A four-step method
This method is based on self-knowledge, reflection, diagnosis and decision-making that leads to action.
It is aimed at students of university degrees, Bachiller, VET Superior Degrees, and Public examinations.
These are the four aspects on which we are going to work:
- You and your conditions.
- Your motivation and your goals.
- Your strategies to face the study.
- Your self-assessment and your way of facing the results.
We start from the result Study Techniques Sup Test that will tell you what your current level is and what you should change if you want to improve your performance.
Let’s see the four steps:
STEP 1: YOU AND YOUR CONDITIONS
In the first place, it is essential that you know yourself thoroughly, that you know how you are as a student in aspects as relevant as:
- Your personal, health, family, economic circumstances… at the moment facing the studies can be very varied and have great relevance. You must take them into account since they are sometimes decisive.
- Your capacity for effort, perseverance and discipline…, are essential for certain types of studies, especially for Bachiller and University. Also, they are the basis for facing Oppositions.
- Your health habits: sleep, food, substance use… Our body needs to be in healthy conditions to perform at its best. It is important to take care of food, sleep the necessary hours and avoid the problematic consumption of substances such as alcohol or cannabis.
- Your intellectual skills, your previous training, your abilities… It is good to know your own abilities, to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. Intellectual skills are important, but they are not enough by themselves, they need to be complemented by the capacity for effort and perseverance.
STEP 2: YOUR MOTIVATION AND GOALS
Secondly, we propose you to reflect on your motivation and your interests. It is important that you know:
- If your motivation to pursue these studies is clear and is something you want.
- If you are really interested.
- If they are a priority for you over other activities or they are not.
- If you set goals to achieve or wait to “see what happens.”
- If you are, in the end, where you want to be.
STEP 3: YOUR STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH THE STUDY
Third, we advise you to review the strategies you use. In some cases, they are quite decisive. Especially:
- The leverage of classes.
- The organization and planning of study time. In university studies, it is essential to follow good planning to avoid reaching exam weeks with all the accumulated subject pending review.
- The planning of group work, tasks, presentations, projects… The proper use of the agenda becomes mandatory to meet deadlines.
- The study daily and in-depth. Keeping subjects up to date is the best option when you want to get high marks. It allows you to prepare the exams well, ask for help when needed and have control of the quality of the study.
STEP 4: YOUR SELF-ASSESSMENT AND HOW YOU DEAL WITH THE RESULTS
Fourth, it would be good to consider how you manage your results, how you evaluate yourself and what actions you take accordingly:
- Evaluating your results and the process by which you have obtained them.
- Facing the positive and negative consequences of those results.
- Acting to modify what is necessary to improve them.