the sad ending, the movie just skimmed through the main parts.
It is an easy to understand movie for someone who has not read the book, but for those who have, will feel that the movie has not reached their expectations.
The first part was on Listening Skills. Listening to the keywords and the different stress on the various words uttered by the lecturer. Listen to change in tone, change in pitch, change in emotion. Most importantly, listen to whether the points fit the objectives being covered.
The second part was on Note-taking Skills. Often have people made the mistake of just scribbling everything and every word down vigorously. Actually, that is more ineffective as one concentrates so much on just scribbling down notes, but neglect to listen to the lecturer.
Note down keypoints during the lecture, and then go through the notes on your own. Take notes in a variety of ways - mind maps, summaries, tables, charts, equations, fishbone diagrams, concept maps, classifications, time lines, sequencing. I do believe I have taken notes in all of the above ways.
The next component was on Writing Skills, not just normal writing, but academic writing, ie how to write an academic paper effectively. This reminds me of the first day in university where we had to take a crash course on writing thesis statements, good bibliographing and footnotes.
Besides the usual parts on having the correct Grammar, using the correct Vocabulary, put in the correct Spelling and be careful of the Punctuation, Bibliography was also emphasised. Apparently, not many people know how to write a proper bibliography, or deem it unimportant.
I thought anyone who has gone through post-secondary education would be able to do it as they would be taught how to write an academic essay with referencing? The Bibliography is important as the reader / marker will want to know where we get our references from. Otherwise we can just "lift" a text from anywhere and pass it off as our own if there is no referencing.
I used to find it a chore writing Bibliographies, as after reading the book and taking down notes for my assignments, I still had to take the time to record down the exact title, author(s), editor(s), publisher, year of publishing, and location. In other words, the proper structure is something like this :
Thomson, Alfred L. (ed.), Randall, Robert S., A History Of The World, 2nd edition, Michelmas Publishing, 2002, London.
Note : This is just an example. The book does not exist. The names and title is my own creation. Any similarities to any real publication is entirely coincidental.
After the academic essays part, the speaker went through how to write proper examination answers. Many students made the mistake of writing too much but totally straying off the point. Thus, they may think that why they wrote so much but in the end scored so badly?
The trick is to read the question carefully, understand and focus on what the examiner is looking for, then answer accordingly. Structure your essay in such a way that it is well-organised and easy to read.
I know, easier said than done, especially during examination times. But I believe if the material is at the back of your hand, answering the question and writing the essay becomes so much easier. One only need to read the question and everything starts flowing. At least that was what I had experienced everytime when I needed to take examinations.
Answering examination questions also needed lots of time management. Answering three questions in a three-hour examination is not the easiest thing in the world, but instead of spending so long and scoring perfect grades for one question, but in the end skimmed through and did badly for the other questions simply because you have run out of time, it is better to just set aside a time limit for each question and then stick to it.
Better to score above average for all questions, then at least the overall grade is above average too, rather than so well on one question and so badly on the rest, pulling the overall grade down to below average.
Other things like self-discipline, time-management and not to achieve perfection all the time were also covered. The first two are self-explanatory, but the speaker said that since we are all working and studying and some of us have a young family as well, it is impossible to do everything so well.
Thus we should not be "super" by expecting all things to be perfect, but rather, just try our best and be happy with what we have. Makes a lot of sense, but on the other hand, some people will think what is the use of doing things if they do not seek perfection?
Overall, it is a pretty useful session, as it reinforces the things I have done before, plus a few more. It makes me feel a bit less stressed at least, knowing that I am not alone in this journey. Wonder how the next two seminars will go.
After the workshop, K invited me to his place to watch the DVD of "Memoirs Of A Geisha". My first movie of the year! Where the book is more tragic, the movie itself has a happier ending. The show did not give my friend good vibes as he said that it is "torturous" to hear non-native speakers speaking English.
Casting wise, not all of them are miscasted. Gong Li outshone herself as the bitch, Zhang Ziyi's Sayuri is strong and perseverant, exactly like the Sayuri in the book. Michelle Yeoh as the other geisha is a little odd though. Even though she acted well, but the role should be given to someone younger and more able to bring the character to life.
The show did justice to the book at least, but it paled in comparison to the book, as where the book has more drama, ie more intense bitching, backstabbing, cruelty and abuse, and the sad ending, the movie just skimmed through the main parts.
It is an easy to understand movie for someone who has not read the book, but for those who have, will feel that the movie has not reached their expectations.
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