From the Principal 

With everything else that happens in a busy school it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that learning is the reason that we are here together. Next week students in Years 7-11 in the Senior School will sit exams to test themselves and the knowledge and skills they have developed and consolidated this year. In assembly last week I spoke about the study techniques that work for me and are considered effective, based on the way we learn and retain information. To help students make the most of their study time over the next week, below are those tips again:

Learning is about transforming information so that it is retrievable on call, so you have to modify and use the information you are trying to remember, not just re-read it. So:

• Don’t just highlight your notes
• Don’t just re-read your notes
• Don’t only use mnemonics.

Instead:

• Re-write your notes into topics and sub-topics with dot points under each
• Create a hierarchy, by ordering these sub-topics by level of importance 
• Use ‘Elaborative Interrogation’ – which is to ask questions of your notes. Leave a space where you can add questions or comments about each dot-point as you re-read them
• Write out your notes so that the topic could be explained to a five year-old, a ten year-old, and a 15 year-old. This helps to get to the heart of the most important information to remember.

Lastly, a broad organising principle for study is to use ‘spaced practice’ – don’t just study English for a day, for example. Do some PE, then some Science, then some English, then some Maths. This forces you to try harder to remember what you were studying last time, which in turn helps you to remember that same information.

Good luck to all students for exams next week.