2.4 Using a variety of methods for effective study
You may find it difficult at this stage to recognise what kind of activity would be most helpful for which parts of course study. In any case, people differ in what works best for them. The important point is to review the activities you are using for studying, particularly where you are setting yourself ambitious goals, or where you are finding things difficult. It might prove helpful to try out activities that you often avoid, or to ask other students how they study parts of the course that you find difficult. We often tend to persist in the same approach to study, assuming that the only way of overcoming difficulties is to spend more time studying. It may be that we can also make progress by a better match between how we are studying and the type of material and study goals which are our target. Our goal should surely be to find more effective ways of studying and not just to try to find more time for study.
In the next section, the theme of matching the process with the outcome of study will be continued through exploring different theories about how learning happens.