Study Skills for Higher Education

This report discusses the importance of academic goals in the life of university students and provides strategies for increasing learning ability. It covers the significance of setting academic goals, short-term and long-term goals, and strategies for comprehension and retention. Learn how to improve your study skills for higher education.

STUDY SKILLS FOR
HIGHER EDUCATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
Significance of setting academic goals....................................................................................................3
Strategies of comprehension and retention..............................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Academic goals are predominately the goals as well as objectives which are set by the
students in their academic life for gaining success as well as living an ambitious life. The main
aim of this report is to understand the importance of academic goals within life of university
students and recommend various strategies for increasing their learning ability.
This report gives an overview of significance of setting academic goals and strategies for
comprehension as well as retention.
MAIN BODY
Significance of setting academic goals
Academic goals are predominately the goals as well as objectives which are being set and
designed by the students for achieving success in career and accomplish their desires and
ambitions. The major importance of setting the academic goals is that it provides a right direction
to the students for achieving their objectives and helps them to track their overall progress.
Besides this, academic goals also help the students to incorporate necessary skills within them
which are required for achieving their vision and ambitions and thus help in attaining success.
There are mainly two types of goals which are being set by the students during their academic
life which are short-term goals and long-term goals (Rodriguez, G and et.al.,2018). Short-term
goals are basically the goals as well as objectives which students commit to achieve within the
short period of time. In short, these goals are set by students for accomplishing within short time
frame like in weeks or months. The major short-term goals which are set by the students
throughout their academic life are
 Getting good scores or first rank in next semester or next assignment
 Participating in the school activities and securing first position
 Finding an organization for working as an intern
The main importance of setting the short-term goals is that it helps the students to have a
clear path for achieving their long-term goals and thus helps to provide a big picture of the future
goals. On the other side of spectrum, long-term goals are primarily the objectives which are

being set by students throughout their academic life for achieving them in the future or within
long-period of time (Virtanen and Tynjälä, 2019). Long-term goals are the goals which students
mainly set for achieving them in longer time frame like within some years. The examples of
various long-term goals set by the students are
 Pursuing higher education in abroad in particular college
 Becoming CEO within an organization in next 5 years
 Building a house in the upcoming 6 years
The major importance of setting long-term goals is that it helps students to recognize
their own strength and weakness and thus assist in identifying the skills which they need to
improve in order to achieve their goals and objectives.
Strategies of comprehension and retention
Students mainly learn about new information throughout their academic life but the most
important thing is how much they retain or remember the learned topic or text. This mainly
relates with comprehension and retention (Wall, 2017). Comprehension is basically the
capability to process the text and understand its meaning for gaining the thorough understanding.
Retention on the other side is the degree to which students are able to retain or memorize a
particular topic or text for long period of time.
Questioning
This is one of the most effective technique of comprehension which students can use in
order to gain a deep insight of specific topic or text. Questioning basically means that to what
extent students frequently asks questions about the particular topic or subject from their tutor,
seniors, parents etc. More the questions asked by students, more will be their learning ability and
thus they will be able to understand its meaning quicker and in effective way. Hence, students
can utilize this technique for remembering things or subject and will prove to be highly effective
in increasing their learning ability (Ghanizadeh, 2017). For example- students in the university
can continuously engage in asking questions about each and every aspect which they see, feel
and when they will do so, then it will be easier for them to get a better meaning of the text and
subject in the most effective means (Hopkins and Reid, 2018).

Storytelling
This is the most important as well as well-known technique of retention which can be
used by students for increasing their learning ability as well as retention capacity. Storytelling
generally means that linking the subject matter or text with some story and generate own
understanding for gaining better experience. When individuals or particularly students link any
subject to any story or develops an emotional connection with it then that they tend to remember
that particular thing for longer period of time (Müller and et.al.,2017). In short, when students
will link their subject and think that subject matter as a real or hypothetical story then it will be
easier for them to remember it for long time and this will also increase their learning ability. In
this way, students can increase their memorization power and hence the learning ability.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that academic goals basically plays a crucial role in the life of
students and thus helps them to accomplish their ambitions and goals. There are two types of
goals being set by students throughout their life namely short-term and long-term goals. These
provide a right guidance and direction to students for attaining success in life and thus help to
unearth their skills. At the end, for increasing the learning and memorization ability students can
use various techniques like storytelling, questioning etc.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ghanizadeh, A., 2017. The interplay between reflective thinking, critical thinking, self-
monitoring, and academic achievement in higher education. Higher Education.74(1).
pp.101-114.
Hopkins, D. and Reid, T., 2018. The Academic Skills Handbook: Your Guide to Success in
Writing, Thinking and Communicating at University. Sage.
Müller, U and et.al.,2017. Transition to school: Executive function, emergent academic skills,
and early school achievement.
Rodriguez, G and et.al.,2018, May. Responsible Research and Innovation: an opportunity to
develop creative skills at Higher Education. In Fourth International Conference on
Higher Education Advances.
Virtanen, A. and Tynjälä, P., 2019. Factors explaining the learning of generic skills: a study of
university students’ experiences. Teaching in Higher Education.24(7). pp.880-894.
Wall, T., 2017. A manifesto for higher education, skills and work-based learning. Higher
Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.