Effective Study

Welcome

Studying with success and fun

Switzerland
What comes into your mind?
 Watches Chees Chocolates

Money-Banks Mountains Cow-Bells

Switzerland-
where is it?
Switzerland
Europe

Swiss-Flag
 Switzerland started 1291
Three men making a covernant.
They promised to help each other and trust in GOD.
It is a miracle, that this small country still exist.
 Greetings from Switzerland

René Niederhauser

eremite Professor
Electrical Engineering
Content of Seminar:
Taking Notes

80% - 20 % Rule
Setting Priorities and Time Management

The Performance Curve

The Learning Process

Exam Preparation

Exam Anxiety

Motivation
What is the most difficult thing for
you in studying?

Concentration?
Memorization?
Stress?
Organisation?
Motivation?
.......... ?

Discuss in pairs
Taking Notes
 No script

 Study aid

 Follows the train of thoughts

 Concentrated information
(key-words)

 20 % of relevant facts
 Date 22. 01 2018 Subject Effective Study page number.
Rene N.

20 % of relevant facts
Terms
Signs

Titles
Def. Definition
!! Teacher mentioned it as important
Questions
 I think this is important
!? I do not agree
Reference
? I do not understand

Literature information
 Ask good questions

 Questions for Clarification

 Questions for Application
 Connection between different subjects?
Exercise:

Take notes of this lecture

Remember:
- Just the most importend thoughts
- Short form writing (Key-words)
- Visualize ideas (use Pictures and Drawings)
 Mind maping
Rules:
• Write the theme in the middle
(Text, Picture)
e.g. Switzerland
• Main branches round the theme
(not more the 7 branches)
e.g. Cities, Counties, Goverment
• Add branches to the main branches
(Text, Pictures)
e.g. to Cities: Bern, Basel, Geneva

From the general to the details

Subjects for mind maping
Example: Mind Mapping
Pareto-Principle

The „80 - 20 Rule“

20% of the effort effects

80% of the biggest possible effect.

Vilfredo Pareto, Italien Economist and Soziologist

 20%
of the results
80%
of your
dedicated
Negligible = time
many situations
80%
or problems of the results

20%
of your time

Essential =
few situations or problems The 80%-20% Rule
80 – 20 Rule for Studying

80 % of the benefits from studying

can be derived from doing the most importend
20 % of the activities well.

What is Essential?
Setting priorities and
Time Management
How do I use my time at this
moment in the most effective way?
Difficulte things first!
 important

I II
urgent not urgent

III IV

not important
URGENT: means something requiers our immediate attention. NOW!

IMPORTANT: something that brings us closer to achive long-term goals.

1. Priority 2. Priority
- Let shrink quickly important - Spend time every day
- Take care early enough - Do not postpone

I II
urgent not urgent
3. Priority 4. Priority
- Refuse III IV - Neglect totally
- Delegate - Set time limit
- Postpone to the
appropriate moment
not important
Quadrant 2 is the core of every effective person
 Examples
- Exam in 8 weeks time
- Deadline for registration
- Long term projects
- Neglected to gather literature important - Maintaining relationships
- Deadline for important report
- Regular sport activities

I II

urgent not urgent

III IV
- Phone calls from friends - Watching talkshows
- Doing things that are not your job - Looking through
newspapers
not important
 Your own current situation?
- List down some of your planned activities for the next 5 days

- Put them in the 4 Quadrants

- Which activity do you do first?

- How much time do you spend in each Quadrant?

- Which things do you delegate, postphone or set a time limit?

For a well-balanced life,

integrate the tasks from Quadrant 2 into your daily life!
 Your current situation:

important

urgent not urgent

not important
Planning = Saving time

8 minutes more for planing

60 minutes saving
Necessary time

Planing Execution

Planing Execution

Total of time shorter and less errors

Time Stealers
Observe yourself!

How much time do you spend

on…
• … TV
• … internet
• … computer / computer games
• … friends
• … studies
• …
Exercise:
Identify your personal time stealers

List the things you have to do during a day

• What are the things you can leave out?
• What are the things you can do later?
• What are the things you would really like to do?

 Arrange these things in a ideal way

on your personal day planing
 Can you combine your tasks with fun?
 Summary
• What is your goal, on which you want to
spend your time?

• Set priorities by saying „No“

• Be aware of your personal time stealers

• Use the time you have consciously

Performance Curve
 Output Curve
Output

Day-Time
 awake Evening Sleeper
sleep
 Morning sleeper
awake
sleep
 Time-Planing
Lectures & Labs
Evening Sleeper Learning & Revision
Social, Chores, Relax
awake
sleep
 Morning or
Evening Sleeper?
At which time of the day ....

