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hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy in today's video i am
going to teach you how to study smarter
not harder many students think that if
they study more and if they study harder
then they will become better at English
or whatever they are studying this is
not true even our teachers will tell us
to study for longer to study more to
study harder it doesn't necessarily work
the best students that I've had and
those that study in a smart intelligent
way and use specific study methods that
I will teach you rather than those that
just study for ages and nothing really
goes in so I've got five study methods
and I'm going to show you how you can
study it for less time and learn more
let's get started with number one the
first one is find out how long your
personal concentration lasts everyone
recommends studying for 10 minutes a day
20 minutes a day 30 minutes a day one
hour a day and taking study breaks of
seven minutes or whatever but that
doesn't apply to everyone everyone is
absolutely different language learning
is not a one-size-fits-all and nor is
any other type of learning for that
matter you need to time your
concentration and this is going to take
a little bit of effort but it would be
so worth it when you find out how long
it lasts all you need is a stopwatch
most people have one on their phones and
for your next couple of study sessions I
want you to take that stopwatch and
start it when you start to study then
stop the timer when you lose
concentration do this a couple of times
and generate an average time if your
concentration time is really
inconsistent try it a number of times
over a period of a couple of days try
just after lunch time just before
breakfast to see if that changes at all
and just try to get a consistent average
so you know your minimum concentration
time now this brings me on to point
which is study in chunks you need to
avoid long study sessions it sounds mad
doesn't it because you think you should
be studying for hours on end but no
avoid long study sessions and just study
for your calculated concentration time
and between those chunks of studying
take short breaks you can work out how
much you need through experience start
with five minutes and if your
concentration time decreases in the next
study chunk well you need to increase
your break time over time you will work
out your perfect medium but how can you
find suitable topics and lessons to fill
your exact concentration time how can
you possibly work out how long a topic
will take Basu the sponsor of today's
video offers a perfect solution they are
an online study platform with over 1,000
lessons created by expert linguists you
can learn English and eleven other
languages ranging from the levels a one
to be two that covers quite a lot of you
this is the part that will interest that
many of you because so many of you ask
me how you can find out your English
level Basu offers a really comprehensive
free level placement test you can test
yourself right now for free by clicking
on the link in the description box and
signing up it's a really good test and I
did it to myself and I got a very high
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so yes click the link take the test and
share your test results in the comment
section it will be so interesting to see
which level you are all at now let's get
back to chunking how can pursue help
well each lesson has a time indicator so
you can work out how many individual
lessons you can fit perfectly into your
concentration time alternatively
persue can help you devise a study plan
and they'll help you define goals the
lessons are very relevant and they're
interactive allowing you to keep your
concentration for longer and allowing
you to remember what you've learned Basu
also has an amazing tool which will help
you find and speak with native speakers
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you can put into practice what you've
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there are links for iOS Android and
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right let's move on to point number
three another method it is the sq rrr
method or it's also called the sq3r as
well this method was originally
introduced in 1946 by American
educational philosopher Francis P
Robinson it's named after its five steps
survey question read recite review now
this method is designed to offer a more
efficient approach to reading textbooks
in your case this might be grammar
textbooks or it can be applied to any
other subject you don't want to spend
ages reading every single word in a
grammar book not everything is going to
be relevant to you and you were just
going to be wasting your time you need
to be filling in the gaps in your
knowledge you don't need to repeat what
you already know I think reading an
educational text from start to finish is
one of the biggest time wasters ever
okay well I can think of other time
wasters
but seriously if you already know
something really really well why waste
your time going over it again let's
break down these steps and see how the
method works so the first one survey
also sometimes called skim you need to
resist a temptation to go through an
entire book or an entire chapter
instead go through a chapter and note
down the important information the
chapter headings the subheadings other
outstanding features this normally takes
only a few minutes
next is Q which stands for questions you
need to generate questions about the
content
of the chapter or book if it's a small
book this will help you identify what
you don't know and help you avoid what
you already know questions like what is
the passive voice are there any
exceptions to this rule the next one is
