Revision tips and memory techniques

Revision tips

Exams are fast approaching and lots of students are finishing off their coursework and starting to revise everything they’ve learned during their course.

We’ve been searching for some tips for you on the internet. Take a look at this short BBC Newsbeat video.

The BBC also have lots more resources at http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zw8qpbk with links to advice on the National Citizen Service website too.

If you are prone to worrying about your exams, the BBC published an article earlier this week : Exam Stress: a revision guide for the anxious which might be helpful.

Memory Techniques

More generally, a lot of us would like to know how to remember things better whether it's remembering someone's name, reminding ourselves to do something or memorising information for an exam. 

In 2105 The Daily Telegraph published an article Nine tips to improve your memory which also has a quiz to test how good your memory is. You may want to have a go.

BBC Radio 4 has an old archived page on improving your memory which includes tips such as 

• Break things down in to chunks
• Space out your learning (don't try to cram it all in at the last minute)
• Write it down
• Use imagery to associate something you are learning with a visual image
• Assign meaning to something (great for numbers eg remember the numbers 1945 by thinking about the last year of the 2nd World War).
• Learn it right the first time (so focus when you are learning).

For those of you interested in more information on how the memory works and further techniques to improve it, we have books in the library by Tony Buzan, for example, who is an expert in memory techniques. The books are found around 153.1.

You may also want to listen to this Tedtalk by Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do.

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health Awareness Week

According to a survey published this week by the Mental Health Foundation, 2 in 3 of us will face mental health problems in our lifetime. Mental Health Awareness week is a time to promote awareness about mental health and remove any stigma and stereotypes to encourage people to talk about it.

One thing this week highlights is that whether you have good or bad mental health, you need to look after yourself.

10 ways to look after your mental health

1. Talk about your feelings
2. Keep active
3. Eat well
4. Take a break
5. Drink sensibly
6. Keep in touch
7. Do something you’re good at
8. Accept who you are
9. Ask for help
10. Care for others

Mindfulness

What is mindfulness?

According to the Mental Health Foundation website Mindfulness is “a way of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing and yoga. It helps us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings so that, instead of being overwhelmed by them, we’re better able to manage them.”

Mindfulness can be a really helpful tool to make us sit back and realise what it is we are feeling, whether it is exam stress, worry, sadness etc  and when doing so not to judge what we are feeling but to just be aware.

Meditation can be a great way of doing this and there are apps that you can download to help-

•           Headspace- this is a subscription app but it offers a 10 day free trial called take 10
•           Smiling Mind- Smiling Mind is a free mindfulness meditation app for young people to help combat stress, improve focus and increase resilience.

You might also find this website useful : http://mindfulnessforstudents.co.uk/

     

                             

Image CC BY-SA 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/repairgenius/7258035052

Other helpful websites-

https://www.mind.org.uk/

http://www.cpslmind.org.uk/

https://www.rethink.org/

Information for this blog was taken from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/ For more information please visit this website.

                             

      

Be safe online! - the rise of fake celebrity social media accounts

Fake Social Media Accounts

Police are becoming increasingly concerned that people are setting up fake social media accounts and using them to talk to children and young people inappropriately (i.e. for grooming, extortion, etc). This is particularly happening through increasingly popular social media apps such as Musical.ly

For more information see this report from the BBC:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-39670673

The following podcast (particularly the first section) also goes into more details and is useful for anyone studying or involved with safeguarding children or young people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04zvqsq

The companies which own these social media platforms are under increasing pressure to do more to stop this sort of activity (along with other content linked to criminal activity), but the best thing to do is to be on your guard and always do what you can to check who is contacting you.

Public domain image of social media apps from www.pixabay.com

How can I know whether a social media account is genuine?

Facebook and Twitter use a blue badge to verify accounts belonging to celebrities. Facebook also use a gray badge for organisations. However, these accounts are often targets for hacking too so be very suspicious if one of them messages you directly (most will not).

To find a genuine account, you could go to the official website for that artist, for example, and from there you should be able to see links to their twitter feed or Instagram account.

New guidelines by the Crown Prosecution Service. 

New guidelines (as reported in the Daily Telegraph) are being prepared which could make creating fake social media accounts a criminal offence where these are used for revenge or to cause harassment, for example. Therefore, everyone needs to be aware of their behaviour online.

Is what you are planning to publish online harmful to someone else (whether you think they deserve it or not)?

Would you like the same done to you? - and how would it make you feel?

The College does not tolerate  bullying of any kind and students experiencing anything like this can speak to a Safeguarding Officer, their tutor or indeed any member of staff about this if it is happening to them.

Ed Sheeran and Plagiarism

Ed Sheeran and Plagiarism

Earlier this month it was reported in the news that Ed Sheeran was being sued for over 20 million dollars for copying an existing song (Amazing) and using parts of it in his song Photograph. 

Plagiarism

Using someone's work without gaining their permission to do so or giving credit to them is a serious and expensive business and the principle behind it applies to your academic work too. As you move forward in your studies, failure to credit your sources of information can result in disciplinary action. Most Universities (including UCP) require students to submit their work through a software program which checks whether it is their own work or copied from somewhere else (from the internet, for example).

When you are learning and writing assignments, you are of course expected to read and quote other people's work. This is part of the learning process. However if you do not give credit by citing and referencing the works you've read and used in your work, you will be committing plagiarism. Including references at the end of your work, even at College, can also earn you extra marks.