• do I have the most / least energy?

• am I in the best / worst mood?

• is my ability of concentration the best / worst?

 Draw your performance curve:
awake
sleep

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 2 4 6
The learning process
The two hemisphere of the brain

Key

logical creative
judging intuitive
critical Key music
analytical symbols
read, write pictures
numbers emotions

Left side Right side

 How much remains?
Memory retention over the same time

10 % 20 % 50 % 80 %

Listening Seeing Listening + Listening +

Seeing
Seeing +
Doing
 Impulse, Information How new informations
become active knowledge
Sense, Organ

~ 20 sec Ultra-short-time-memory

~ 20 min Short-time-memory

Hours/days Long-time-memory

Recall Active knowledge

No recall

Passive knowledge

Reducede into subconcious associations

Memory Strategies
Repetition Rules

Ultra-short-memory  short-time-memory
1 st repetition after approx 15 minutes

Short-time-memory  long-time-memory

1 st repetition within 24 hourd

At least further 6 repetitions in larger intervals
Difficult materials needs 20 to 40 repetitions
Studying for one hour

Studying material once is not very Effective

 Repetition is better then stuffing information

day
day day day

Study 30 Study 15 Check 15 Check 15

minutes minutes minutes minutes

Repeat the material you want to learn regularely

Learn in the evening, repeat in the morning
 Information
The effect of learning

In general:
Less information – more processing / reflections
Memory technics
Information is best be „filed“ if:

1. It can be associated with previous informations

2. If it can be linked to pictures. Visual help

(Link left to right brain hemisphere)
One gets better results with a net than
with a single line
 Hallo Mr Sealmiller

Make your own associations while learning names

Example for memorisation

Architecture
Internet
Dicionary
Politics
Travel
Philosophy
Culture
Music
Agriculture
Congratulation
Write the list down

How many words did you remember?

The body list

• Feet
• Knee
• Pocket
• Back
• Hips
• Chest
• Shoulder
• Neck
• Face
• Hair

Repeat the bodylist twice

 Example for memorisation
The body list: Picture link
• Feet Architecture walking round
• Knee Internet between
• Pocket Dicionary in the pocket

• Back Politics dirty

• Hips Travel going round

• Chest Philosophy proud
• Shoulder Culture heavy
• Neck Music singing

• Face Agriculture to eat

• Hair Congratulation I am top

Connect the bodylist with the words

and repeat twice
 Just a change

16

8
30 19 36
14

17 24
48
11 14

22

Fill in the missing numbers!

Write the memorized words down

Architecture
Internet
Dicionary
Politics
Travel
Philosophy
Culture
Music
Agriculture
Congratulation

How many words did you remember?

The fight against forgetting

 semantic arrangement
logical structure, from head to feet

 repeating aloud
in your own words, not just murmur

 visual help
pictures, actions, connections to existing things
Four steps in learning by heart

 Collect the study material you have to learn

 Understand

 Summarize

 Memorize
 Examine
• Active repetition of
the most important points
 Barriers
• Time pressure

• Unrealistic expectation of the method

 Stresskurve
Stress Curve Arbeits-
Intensity
intensität
of work

Stress
Stress

Vorbereitungs-
Start
beginn
preparation regelmässiges
Regular work Arbeiten

8 weeks
Wochen 4 Wochen
4 weeks Prüfung
Exame Zeit
Time
 Process in preparing exams
• Get information about
the character of the exam

• Information paper
– Upperclass students and assistants
– Old exams

• Check concerning learning groups

 Learning together
– Size of a group
• Teams of two:
– Control and compare solutions, translations,
testing each other etc.
– Different solutions, discuss problems
– Do exercises together (Examinator<-> Student)

• Groups of three, four or five

– Collect ideas
– Look for creative solutions and exampels…
– Discuss theses
 Important with
common study times
• Set targets
• Looking for suitable places
• Fix your time-frame
• Create your common study table
• Discuss progress
• Everyone prepares carefully
– Work your chapters out on your own
– Clear questions, insecurities, critical points,
write down own examples and thoughts
– Possible questions concerning the exam?
Suitable working-conditions
Avoide interruptions
Enough light
Fresh air
Make consciously breaks
How does your working
place look like?
Clear out!
How does your filing-system look like?

