Starting again

I took my first step into returning to study yesterday: I filled in the enrolment forms, and put in my application to have my fees partially waived (a perk of working for the university).

So, all going according to plan, in February next year I'll be taking a course in Linguistic Theory, the second of four papers I need to complete to add (Hons) to the BA at the end of my name.

I'm feeling a bit nervous - after a year away from study, I can't remember how I ever found enough time to keep up with all the reading and writing and thinking needed, all while working full time.  Especially as my job is a lot busier now than it was a year ago, so there won't be the same chances to sneak in a bit of studying during the quiet periods.  Adding to my nervousness is the decision by the Linguistics department to compress their previously full-year courses into single semesters, which presumably means we'll be expected to do as much work as the full-year course, but in half the time.  (Though I suppose on the plus side it means I'll only have to cope with the stress for half as long...)

But despite my worries, I'm really looking forward to the course.  Though the topic sounds a bit dry, I think it will turn out to be one of those courses that you can make as interesting as you want depending on which aspects you choose to focus on, and it's definitely going to be an incredibly useful grounding for the future study I want to do.

Plus, after a year of not having to think too deeply about anything, it's exciting to think about really getting my teeth into a topic again!

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So, what are your plans for study for 2014?  Anything exciting coming up?  Let me know in the comments below.

More depressing news for mature students

Back in May I wrote about the cuts to student loan eligibility for older students.  It turns out that doesn't just hurt the students, it's actually hurting everyone.

A report has just come out on research from the University of Otago, showing that medical students who begin their degrees later in life not only make better doctors, but are more likely to remain in New Zealand after they graduate.  So mature students studying medicine hugely benefit the country.  But the student loan system disadvantages precisely those students.

When will this government ever realise that education (for everyone!) is a benefit to the country, not just a cost on a balance sheet somewhere?

Pearl extract and the importance of critical thinking

At the supermarket recently, I was browsing the shampoo aisle and spotted a brand that proudly proclaimed it contained “pearl extract”.  I couldn’t help imagining the conversation that took place when they came up with that idea.

Marketing person rushes excitedly into R&D lab.

Marketing: I’ve worked out what we need for the new shampoo!  People want their hair to be smooth and shiny, right?  And what’s smoother and shinier than a pearl?  Let’s put pearl extract in the shampoo!

Chemist: Pearl extract?  You mean calcium carbonate?  You know that’s pretty much the same thing as chalk, right?

Marketing: No, no, we don’t want to put chalk in the shampoo.  Chalk’s not smooth and shiny.  We need pearl extract.  Just extract the smooth and shininess from the pearls and put that in.

Chemist:  Extract the... But the smoothness of pearls comes from their physical structure, not from the compounds making them up.  It’s like if you asked me to extract the beauty from the Mona Lisa – all you’d get is paint and canvas.

Marketing:  Hmm, Mona Lisa beauty extract... that’s not a bad idea...

Chemist (reaching for the calcium carbonate bottle): Pearl extract it is then!

As well as making me laugh, this imagined scenario reminded me of one of the most important reasons for higher education: to develop critical thinking skills.  I’ve never studied chemistry, so I didn’t know exactly what the major chemical component of pearls was (I checked Wikipedia before writing this), but rather than just thinking “pearls = smooth and shiny” when I saw the label (as I’m sure the marketing person would have liked me to), critical thinking kicked in and I wondered what pearl extract actually meant, and whether it would actually improve the shampoo.  Those few seconds of thought led me to the conclusion that pearls must be made of the same stuff as seashells, and that chalk is made of crushed seashells, so pearl extract probably actually means chalk.  And suddenly that expensive bottle of shampoo didn’t seem much better than the cheaper one sitting beside it.

Ok, so saving a few dollars by seeing through some marketing hype may not be a huge thing, but when you multiply that by all the decisions you make over the course of a lifetime, the ability to see beyond the immediately obvious and think more critically becomes a very valuable thing.  And that is something you’ll acquire from university study, no matter what you’re majoring in (yes, even if you’re majoring in marketing – my imagined scenario above is a long way from reality, where the marketer’s use of the word “pearl” in the branding would have been a very considered and calculated decision).  I’d go so far as to say that critical thinking is the most important skill you’ll acquire from your study – it’s applicable to virtually every area of your life and it’ll never get out of date.

