Life-Ready Society · Teacher and parent pack · Intellectual dimension

Study Skills and Learning How to Learn

Evidence-based revision, note-taking, planning and exam technique.

8 lessons, about 1.6 hours of reading. Free lessons, videos and full sources: https://lifereadysociety.com/study-skills/

How to use this pack. Ask your teen or class to read one lesson online (about ten minutes), talk through the key points together, choose one practice task to try this week, then use the quiz to check what stuck. The answer key is on the last page. Free to print for home and classroom use.

The lessons at a glance

1. How memory works (and why you forget)

Most students study in ways that feel productive but do not stick. Once you understand how memories are built, stored and pulled back out, you can study for less time and remember more on exam day.

Key points

Memory has three stages: encoding, storage and retrieval.
Working memory is small, so chunk and organise information.
Forgetting is fastest soon after learning; reviews slow it down.
Sleep after learning helps lock memories in; all-nighters undo your work.
Rereading and highlighting feel productive but are low-value on their own.

2. Retrieval practice and spaced practice

If you only change two things about how you study, make it these two. A landmark review of learning research rated testing yourself and spreading your study over time as the most useful techniques it examined.

Key points

Testing yourself and spacing your study were the two high-utility techniques in the 2013 review.
Retrieve first, then check your notes to fix gaps.
Short, spread-out sessions beat one long cram.
Effortful study is often the effective kind.
Classroom evidence is still growing, so stay curious and practical.

3. Interleaving, elaboration, examples and dual coding

Once retrieval and spacing are part of your routine, four more strategies can deepen your understanding: mixing problem types, asking how and why, using several examples, and pairing words with visuals.

Key points

Mixing problem types trains you to choose the right method.
Asking how and why builds connections and understanding.
Several varied examples reveal the principle behind them.
Words plus visuals beat words alone; 'learning styles' matching does not help.
These strategies work best on top of retrieval and spacing.

4. Taking good notes

Notes are not the goal; remembering and using the material is. Good notes capture the key ideas clearly and are built to test yourself on later.

Key points

Capture main ideas, not every word.
Cornell notes build in questions, a summary and self-testing.
The handwriting versus typing evidence is mixed; note quality matters more.
Avoid verbatim transcripts and digital distractions.
Review notes soon after class and test yourself on them.

5. Planning your time

A plan turns 'I should study more' into specific blocks you can actually keep. The aim is not to fill every hour, but to protect time for what matters and stop deadlines sneaking up on you.

Key points

Map your real week before planning study.
Schedule important but not urgent work, or it will not happen.
Plan backwards from deadlines with built-in buffer time.
Pomodoro may reduce fatigue, but evidence it improves learning is limited.
Include rest in your plan so you can stick to it.

6. Beating procrastination

Procrastination is not laziness. Researchers increasingly see it as a way of avoiding uncomfortable feelings about a task. Understanding that makes it much easier to fix.

Key points

Procrastination is mainly about avoiding feelings, not poor time management.
Chronic procrastination is linked to more stress and poorer health habits.
Shrink the first step until it feels easy, then start.
If-then plans and removing distractions beat willpower.
Self-forgiveness helps you start again; self-blame keeps you stuck.

7. Exam technique

Knowing the content is only half of it. Reading questions precisely, managing time and staying steady on the day can make the difference between the grade you deserve and the one you get.

Key points

Timed past papers and mark schemes show you what examiners want.
The command word tells you what kind of answer to give.
Budget roughly one minute per mark and move on when stuck.
Show working and plan longer answers.
Prepare the day before, breathe, and let each exam go once it is over.

8. Independent study at university

University asks you to take charge of your own learning: fewer hours in class, more reading, and clear rules on using other people's ideas. Knowing what to expect makes the first term much smoother.

Key points

University means fewer contact hours and more independent study.
Prepare for seminars: discussion depends on doing the reading.
Reading lists are a starting point, and smart reading is selective.
Record source details as you go, and reference as you write.
Plagiarism can be unintentional; learn the rules and check AI policies for every assessment.

