Fake News - a spotters guide #1

What is Fake News?

Fake news, alternative facts, click-bait, dodgy data, biased reporting, propaganda, conspiracy theories, cash for comment, 'post-truth world', are all things you have probably heard about. But what what do we mean when we say "fake news"?

Fake news can be:

• Manipulative - stories designed to trick you into believing something that you probably wouldn't normally believe or agree with.
• Made up - usually just to get you to click a link. Usually to get you to look at an ad, or to encourage you to go to a website that might host a virus, spyware or malware.
• Lazy reporting - the people making the news might not take the time to check their facts
• Sensational headlines that don’t relate to the story
• Well-intentioned, but misinformed - again, they might not be taking the time to check their facts
• Over simplified - simple stories are easy to read so suck people in, but they don't tell the whole story.
• Satire – joke stories for entertainment

Fake news twists the truth to get you to believe something that is not really true. Or, if it is true, is not the whole story. Because it looks like real news, fake news can be passed around making it harder for everyone to know what is true and what is not.

If you are not sure if something is real or not it is important to check before you pass it on to a friend or use it in an assignment.

Study tips #6

Keep it... Green

A weird thing about our brains is that, for some reason, there is something about the colour green that
helps with concentration.

Maybe next time you are buying highlighters or post-it-notes grab the green ones!

Study tip #5

Make exam conditions normal

It is worth trying to keep your study space similar to how you will be during the exam. The more
normal your exam conditions feel, the less stressed you will get - and that will make it easier to remember what you need to know.

Try things like wearing the same clothes you will wear at your exam, don't listen to music while doing practice exams, have a similar desk set up.

In particular wear the same deodorant you will wear the day of your exam - you would be surprised how closely connected your memory is to you sense of smell. Every little thing that is the same when you are studying to when you are doing your exams will help those memories surface that you need the most.

Study tips #4

Get some sleep

There are a lot of reasons why sleep is an important part of healthy study habits.

1. Sleep helps you consolidate your learning. Once we have learned something, sleeping allows our brains to finish processing it, and linking it into our memories better. Even a short nap can help improve your memory of what you have just learned!

2. Sleep deprivation makes it harder to remember new things. Research has shown that because sleep is such an important part of the memory creation process that without it it is very hard to learn effectively.

So, time to ditch the all-nighter, it just wont help!

Study tips #2

Rinse and repeat

Your memory is a strange thing - but it is worth learning out how it works, so you can make it easier
to remember things.

When you see, read or hear something for the first time it goes into your short term memory, but will soon be lost for good. If you see, read or hear it again soon after, it will make it into long term memory, but very well. It is only when you see, read or hear something repeated over time that you truely learn it.

So, make sure you go over the materials you are learning more than once - and have a break between each revision or it wont stick. The traditional Allnighter wont help you that much for your exam, but a couple of much shorter sessions will set you up nicely. Also, the extra sleep the night before the exam will also be very beneficial.

Study tips #1

Chunk it up

Loads of research has shown that lots of shorter study sessions are much more effective than one long session - even if you spend exactly the same amount of time studying.

So, ditch the 5 hour marathon study sessions over the weekend, and try to get in an hour study each weeknight instead.

Not only will you get more done, have the weekend to relax, but you will also end up doing better work and getting better marks with no more time spent studying!

This strategy also make large assignments feel a lot more managable. As the famous saying goes:

How do you eat an elephant? One small piece at a time!

Study tips #3

Tell someone about it

A great way of strengthening your learning is by trying to explain it to someone else.

Put your notes away and tell a friend, a parent, other family, or even your dog, what you have just learned. It's a great way of summarising without needing to write it all down, and it will quickly let you know which bits you don't fully understand or remember. Get the other person to ask questions when they don't understand something, and it will make your learning even stronger (ok, the dog isn't so helpful here!)

Also, it's a good change of pace from studying on your own.

Writing vs. Typing

Did you know that writing things using a pen and paper makes you learn better and faster?

Did you know that students who use their laptop for all of their note taking usually end up taking more notes, but remember and understand far less?

Taking written notes when researching

• Removes the "cut and paste" temptation that can lead to plagiarism.
• Re-writing in your own words helps you check understanding.
• Makes things easier to remember.
• Forces you to make sure you are sticking to what is really important.

[Jessie S] . (2016). Note-taking: writing vs. typing notes. Retrieved September 5, 2016 from https://studyskills.com/students/note-taking/?inf_contact_key=827980b2a7905ed4e3db8f8485871ce23fb1f03adac1526f9af69afbbd787ec4 

Study habits to avoid #2

Cramming

Let’s face it, nearly everyone has crammed for a test, and it is likely that more than half of all students don’t study any other way.

Unfortunately cramming has a causes a lot of problems, and isn’t really efficient. Let’s break it down:

High anxiety

When you are cramming, you have a short period of time to learn a lot – which means you are going to be a bit stressed about it. Unfortunately this creates a bit of a feedback loop, because stress makes it harder to remember things. Which in turn will make you more stressed, and so on. So aside from feeling like crap because you are panicky, a bit jumpy, and probably a bit nauseous, you are also going to be seriously inefficient in what you do remember. Let’s not forget that high anxiety during cramming will follow you into the test, and guess what? High anxiety will likely cause you to forget stuff.

Wasted time

In addition to the time you waste being inefficient because you are stressed, cramming itself is an inefficient way of studying. There have been studies to show that your peak concentration only lasts about half an hour. Meaning that after that it takes more effort to remember less stuff. Now think about how inefficient it would be if you were to cram for 3 or 4 hours. Not very. 

No long-term retention

The way our brains work means that when we are cramming, we only make short-term memories. Which might be enough to get us through most of the test tomorrow, but sets us up for bigger failures later on. See, the way education is set up means that teachers assume you know things covered previous – that you actually remember, and understand, the stuff they tested you on last term. This means that, if you crammed and no longer remember something, it is going to be much harder to learn the next step.

So, what is the alternative? Study a little bit every day. I know it sounds boring, and it takes discipline. But in the end, you spend less time studying overall, and you improving your learning dramatically. What looks like more work on the surface, is actually less work, less stressful, and gives you more time for guilt-free enjoyment of the things you really want to do.

For further reading on particularly bad methods of cramming to avoid, check out this article: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-dumbest-things-students-do-when-cramming-exams/

Information for this post largely sourced from:

Tucker, K. (2016). Disadvantages of cramming. Retrieved June 21, 2016 from http://classroom.synonym.com/disadvantages-cramming-tests-3960.html