So next time someone asks what you’re studying, tell them “critical thinking”. 

Clubbing together

Yesterday I attended the inaugural meeting of a new club at my university, LingSoc.  Up until now there hasn't been a specific club for Linguistics students, just the generic ArtsSoc, so a few of the students got together and decided to rectify that.

I've never joined any clubs as a mature student - I suppose because my perception was that they were full of 18 year olds and all about the parties.  So I don't know what inspired me to go along to the meeting (probably just because I've been feeling starved of good linguistic discussion recently and missing studying).  But I'm so glad I did.

It turned out my preconceived idea of what student clubs are like was all wrong.  This club at least attracted a wide range of types and ages of students, from first years to postgrads, and I don't think I was even the oldest in the room.  I spotted a few former classmates, so it was easy for even shy me to find someone to talk to.  And the organisers' plans for the club sound great - as well as social events, they want to arrange academic talks, and sessions for prospective postgrads.  But mostly the aim is just to provide a place where we can get together with other students who share our love of linguistics, and talk about the kind of stuff that makes our friends roll their eyes in boredom.

It's all too easy as a mature student to hold yourself separate from the younger students, to think you've got nothing in common.  But you've got a huge something in common with them that you're unlikely have with friends of your own age - a shared interest in the subject you're studying.

So if you haven't joined any student clubs, go along and try one out.  They might have more to offer you than you think.

Feeling inspired

I went to a party on Saturday night.  Not that unusual, but this was a special party - it was to celebrate a colleague's brand new doctorate.  He'd done a few papers as a mature student a few years ago, was inspired, and decided to give up work, apply for a scholarship, and get his PhD.

Only three years later he's achieved his goal, and now proudly wears the title Doctor in front of his name.

I left the party feeling reinspired.  I can't afford right now to give up work and study full time, so it'll take me a bit longer, but I'm determined to keep slogging away one paper at a time and finish this degree, then on to the next one, and maybe one day I'll be the one throwing the party and hearing my friends call me Doctor.

Can't wait! :-)

Memory and association

Many years ago I was living in a very small town on the West Coast, a long way from anywhere. To get my fill of city life (read: good bookshops) I’d catch a bus over to Christchurch for a weekend every few weeks. On the way home, the bus driver (and by extension, all his passengers) would listen to the radio for as far out into the countryside as the signal lasted, then would switch to the cassette player (I said it was many years ago!). She always put the same compilation tape on, and because the radio signal always ran out at the same spot, the songs on that tape became strongly associated in my mind with certain spots along the road.

The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” always came on just as we left the plains and started up the first steep incline towards the pass, so when I heard that song on the radio the other day, my mind was immediately transported to that hill. Despite the fact I last caught that bus more than 20 years ago, and it’s probably at least 15 years since I’ve even been in that part of the country, I could remember every detail – the way the road curves, the types of trees that grow alongside, even what the road signs said. If you’d asked me to describe the road in normal circumstances, I’d have had no hope, but because of the strong association from the music, my memories were crystal clear.

Great story, Jen, you might be saying, but what’s your late 80s nostalgia got to do with studying in 2013? Actually, quite a lot. It’s been shown that this kind of sensory association can aid learning in all sorts of situations. By purposefully stimulating one of your senses in a particular way while learning material, your recall of it will be improved by replicating that same stimulation at a later date – in an exam, say. Of course, you can’t play The Bangles in an exam room, but you can set up other sensory associations.

At the simplest level, when you’re studying towards an exam where recalling facts is going to be important, try and replicate some of conditions you’re likely to encounter when in the exam room. So as far as possible, study in silence (sorry, no 80s music). Try and get your comfort levels to match, too - wear the same sort of clothes (including shoes) to study in as you’ll wear on the day, and sit in a chair of a similar type (it doesn’t have to be identical, but don’t study sitting in a comfy armchair if you’ll be on hard plastic seats for the exam). If you’re into essential oils you could even set up olfactory clues (which are often said to be the strongest form of sensory memory jogger) – perhaps a few drops of a particular oil on a handkerchief that you can sniff when the need arises?