read you need to go back and look for
the answers to your own generated
questions this is called active reading
this will help you to avoid passive
reading which is just reading without
engaging in the study material the next
one is recite or remember try to
retrieve from memory and recite what
you've just learned as if you are
telling it to someone else and you need
to use your own words that's very
important and the last one is review
once you've reached the end of the
passage review the material by repeating
back to yourself what the point of the
passage was using your own words
I really recommend looking further into
this method because I think it can
really really help you not only with
English with lots of other subject as
well especially if you're studying for a
university degree because they make us
buy so many books and then we only need
a couple of lines of information from
each I remember that being so
frustrating I really could have used
that s QR method right number four is
create a study time and place you need
to create an environment for yourself
the amount of people that I see sitting
in a noisy library or a noisy cafe
trying to study they just get distracted
I remember studying sort of being a
social interaction as well and I didn't
get much done you need to create an area
which is free of distraction and is also
relaxing so that you can make the most
of your concentration times and nobody
is going to annoy you or distract you
during those periods if you can't make
this sort of environment in your own
home maybe you have young siblings or
you've got limited space try somewhere
outside now this is weather dependent
that I find that studying in nature is
really really amazing you also do need
to set studied
now I don't mean doing a color-coded
study plan although that works for many
people but based on your concentration
times try to set out some sort of study
plan now if you're studying for an exam
that would probably be a lot more
intensive and if you're just studying to
improve generally then maybe it's once a
week or daily we're really lucky
nowadays because we have noise
cancelling headphones so you could sort
of create a distraction free place to
study anywhere as long as you're not
visually distracted maybe you can study
on your commute I always advise
listening to music without words or
listening to other sorts of white noise
something that I found really really
useful when I was studying was a band
called the vitamin string quartet they
do violin quartet covers of popular
songs popular songs god I sound so much
popular music know that it's really
really good so I remember I used to
listen to Coldplay and the Kings of Leon
but on a violin and it was great because
you can't really sing along and the
words don't distract you but you're
still listening to music that you enjoy
and they're also very talented musicians
I will link below to the vitamin string
quartet as well now at the last point
number five it's one of my favorites it
really is how I learnt English grammar
because I was never taught it at school
it is teach what you learn I was really
really bad at grammar and it is only
when I started teaching at the age of 19
that I started to understand it more so
my first couple of lessons really were
quite shaky but then the more I taught
the information and the more questions I
received from people and the more I
thought about and processed the
information the more I understood it now
I can offer grammar explanations like
that so is there anyone around you with
the same goal as you can you take turns
teaching each other this works with
English it works with any other subject
work to the other person's concentration
time have a little white board do a
little set
time's up have a break swap both of you
benefit from it because you're learning
because you're being taught and you also
learn because you are teaching by
thinking as both a student and a teacher
you are looking at information from both
perspectives so it can be amazing for
your brain when I look at grammar now I
think how can I make this easier for my
students to understand and
subconsciously I am also making that
grammar easier for me to understand so
those are my five tips you now know what
you need to do you need to time your
next few study sessions and then you
need to study in chunks if you are
learning a language try it pursue
because they tell you exactly how long
each lesson is and you can also find a
nice speaking partner to practice with
click on one of the links down below to
sign up and don't forget about that
level placement test find out if you're
an a1 b2 is then you want to see one I
would be very very impressed if we had
c1s and c2s here if you've got long
texts to read try the sqr our method and
definitely do some more research into it
if you are interested in that because it
really can be so beneficial and then you
need to create a study time and a study
place and teach your friends and
hopefully be taught by your friends as
well right that is it for today's lesson
I hope you enjoyed it I hope you learned
something don't forget to connect with
me on all of my social media I've got my
facebook my Instagram my Twitter and my
personal Lucy Bella L channel and I will
see you soon for another lesson Matt's
not with five minutes and if your
concentration crime start with five
minutes if your concentration time
didn't stuff
it's a really good test I did it myself
and I got quite a high school make sure
you share your test results in the
comment description box alternatively
Basu can help you defies offender by the
American educational philosopher eyebrow
problem I wanted to call him Francis P
bacon why
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