W200 first unit read and Study Skills

W200 update - unit 1 read

Just literally finished reading the first unit which covers what we covered in W100 - no new stuff to learn yet.  It covered for example what is the difference between a social/moral and legal rule.  Why do some social rules become law and others not.   A person spitting in the street is not commiting a crime however I think many people would consider it against a 'social rule', and a person cutting in front of you in a queue - you would not expect to see them in court over it (unless violence was involved), but once again a social rule has been broken, but a legal law hasn't - at least in the UK.  Then it covered the main differences between civil/criminal law, and sources of law.  The one thing I found slightly offputting by this unit was the amount of external links to the College of Law website - which isn't opening until the 22nd Jan, however because most of it was on items that had already been covered in W100 felt relatively confident to just read the comments on those activities and move on.

The way I studied the unit was to write down all the headings onto an index card, indenting them depending on what priority the unit gave them (whether this is the intention of the indents in W200 I am yet to figure out - however the assumption is a heading with 1. Sources of law is more important then 2.3.4 xxxx).  Then I went to the review section at the end of the unit and wrote those down as well on a seperate index card.  Then I went and read through the unit reading and making notes under each section title.  Now I have to decide whether to type up the notes so I can put them on my iphone so I can read them while I am out..  or to make a mind map - or do both.  I have attached a picture of the notes so far (bear in mind I have actually written them down double sided on the main notes, so 6 sides of large index cards and 2 single sided for the headings and overview):

Unit 1 notes for W200

It took me about 4-5 hours to read through unit 1 and make the notes.  Although I still to type them up or do a mind map etc. This unit however is an overview of what we have already studied in W200 - will be interesting to see how long it takes me to do unit 2.

Study skills

New facebook group

I have created a new group on Facebook called Study Skills for OU students.  Kept on seeing loads of posts dotted about on loads of different forums relating to study skills, so nice to have everything in one place.

Procrastination article

Procrastination: found a good website blog which details a lot of study tips.  One in particular caught my eye regarding procrastination - it says leave Facebook lol!  Here is the page - the specific leave Facebook article is about 4 posts down (the other posts are useful to read as well)

Tips for fighting procrastination

Book for studying?

Have just bought this book onto my Kindle - have no idea whether it is a good book or not but looked good from the reviews etc, will let you know if it is worth a read

Link to the Study Skills Essentials book on Amazon

Cats and studying

Every time I get my books out a certain moggie appears on my books, namely Ruby lol, common problem amongst us cat owners! - I have created her own little space to the right hand side, but she still prefers plonking herself right on my books!