Active learning

Active learning keeps you involved – it helps to maintain your enthusiasm for your course, and you also gain confidence in your ability to cope with new challenges. Active learners rarely just read their course materials. They find every way they can to interact with what they are studying. You could try some of their strategies, such as

• highlighting material useful for the next assignment
• working out the links between current material and previous sections to help build your knowledge and understanding
• re-reading previous material that relates to a difficult new topic
• collecting lists of items to compare, say where you need to get to grips with a set of similar equations, or comprehend a range of properties
• relating the course learning outcomes to each section you study
• drawing flow diagrams to show a process or a sequence of events
• making your own glossary of terms or timeline of dates
• continually asking yourself questions about the material you are studying
• taking notes that help make the topic meaningful to you.