Talk about it, then try it

The real-life practice tasks from each lesson. Pick one or two a week and agree when you will check in.

How memory works (and why you forget)
- Tonight, read one page of a textbook once. Close it and write down everything you remember. Check what you missed. That gap is the difference between recognising and recalling.
- Pick a list you must learn (formulas, Arabic or French vocabulary, dates) and regroup it into chunks of 3 to 5 linked items.
- For one week, protect your sleep the night after a big learning day and notice how much you recall the next morning.
Retrieval practice and spaced practice
- Write 10 quiz questions from today's lessons. Answer them tomorrow without notes, then mark yourself.
- Plan a two-week spaced schedule for one exam topic: at least four short sessions, each starting with a brain dump.
- Swap one rereading session this week for a past-paper question answered closed-book, then checked against the mark scheme.
Interleaving, elaboration, examples and dual coding
- Make a mixed practice sheet of 10 questions from three related topics you are studying and do it without knowing which topic each comes from.
- Choose one difficult concept and draw it as a labelled diagram or flowchart, then explain it aloud to a family member.
- Write two different real-life examples of one abstract idea from your subject, and one sentence explaining what they share.
Taking good notes
- Set up one Cornell page for your next lesson, then fill in the cue column and summary the same evening.
- Take notes on a 10-minute educational video, half by hand and half typed. Two days later, test yourself on both halves and compare.
- Turn last week's notes in one subject into 10 cue questions and answer them without looking.
Planning your time
- Draw your week from Sunday to Saturday with every fixed commitment, then add four study blocks of 30 to 50 minutes.
- List your tasks for the next two weeks and sort them into the four urgent and important boxes.
- Try three Pomodoro rounds on one task and write down whether it helped you start and focus.
Beating procrastination
- Pick the task you are avoiding most. Write the very next physical action (for example, 'open the document and write the title') and do only that for two minutes.
- Write three if-then plans for study sessions this week, including when, where and what happens to your phone.
- Ask a friend to be your accountability buddy for one week, with a quick daily check-in message.
Exam technique
- Download the command word list for one of your subjects and write a one-line meaning for each in your own words.
- Sit one full past paper under timed conditions this week, then mark it with the mark scheme and list your three most common mistakes.
- Practise the NHS 4-2-7 breathing exercise once a day for a week, so it feels familiar on exam day.
Independent study at university
- Find a module page or reading list from a university course you are interested in and note how it is structured.
- Practise referencing: write a Harvard in-text citation and reference list entry for one book you own.
- Take a paragraph from a textbook, paraphrase it properly in your own words, and add a citation. Compare it with the original to check it is not too close.

Quiz

Name: ______________________ Date: ____________ Circle one answer for each question.

1. What are the three stages of memory?

Reading, highlighting and rereading
Attention, motivation and reward
Listening, writing and speaking
Encoding, storage and retrieval

2. What did Murre and Dros find when they repeated Ebbinghaus's forgetting-curve experiment in 2015?

Their results were similar to the original, so the curve held up
Forgetting happened at a steady, even rate on every single day
The original curve was wrong, because memory improves over time
People forgot almost nothing at all during the first full week

3. Which two techniques received a high utility rating in the 2013 Dunlosky review?

Practice testing and distributed practice
Highlighting and rereading your notes
Summarisation and keyword mnemonics
Imagery for text and rereading notes

4. Which of these is an example of retrieval practice?

Highlighting all the key words in a textbook chapter
Copying your class notes out neatly into a new notebook
Rereading your notes three times the night before a test
Writing all you remember about a topic on a blank page

5. What is interleaving?

Mixing different topics or problem types in one session
Studying with quiet music playing in the background
Switching between social media and homework every minute
Studying one topic until it is perfect before moving on

6. What usually happens when you start interleaving your practice?

You make fewer mistakes at first, but forget faster
You make no mistakes at all from the very first session
It only helps if you start it on the day of the exam
You make more mistakes at first, but remember longer

7. In the Cornell system, what goes in the left-hand cue column?

A word-for-word copy of the textbook chapter
Doodles and sketches to help keep you awake
Questions or key words that your notes answer
Your weekly timetable and homework deadlines

8. What did the 2019 Morehead, Dunlosky and Rawson replication find about handwritten versus typed notes on a test two days later?

