ASSESS YOUR ACADEMIC SKILLS Postgraduate Get Ahead July 2013

What are academic skills?  Complex, interrelated, transferrable  Crucial to being an effective learner  Go hand in hand with academic content Examples of skills?

Time management and organisation Do you:  have strategies to help you plan and organise your time?  know how much time you have available for your studies?  know what makes studying more effective for you (i.e. when and where you study best)?  keep a diary or calendar so you know when to attend lectures and when assignments are due?

Reading Can you:  select and use different reading strategies (e.g. skim, scan, in-depth)?  think about what you need to find out before you start reading (are you reading to verify facts, to understand a subject in general or to analyse a particular argument)?  critically evaluate reading?

Note making Can you:  make effective notes when reading?  make effective notes when listening (e.g. during lectures)?  do you have a way of organising your notes?

Critical thinking Can you:  distinguish between fact and opinion?  draw conclusions based on evidence?  account for different points of view and detect bias?  see the wider picture?  do you know the difference between description, analysis and evaluation?

Expressing yourself in public Can you:  use strategies to engage and influence your audience?  express agreement and disagreement while considering other points of view?  summarise a discussion?  structure an argument properly for presentations?  use PowerPoint to tell your story effectively?

Writing Can you:  express your ideas clearly in written form?  make an outline of what you are going to write?  write in clear sentences and paragraphs?  link your ideas in a logical order?  use correct grammar?  develop your own argument?  identify your audience and write in an appropriate register?

Quoting and referencing Do you know:  when you need to quote directly?  when you need to reference?  what it means to plagiarise?  what the difference between in text references and footnotes/endnotes is?  how to construct a reference list?  what a style guide is?

Library and IT skills  Two key skill areas  Includes finding materials (in print and online), research and producing documents and  Support and training is provided through the Library and IT Services

Where to get more help  Birkbeck Library has a website with books on different academic skills that links to the catalogue. It is available at:  Academic Development Workshops are available at Birkbeck. More information can be found at:  There are interactive tutorials to help you develop various skills available on the Get Ahead Stay Ahead website at:  The Library has an induction tutorial available at: and more general Library information is available at:  IT Services has workshops and information available at:

Where to get more help Centre for Learning and Professional Development Dr Jennifer Fraser Administrator

Useful texts Tom Burns & Sandra Sindfield Essential Study Skills: The Complete Guide to Success at University, 3 rd ed. London: Sage. Martin Davies Study Skills for International Postgraduates. London: Palgrave. Inger Furseth & Euris Larry Everett Doing Your Master’s Dissertation. London: Sage. Angela Thody Writing and Presenting Research. London: Sage. Mike Wallace & Alison Wray Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates, 2 nd ed. London: Sage. Gina Wisker The Postgraduate Research Handbook, 2 nd ed. London: Palgrave.