Study Skills
One of the key aspects for students when they return in September is study skills – I teach mainly A Level students… and they come back focused after receiving their AS results!
A few great things you can do to get them focused! –
During the summer or in the first lesson of the term set some work – you can do this via email or your VLE system… This can be done over a few weeks and will be useful for their summer exams!
Ask students to choose a business (or something for your subject) and set work associated with this –
Can students access research on the following –
o The product portfolio of the business
o Their financial results over the past 3 years – focus on profit, turnover, stock levels
o Write down any key terms from this research that you have learnt in business
o Research and identify their competitors
Can students now put (part 1) of this into a mind map using Boston matrix?
Can they link (part 2) to a table of results?
Can they put these key terms (part 3) onto flash cards with definitions?
Can this be put into a sliding scale of the highest competition to the least – developing judgement skills here
Using ALL the information can the students write a potential exam question?
Using ALL the information on the business – can the students write a detailed essay plan
Can the students use the information to analyse the finances and make some reasoned judgements about the financial position of the business?
Can the students write a mark scheme for the essay title they have set?
You could also colour code the work – red for an A*, blue for a B and green for a D that way the student 
will know what level they should be working towards depending on their aspirational grade! This allows students to be in control of their own studies and allows them to make the decision of what level to study at.
Also you can direct students to the following sites for help and advice on study skills!
All of the above can be adapted for your own subject!
Donna Jestin
Donna is a regular contributor of Business articles for our blog as well as our popular weekly business news quizzes. She is a teacher of Business at Notre Dame 6th Form college.
