Learning Techniques

Studying to become a Professional Accounting is a great career choice. More often than not however, those who study to become an accountant do so on a part-time basis. With time being at a premium it is essential that every minute spent studying is as productive as possible. Attacking the books without a plan of action may work for you, you’ll be lucky however, as it is far more likely that you will find yourself improperly prepared for the exams.

As someone who has completed a range of exams over the years, I have used a range of techniques, and I am going to share some of them with you here.

1. Speed Reading

Speed reading is a skill that can, believe it or not, be learned by anybody. Most people read significantly slower that they are capable of because they have fallen into certain bad habits in their reading. The two techniques I find most helpful are:

1. Place a ruler on the page as you read down through the page
2. Do not speak the words on the page, either our loud or in your head

The ruler does two function, it provides a reading guide, and it prevents you from reading back over the text you have already covered. The usefulness of a guide is self evident however a lot of people do not like the idea of blocking off the ability to go back over, for example the page of a book, as they worry that they will miss something. This is not how it works. The brain does pick up the words, even when you don’t say it in your head.

Try it out for yourself – use a ruler to pass down through the page of a text book, go off for a cup of coffee, then come back and answer a question on the text just covered. You should find that you have excellent recall of the page – better in most cases than when you use your normal reading technique.

See the video below:

2. Mind Maps

Don’t make notes on a page, use mind maps. A mind map is a visual description of the material that you wish to study. Wherever possible single “trigger” words or short phrases should be used to represent what you are trying to summarise. Using multiple colours and diagrams, in addition to the structure of the mind map, helps even further in embedding the material into the memory. It works because the mind map is a closer representation of what is believed to have happens in the brain.

There are two main ways to create the mind map, use a pen and paper or use software. When using pen and paper the best way is to use A4 paper and multi-colour pens (I usually use a 4-in-1 pen to do it). Start in the middle of the page and draw out from there

You can see the effect of the use of colour and drawings above.

There is also software available to allow you to create mind maps on your computer. There are a range of offerings out there, the one I use is an open source program called freemind.

In my exam career I had excellent recall on the day of the exam (usually I could remember the full diagram). See the video below, this included Tony Buzan, the man credited with inventing the mind map.

Why not try these out, you never know they might just find a better way to study.

Note: These skills can be used every day in work, not just for study!