Of course, none of this is a substitute for hard work, but it can give your memory a little boost just when you need it most. And let’s face it, when it comes to exams, every little bit helps!

Good habits

After taking such a prolonged break from writing this blog, I find I’ve fallen out of all my good habits around writing.  Even though I’ve had plenty of ideas for topics over the last few weeks, I’ve lacked the discipline to just sit down and start writing them down.  I need to redevelop good habits by setting myself a writing and posting schedule and sticking to it until it’s second nature.

Good habits are important in study, too.  It’s no good getting to exam week and suddenly realising in a panic that you need to start hitting the books – you need to be developing good study habits from the very beginning of term (if not earlier) so that when exam time comes around all you need is a slight stepping up of your usual study schedule.  But how do you develop good habits?

1. Develop one new good habit at a time

It’s tempting when you decide to improve your study habits to try and fix everything at once, but that’s a guarantee of failure.  After a few weeks of initial enthusiasm you’ll find yourself slipping in one area or another, and it’ll be all too easy to give up completely.  So pick just one area you’d like to improve and work on that.  Maybe it’s “I’ll revise and rewrite my lecture notes every evening after class”, or “I’ll read one chapter of the text a week”, or even just “I’ll block out one hour of every day as study time”.  Once that good habit is firmly entrenched, you can start working on another one.  That’s one advantage of being a part-time student, at least – we have a lot of semesters to practice our good habits in!

2. Start early

 

They say that it takes about 50 repetitions of a behaviour for it to become habitual, so, as there’s only about 13 weeks in a semester, it’s never too early to get your good habits in place.  Even in the first week, when you’re unlikely to have much real studying to do, you can start working on the habits by doing related tasks.  For example, if you’re trying to improve your lecture notes, then after the first lecture, even though it was probably mostly admin and not much actual course content, you could still spend some time making sure you’re clear on all the course requirements, writing due dates into your calendar and planning your reading schedule.

Some habits you might even be able to start during the vacation.  For example, if you want to read a chapter of the text every week, then why not get out a few related books from the library and read a chapter of them each week – you’ll not only get a head start on developing your good habit, but you’ll start the course pre-armed with a bit of knowledge.

3. Be strict but forgiving

 

Whatever your new habit is, stick to it.  Set yourself a schedule and be rigorous about following it.  If you’re going to read a chapter of your text every week, then decide when you’ll do that – say on Wednesday nights straight after dinner – and force yourself to sit down with your book at that time no matter what the temptation to do something else.  It’ll be tough at first, but as the weeks go on you’ll find yourself just naturally doing it, because that’s what you always do on Wednesday night after dinner.

But while you’re being strict on yourself, do forgive the occasional slip.  If you forget, or some crisis happens that means you can’t keep to your schedule, then don’t beat yourself up, just catch up if you can (maybe read that chapter on Thursday night instead?) and make doubly sure you get back on schedule the next week.  Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of thinking “I missed one week, so I might as well just give up now.”  Forgive yourself, move on, and do better next time.

4. Reward yourself

 

I find I develop habits best if I give myself an incentive to do so.  If my aim is to spend an hour a day studying, then I’ll keep a track of how many days I’ve managed to stick to my schedule, and when I reach a week I’ll reward myself by going to a movie or reading a book that’s purely for pleasure.  Or if you need something more immediate, how about promising yourself an hour of your favourite TV programme once you’ve finished writing up your lecture notes?  Or a bar of chocolate on the way home from the library?

A less tangible but often just as satisfying reward can just be recording the progress of your habit and watching it grow.  One useful technique is to make a mark on the calendar every night you successfully carry out your new habit.  As the row of ticks (or smiley faces, or whatever symbol you want to use) grows, so does the urge to not break your streak, and to beat your own record for number of days without a break.


Good luck with developing your new good habits!   And I promise I’ll try and make updating my blog more of a habit this semester...