 Your Bookshelf?
 Your Computer?
 Your Drawers?
Your Book-Shelf

Take out – Put back

 Your Computer?
 File name on Harddisk corresponds to name of hanger

 Save every document immediatelly in the right sub-file

 Erase every not used document

 Save every document only once

 Each file has maximum 10 sub-files

 Each document has a date

Your Drawer?
Disturbence and ability

Disturbances:
• Phone call
ability

• Thought
• Visitor
• ..........

time
disturbances

Disturbances reduces ability

The saw-blade-effect

ability

time

disturbances

No disturbances, but planed breaks

 Make a To-Do-List

 Write on a list everything that comes into your mind

in the middle of an activity and should not be forgotten

 Do it later

A thougt should not interrupt your current doing

 Breaks
• Thought breaks (20 - 30 seconds)
Every 5 minutes: Short respiring
Fix your eys shortly on samething else.

• Minibreaks (3 - 5 minutes)
Every 30 minutes, stand up from your working place

• Short breaks (app. 15 minutes)

Every 2 hours you must leave your working place.
Do something else.

• Recovering break (app. 1 - 2 hours)

Every 3 – 4 hours. Best would be you combine it with lunch time
or sports (reward?! )
Four Categories of Recovering
To calm down
To listen to music
To walk
To pray and meditate
Get energie
 Sport of endurance
 stretching

Doing something inspiring

Attending events
To eat
To lead discussions
Relaxing activities
Sports
Writing letters
How often changing the subject?
 Depends on the amont of material und
degree of difficulty

 Finish a theme before changing subject

 Repeat in the morning the material of the day before

 Consider the bath-tube-effect

 The „Bath-Tub-Effect“
Energieaufwand
Energy input

Break
Zeit
time
1h 2h

Change the subject after 1-2 hour. Make a short break

e.g. from Math to Language (Left to right part of brain)
 Hints for written exams
• Read all questions first
• Plan your success:
– Fix your order of answering questions
„Easy“ questions first (Motivation!)
– Take notes of each question
What comes into your mind spontanously?
– Calculate your spare time of answering questions
• Read carefully!
What is realy asked?

Arrive in time and fully rested

 Oral exams
• Study mainly what your Professor mentioned in the
respective lectures as important

• Talk to your examinator if you don’t understand

something. Ask questions

• Consider and develop solutions aloud

• Direct your answers to areas you know

• If you don‘t know an answer, answer something simular

• Show enthusiasm
Exam Anxiety
 Be Prepared!
• Good Time Management

• Good Information about Exams

• Good Life Balance (sleep, food, sports, free time…)

 Think Positive!

• About your identity

Don‘t say: I will fail anyway.
Say: The exam will be hard, but I will do my very best.
My value as a person does not depend on this Exam

• About People around you

Do you have somebody to talk about your situation?
Spend time with people that can encourage you.

It is normal to have exam anxiety

Never give up!
 Motivation

Beeing motivated means having a goal

 External Motivation
Something from the outside motivates us
- Exames
- A reward for a good report
- Parents or friends

Internal Motivation
Something from the inside motivates us
- The material is very interesting
- The tutor is very amusing
- The subject is important for my life (e.g. language)

Often motivation on the material rises while working

Rules of Motivation
1. Set mini-goals to reach the major goal
To reach mini-goals means continous success.
Reward yourself by taking a break, go
shopping.
2. Meet others with simular interests
To help each other will motivate.
To share success and failure motivates.
3. Take risk
Mistakes are normal.
Learn from mistakes.
Be patient with yourself.
What are the goals of your life?
- In your profession
- Your family
- Your personal life

What do you have to do in the coming years

to reach your goals?

Write it down for yourself !

 GOAL

Keep focused on
your goal !
What do you see?
200 grams or 3 tons of Apple?

200 grams per apple

10 seeds per apple
10 trees after 10 years
300 kilograms per tree
3 tons after 10 years

All you need is a vision

What is your vision for your life?

What is your responsibility
for your country?

Discuss in pairs !
 My goals of my life
I want to deepen my relationship with God
and towards my fellow-men.
I want to enhance the potential in lives
of others and help them to live it.
Teaching at ITI
(Industrial Training Institute)
Polytech University Kabul
Orphans in Rwanda
Playground in Rwanda
Bakery-Training
in Rwanda
YOU will be future Leaders
of INDIA
 Traditional leadership

Leader

Leadership Team

Management

Worker

Customer / Citizen

Leaders are corrupt, privileged, supressors

Jesus Christ said:
Whoever desires to be great among you,
let him be your servent.
And whoever desires to be chief among you,
let him be your servent.
The son of man (Jesus) did not come to be served
but to serve.
Matthew 20,26+27

How can this be achieved?

Leaders become Servants
Customer / Citizen

Worker

Management

Leadership Team

Leader

Take Jesus Christ as example

and follow His teaching.
Every jouney begins
with a first step!
 If you have any questions,
come forward after the meeting
and talk to us.

We will be pleased to meet you!

Reward yourself
• coffee breaks

• free time to meet friends