Learning about learning

By the time you're contemplating sitting accountancy exams, you'll already be a seasoned, experienced learner. But despite this, many students find passing professional exams to be a real a challenge. Perhaps a little knowledge about how we learn can help make the process more efficient and effective.

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The learning process

In general terms it's hard to define learning so let's consider what you will need to do in order to pass your exams. You will have to respond appropriately to the questions set, applying skills you have acquired and knowledge that you recall to produce an answer. The knowledge will be stored away in your long-term memory so you need to know how to get it lodged there in the first place, and - just as importantly - how to get it out again in response to the questions.

You can think of part of the learning process as a way of overcoming a series of barriers and getting information firstly into your sense memory, then into your short-term memory and finally into your long-term memory.

First you have to sense the information. It sounds obvious but most of us have plenty of distractions that present a barrier to this initial step. Set aside a specific time for studying and try and reduce distractions as much as possible. Some people do this by going on a taught course, and course providers like BPP try and ensure that students are comfortable to help improve concentration.

Short-term memory

The next hurdle to overcome is your short-term memory. Short-term memory is aural (sound based) and it works better if you break things down into chunks. For example, to remember a long telephone number such as 8362955, it's easier if you break it down into smaller chunks such as 836 29 55. Similarly, it helps if you can break down your studies into chunks of information so you don't have to remember too much at once. Good study materials like those at BPP will be designed with this in mind.

Unfortunately there is no avoiding the fact that you will have to rote learn some material. You probably already know what method works best for you as each of us has our own style of learning. Try and use a variety of methods: listen to a tutor, look at notes and slides, write out proformas a few times. Some people even like to pace back and forth repeating key phrases.

Long-term memory

Unlike short-term memory, long-term memory is semantic which means it stores meaning. This makes it harder to recall a list of words of similar meaning (big, huge, large, enormous). Ideally you need to create understanding to learn easily and effectively. The early pioneering psychologists who studied this were called "constructivists" because they looked at how we construct meaning from our existing ideas and our experiences. When we encounter information it either fits with what we know (reinforcing our existing understanding) or it conflicts with our model of how the world works. We either reject the new information as a one-off anomaly or we change the way we think about the world. We work out which to do by experimenting, testing out our new understanding and seeing whether a new model works better than the old one. This is a pretty powerful form of learning. When you practise questions and get feedback (from your tutor or by checking the answer) you are engaged in this construction of meaning. Arguably you are learning most effectively when you get the answers wrong and then try and work out why.

Later psychologists looked further into this construction of understanding and analysed the social side of learning. You can speed up the whole process of testing out your understanding by sharing the experience with other people. If you discuss the material with your peers you will be challenged to explain your understanding and to address any inconsistencies in it. You can take it even further if you have an expert available to discuss the matter with because they can "scaffold" your learning. What that means is that by feeding you coherent bits of the subject, which they can pick out because they have an overall understanding of the subject, they can guide your understanding further than you could take it alone. When you attend a BPP taught course you will be learning by discussing ideas with your fellow students and in whole class discussions led by your tutor.

Practice makes perfect

Passing your exam is not just about recalling knowledge. You will need to have the skills to recall and apply the appropriate knowledge and that is where the practice and revision phase of your learning comes in. Some of this skills learning is almost like conditioning (you've probably heard of Pavlov's dogs who were conditioned to respond to a bell). Through repetition and reinforcement you can train yourself to respond correctly to different types of question, using proformas, planning and so on. This stage is all about practice and getting expert guidance from your BPP tutor to make sure that you are not establishing and reinforcing bad habits.

One way to overcome exam nerves is to "overlearn" these skills and key knowledge. It is hard to have enough self discipline to practise questions but it is hard to overstate the importance of this phase in your preparation. On a BPP revision course you'll not only be practising those key skills but you'll still be developing your understanding as you compare your answers to the question debriefs your tutors will go through.

The final straight

In the final stage your exam preparation is like getting ready for a marathon. You've done all the training and preparation but before the big day you need to make sure that you can put it all together and reach the finishing line. Your final rehearsal is a full mock exam. This is about making sure that you have got your time management sorted out. On a BPP revision course you'll have practised some questions under exam timing. BPP tutors can advise you about the best approach to different papers, issues like how much time to spend planning, which questions to tackle first, and if you have a choice of questions how to pick the one that is best for you. Now you put it all together.

However it's not just doing the mock that is important. An athlete would have a coach to give some hints and tips to tweak their performance for the big race and at BPP the feedback you are given about your mock will help you adjust your performance in the exam. On your marks, get set .