Handwriting doubled scores
Typing doubled scores
Students who took no notes failed
Note-taking method had no effect

9. According to the University of Southampton, which type of task is easiest to neglect and should be deliberately scheduled?

Tasks that are neither urgent nor important
Urgent and important tasks
Tasks that are already finished
Important but not urgent tasks

10. What is the usual Pomodoro pattern?

One hour of work, then sleep
Two hours of work with no breaks
5 minutes of work, then a 25-minute break
25 minutes of work, then a 5-minute break

11. How does psychologist Tim Pychyl describe procrastination?

Something only teenagers ever experience
A problem of managing emotions, not time
Simple laziness that discipline can fix
A sign of low intelligence or ability

12. What is an implementation intention?

A list of all your subjects in order of difficulty
A type of exam question that asks you to plan an essay
A general promise to yourself to study harder someday
An if-then plan saying when and where you will act

13. According to AQA's definitions, what does the command word 'evaluate' ask you to do?

Name or state something briefly
Set out the characteristics only
Judge from available evidence
Copy out the key words in the question

14. What breathing exercise does the NHS suggest if you feel overwhelmed in an exam?

In through the nose for 4, hold for 2, out for 7
Breathe in for 10 counts and out for 1 count
Breathe as fast as you can for one whole minute
Hold your breath for as long as you possibly can

15. How does the University of Oxford define plagiarism?

Only copying an entire essay word for word, without changing anything at all
Discussing the ideas for an essay with classmates before you write it alone
Presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without consent
Quoting a source in quotation marks and giving a full citation for it

16. In Harvard referencing, what does a direct quotation need in the in-text citation that a paraphrase does not?

The publisher's address
The author's first name
A page number
The price of the book

Answer key

D: Federation University's memory helpsheet describes memory in three stages: encoding, storage and retrieval.
A: PLOS ONE (Murre and Dros, 2015): the results were similar to Ebbinghaus's data, and the curve was replicated, with a possible upward jump at 24 hours.
A: Dunlosky et al. (2013): practice testing and distributed practice were the only techniques rated high utility.
D: The Learning Scientists and RetrievalPractice.org: writing out what you remember from a blank page is retrieval practice; rereading and copying are not.
A: The Learning Scientists: interleaving means switching between different topics or problem types rather than repeating one type.
D: The Learning Scientists: interleaving typically causes more errors during practice, but knowledge is retained longer.
C: Cornell note-taking system (University of Manitoba, from Cornell's Learning Strategies Center): write questions in the cue column soon after class.
D: The Learning Scientists: in the replication, note-taking method had no effect on a test two days later.
D: University of Southampton: important but not urgent tasks, such as ongoing work like writing up lecture notes, are easy to neglect, so schedule them.
D: University of Southampton and Wikipedia: 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break.
B: Carleton University (Tim Pychyl): procrastination is a problem of managing emotions, not time.
D: University of Bath: implementation intentions are if-then plans that name when and where you will act.
C: AQA command words: evaluate means 'judge from available evidence'.
A: NHS, Tips on preparing for exams: breathe in through your nose for 4 counts, hold for 2, and breathe out for 7.
C: University of Oxford: plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, and it can be unintentional.
C: Liverpool Hope University: quotations need author, year and page number; paraphrases need author and year.

General information only, written from the sources listed in each online lesson. Laws, numbers and services change, so check official sources. Life-Ready Society, https://lifereadysociety.com/study-skills/