5.1.1 Technique 1: Self-talk—turning negative statements into positive ones You can guide your thinking away from general worry and self-doubt by turning negative self-statements into positive ones. This strategy is useful in all aspects of life. Figure 5 relates to an unsuccessful job interview and illustrates the process. 4.3.1 Start writing Using the format of introduction, main body and conclusion outlined in Section 3, write up your answer to the question. 4.3 Plan your answers Using the ideas outlined in Section 3, mark the key words in the question to make sure you identify the topic correctly. Then mark the process words to help you to understand the instructions within the question. Jot down the main points you can recall which might be relevant, along with examples and evidence you can use. Work fast and uncritically at this stage 3.8.1 Play the examiner Take a particular question from a past or specimen exam paper and imagine that you are the examiner who set it. Note down which particular part of the course you set the question to test, and h Learning outcomes This unit will: help you to manage your time more effectively when you're revising and in the exam itself help you to learn, or brush up on, revision and exam skills offer reassurance to those of you who experience anxiety and stress at exam time. 10.2 Other sources of help Websites / www.open.ac.uk/ goodstudyguide This Open University site is a companion site to the Good Study Guide series of books. 7.2 Learning from feedback This is actually quite a difficult thing for any student to do. It is most effective when your assignment is returned, but by then you may have moved on to the next part of the course. Even so, you do need to make time to re-visit your assignment when it is returned and take note of your tutor's comments. It is the one time when your tutor is able to give feedback and advice to you as an individual student so it is well worth taking time to really absorb their comments. Try to separate 6.2 Monitoring your performance As you move into actually doing the assignment, the emphasis on consciously trying to monitor how you are performing continues to be important. This involves checking your work while you are working on the task rather than waiting until you have almost completed it before you look back at what you have done. You may wonder why we place so much emphasis on monitoring what you are doing. The reason is that if you check regularly what and how you are doing and are aware of your progress a 3.1 Skimming Did you read the Layard article quickly enough, or perhaps too quickly? Reading speed is a persistent worry when you study. There always seems to be much more to read than you have time for, so you feel a tremendous pressure to read faster. But then, if you go too fast, you don't learn much. So what is the ‘right’ speed? The answer is – it depends on what you are trying to achieve. It's surprising how much you can pick up if you push on quickly through a few pages. 2.3 Coping with difficult parts Salim and Lewis mentioned that they found some sections of Layard's article difficult. So did I; for example, anyone without a background in economics would have difficulty grasping the arguments in paragraphs 13 and 14. So what should you do when you can't make sense of what you read? Should you search online to find out about taxation theory? For my own satisfaction I searched for a definition of ‘marginal rate of taxation’ just to get the gist of it. I also tried to write down th 4 A thinking disposition and the process of development In order to make effective use of opportunities for developing your thinking, you need to develop a thinking disposition as well as thinking skills. The following checklist covers some of the important elements of a thi 5.6.1 Using a CV to present yourself A CV is a document that you draw up in order to ‘sell’ yourself to a prospective employer. You might object that your current plans are unlikely to need a CV. You may not be looking to change your career or your job. However, the work involved in putting a CV together can be useful to you personally. Creating your CV gives you a clear idea about what you want to say about your qualities and skills. It can be useful in helping you recognise and appreciate these. It might start you thinking 4.6 Developing your action plan and thinking about evidence We explained, earlier in this section, that developing an action plan involves the following steps: 4.2.2 Human capital theory This theory argues that the development of people as a resource (human capital) is as important in creating an internationally competitive country as the equipment to make things (industrial capital), or the money to set up new enterprises (financial capital). The need to develop the right sort of human capital can be seen to underpin many social, as well as economic, policies – education and training are prime examples of policy areas where human capital thinking is used to highlight the i 4.2.1 Theories of globalisation There are many different theories relating to globalisation. Some see globalisation as positive or beneficial. These theories argue that globalisation will encourage ‘good things’ like the growth of online communities that can span the world and might be able to break free of repressive regimes. Others suggest that there will be negative consequences to globalisation. They argue that globalisation makes it easier for jobs to be exported to wherever labour is cheapest. In this view there a 3.1 Introduction This section is the second step in using learning to help you achieve your own personal goals for change and development. This second step is really about developing additional ways to build on the evidence you gathered about yourself in Section 2. In particular it considers how other people can help you change. There are two main aspects to this. The first is about involving other people so that you can get feedback from them and increase the depth of your own self-understanding. The second 2.4.6 Your communication skills The next activity is an opportunity to reflect on your own communication skills. Recognising which skills you already have and use is an important first step towards being able to value and develop them. If you are considering embarking on significant change then you will need to communicate with other people at some point. You may need to explain to people who are close to you what changes you are thinking about. Or you may need to use communication skills to enlist the help of other people. 1.2.2 Learning new tasks We are about to turn our attention to the approach we take when learning about computers. Over the coming days think about how you learn to do new tasks, and in particular computing tasks. Think about the barriers you have to learning a new task. Do you fear failure? Breaking the computer? Feeling exposed? 9 Letting go This is the point where you have to make the decision that the assignment is complete and ready to be sent off. It is not always an easy decision to make. Perhaps you feel that there is always room for further improvement or there is something more that you could have done. At a certain stage, the potential gain from further refinement is not sufficient to warrant delaying submission or to risk impeding progress with your course. Remember, you should be aiming for what is ‘good enough 6.3 Planning stages Having discussed the reasons to plan writing and the impact planning may have, now we need to look at planning itself and its two stages.
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