“The Smart Study Success System”
There are certainly additional explanations and references in the complete video, but this set of notes is designed to give you a super fast review of the content that you can use as pre-‐study material or to consolidate what you learned in the video. Revision Questions: The winner’s attitude. Taken from the six point system of the ‘Police Mindset’.
Additional point to consider. Gratitude. The ability to keep a positive context. Questions on Police Selection, Police Fitness and Police Exams are covered in detail in the Police Entrance Exam Preparation resources which are available here at this link: http://policeprep.com.au/training-‐products/
! A"tude'of'a'Winner'
! Never1ending'Improvement'
! Analy8cal'Perspec8ve'
! Restrained'Responsibility'
! Smart'Stereotyping'
! Empathe8c'(not'sympathe8c)'
The Smart Success Study System Practical tools to implement in recruit study to make the most of the little time available to study. How to learn and how learn quickly. Pre-‐study should be completed, yet this is not usually provided. Be careful of making your own decisions on what you study in advanced. Otherwise you may learn the wrong material which may make things confusing at the academy. Consider making a clean-‐slate approach. The benefits of implementing this system include making a fantastic first impression on graduation when your knowledge is tested under the supervision of more senior officers. Do you know your stuff or not? There are four steps to the Smart Study Success System.
1. Identify your reasons for studying.
-‐ Reasons always come first. If you have a strong enough reason you can do anything.
-‐ Break down your personal inspiration for each topic. What is the relevance? If the instructors aren’t giving it to you, then make an effort to ask the context so you can make it fit your motivations. 2. Determine your learning style.
-‐ You might not be able to choose the format of lessons but you can certainly choose the format of your own study.
-‐ Go through the pre-‐study planning tool in order to identify what worked in the past, what didn’t work. Then look at the current circumstances and how this might affect applying your previous successful models.
-‐ For example, the time of day you studied in the past may not
be appropriate in your current schedule. -‐ Next is to evaluate your resources available to study.
Materials, locations, time and environment.
-‐ Finally, review the topic of study AFTER you’ve completed a module to conduct the after action review of how to improve your study process in the next module.
-‐ All parts in Step 2 are listed in the pre-‐study planning tool. 3. Schedule it.
-‐ When you talk about it, is possible, envision it, now your closer, but schedule it and make it real. -‐ Lock it in the calendar. -‐ Review how much time each week is actually spent in study. How does this compare to how much time is allocated elsewhere? Does your allocation of time reflect your values and what is important?
4. Take Action. -‐ Follow through on the schedule. You’re about to be living on one, so get used to this! It is actually quite freeing. -‐ Importance of taking action on these steps.
-‐ How to avoid procrastination. The Emergency Study Help Tool
o Step One: Get Perspective (what is at stake? What is up for gain and what is a risk of losing?)
o Step Two: Evaluation your position (step back and look at where you are in your study plan. If you don’t have one, then write one right now in this step.)
o Step Three: Identify your obstacles (what is your current distraction? Eliminate or delay. Choose one and take action on the distraction.)
o Step Four: Set your immediate goal (One achievement to be made in THIS study session. Basically chunk it down to smaller pieces that you can manage. Avoid overwhelm and deal with one thing at a time)
o Step Five: Take immediate action. What is one small step step and one BIG step you can take right now, today to get yourself moving. This is all about momentum. Just do something, no matter how small, and you will soon be on track in study.
Study Success Techniques
-‐ Some specific techniques I used that suited my learning style. -‐ Study results are more to do with efficiency and not duration.
How much you retain is more related to HOW you study than how LONG you study.
1. Note taking. -‐ Is it worth taking notes? What if the notes are given to you before hand? -‐ The action of writing things down assist most people to retain information. It activates the Reticular Activating System. It tells your brain that ‘this is important’. -‐ You may choose to take notes before, during or after or any combination of this. It comes back to identifying your particular learning style. If you can only remember a portion of the information, keep notes in order of priority.
2. Memory Hooks: [This section really requires the video aid to truly make sense – but if you’re using this as revision, here are some notes on this
section]
-‐ Visualising Pictures. -‐ What if you don’t visualise? Well we all do it. Are you harsh
on yourself on your standards of visualising? Can you close your eyes and remember the colour of one object around you? If so, then you can visualise.
-‐ The crazy story system of each one relating to the next. Recently heard this called the pure link system.
-‐ Using a NON-‐POLICE example so I don’t confuse you with the
exact requirements of your course. But what I’m doing here you can apply to something as abstract as police study. Example List that makes little sense and so is therefore hard to remember. Imagine a spaceship captain has to remember 10 things before taking off in his spaceship Check frost on the outside of the plane Pull all the rocks out of the exhaust ports Clean the hyper drive outlet Give each passenger 1 Banana and Two cherries Call the control tower to request permission to take off Put on his spacesuit Get in the cockpit Check all the instruments Turn on the music system Read the navigation instructions
We talk about how this study of ridiculous stories can truly help remember. Now to take this to another level, try this out on that list of words I sent you earlier. Sausage Key Golf Cloud Water Police Officer Car Wall Baby Submarine The more structured approach to this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Lighthouse, Glasses, Stool, Window, Hand The key to take away is that the more visual and outlandish and emotive you make your memory hooks, the more likely they are to stick.
Memory Hooks (Continued) Acronyms Finally, there is the acronym method, which we used in the process of remembering the six points of the Police Mindset. Some of you may have used this before even without realizing. If I asked you to think of the colours of a rainbow, in order. It is likely that those of you who know, the first thing that pops into your head is the word ROY-‐G-‐BIV So this can be a fantastic method for wrote learning of lists. Particularly if not required in order, you can reorder a list to make more sense to you to use this technique. You can also do it five letters that are all the same. For example, if you had to remember the different reasons for using handcuffs and the list was: To effect an arrest To protect others To protect the person To prevent escape To prevent further offence You might decide to remember it as the “Arresting four ‘p’s” So it would automatically trigger the first ‘arrest’ point and then you would simply have to remember the four p’s which you could remember as divided into two protects and two prevents. Now I’m not saying these are THE reasons for using handcuffs. I’m very wary of using police examples here because I don’t want to confuse you on the actual content and formal training you will get at the academy. I’m simply demonstrating a point on acronyms!
Police Testing – Free bonus download and we discussed why it will help in both the selection exams AND also at the academy. 3. Final Technique: Pre-‐reading.
-‐ The effect of spiral learning. The benefit of pre-‐reading and why it boosts retention.
-‐ If you boost retention you massively reduce the post-‐lesson study requirements. If you learn it in the first place! i.e. Using this correctly translates to LESS time spent in study.
-‐ Pre-‐reading is the number one tool to boost actual efficiency
of study. In other words – retain more information with LESS time study. How does this apply to LEGAL STUDY? Example given in video sequence.