Learn about plagiarism and referencing

To help you understand and apply this correctly, Library+ has created an online learning activity which can be accessed from our Library 24/7 page on Moodle. The activity is made up of 4 parts:

1) Plagiarism

2) Referencing

3) Plagiarism quiz

4) Referencing quiz

The quizzes are intended to test your knowledge having completed the corresponding learning activities first

. 

Lecturers can also ask Library+ for some code which will put a button on their course page to link to the resource. They can then see their students' test scores, if they need or want to.

For more information, please ask in Library+.

So why not have a go - either to learn from scratch or to remind yourself how to reference. The resource is new so if you have any comments on how it can be improved, then please also let Library+ know.

Proofreading

Proofreading

At this time of year, we receive quite a few enquiries from UCP students wanting someone to proofread their work. The College or UCP will not do this for you but you can get advice from a Specialist Support tutor (they are based in room 31b) and there is information to help you on the ARU website. See their guide to proofreading here.

For all students, it is a good idea to check your work before handing it in. It can boost your marks up to 10%. 

What is proofreading and how do you do it?

Proofreading is checking your work and making sure it is the best it can be before you hand it in. It involves making sure it can be understood as well as structure, spelling, grammar and referencing.

CC0 image from www.pixabay.com

Proofreading tips

Here are a few pointers which I’ve taken from ARU’s guide.

·         Wait a few days after writing your assignment/ essay/ dissertation before reading it through (otherwise you are more likely to miss mistakes).

·         Look at it in a different format (e.g. why not print it out?)

·         Read it differently – read it aloud (or ask a  friend to), read it slowly or by starting from the last paragraph.

·         Pretend to be your reader – someone who has never read it before and needs to understand it. A marker will be looking for mistakes.

·         Concentrate and focus - block out outside noises and disturbances.

What should you be looking for?

• Have you said what you mean? Does it make sense?
• Have you said it concisely – or have you rambled on?  (Rewrite it if it doesn't read well).
• Have you written consistently in the right tense?
• Does each paragraph just explore one idea?
• Have you mistakenly used slang?
• Is your grammar correct? (including punctuation)
• Are there words missing? Is there correct spacing between words?
• Is your spelling correct? (Don’t just rely on your online spellchecker)
• Have you cited and referenced all your resources?
• Have you kept within the word count?

Other proofreading guides and help

For a simple introduction try BBC Skillswise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/editing-and-proofreading

Hull University has a guide http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/PDF/Proofreading.pdf which also contains links to other sites.

If you want to have a go at some exercises, then you may find  http://www.uefap.com/accuracy/accfram.htm useful. There are practice activities on punctuation and grammar which anyone may find useful.

Easter baking and finding recipes that work!

Happy Easter!

Easter is one of those times of the year when people like to bake. It can be very relaxing and you know which ingredients have gone into your creations.

CC0 Photo from www.pixabay.com

Finding trustworthy recipes which work and have UK measurements

If you want to learn how to make some Easter cakes and bakes, how do you know which recipes to trust?

Instead of just searching using Google which will bring up all sorts of websites, try these tips:

• Search for a famous chef’s website and then search for a recipe (e.g. Nigella, Jamie Oliver)
• Most supermarket websites have recipe databases.
• Well-known magazines often have recipe sections where the recipes have been tried and tested (e.g. BBC Good Food, Good Housekeeping).
• Brands of ingredients (eg Stork, Allinsons, Whitworths, Philadelphia – other brands available) often provide a collection of recipes to promote their products.
• Some food items have associations or boards which support those who work within the industry but also help promote the products to the public. E.g www.seafish.org supports the fishing industry but also has its own recipe site for fish http://www.seafish.org/eating-seafood/fish-is-the-dish
• Instead of searching online, why not use a book. We have a collection of recipe books to support our Hospitality students in Library+ which anyone in College can borrow.

Limiting Google results to UK sites only

One problem with recipe sites is that if you find an American site, the measurements are in cups which is not useful for those of us in the UK. How do you make sure when you search for a recipe in Google, you only get UK results?

You need to put in your search site:.uk and this will restrict the search to UK sites.

So, in Google you might write “Easter biscuits” recipes site:.uk

(I have put speech marks round Easter biscuits to keep this as a phrase). Have a try!

To finish, here is a video recipe for Hot Cross Buns from Mary Berry (which because it is hers, we know we can trust it).

Planning your revision

Starting to revise

Although it’s the holidays next week, exams are nearly upon us and so it is a good time to start planning your revision.

Library+ subscribes to Which magazine and they have put together a guide for creating such a timetable and have pulled together tips from other students which might help you.

http://university.which.co.uk/advice/student-life/creating-a-revision-timetable-that-actually-works

Photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/pen-writing-notes-studying-8769/

Study Stack

Some of you might like the idea of creating your own flash cards and revision activities and you can use a web resource like Study Stack to create these – whether you are student wanting to make your revision more enjoyable or a tutor wanting a way to help your students revise. Just the process of creating these activities will help you memorise your subject.

There are some existing flashcards on Study Stack which you might find useful but beware as none of these are checked by anyone for accuracy so you want to be sure they are correct before using them. Once you have your flashcards , your flashcards can be converted into other activities (eg hangman, crossword). There a  few tutorials on YouTube but they do not appear to be from the providers of Study Stack themselves so you might want to bear this in mind.