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PROGRAMME FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ASSESSMENT 2000 - SCOTLAND ANALYSIS
Study Skills
8. In general, those students who apply some sort of method to their studying do better than those who do not. This is particularly noticeable when students take the time to work out what they need to learn and what are the most important aspects to be studied, as well as concentrating on concepts they have not fully understood. Students who concentrate on memorising material so that they can recite it tend to perform worse than those who use other methods of studying.
Table 23a Percentage of students by responses to questions on study techniques, Scotland
Proportion of 15 year olds who reported that, when they study: | Scotland |
Almost never | Sometimes | Often | Almost Always |
| they start by figuring out exactly what they need to learn | 4% | 21% | 42% | 33% |
| they make sure that they remember the most important things | 1% | 13% | 44% | 41% |
| they memorise as much as possible | 3% | 20% | 43% | 34% |
| they memorise all new material so that they can recite it | 17% | 43% | 29% | 11% |
| they practice by saying the material to themselves over and over | 14% | 33% | 32% | 22% |
| they force themselves to check to see if they remember what they have learned | 7% | 31% | 39% | 22% |
| they try to figure out which concepts they still haven't really understood | 3% | 30% | 46% | 21% |
| and they don't understand something, they look for additional information to clarify this | 6% | 30% | 39% | 25% |
| they try to understand the material better by relating it to things they already know | 3% | 28% | 47% | 21% |
| they figure out how the information might be useful in the real world | 18% | 36% | 35% | 11% |
Table 23b Performance on the PISA reading literacy scale of students by responses to questions on study techniques, Scotland
Mean reading scores of 15 year olds who reported that, when they study: | Scotland |
Almost never | Sometimes | Often | Almost Always |
| they start by figuring out exactly what they need to learn | 490 | 511 | 526 | 542 |
| they make sure that they remember the most important things | * | 486 | 525 | 543 |
| they memorise as much as possible | 519 | 514 | 526 | 536 |
| they memorise all new material so that they can recite it | 547 | 530 | 522 | 500 |
| they practice by saying the material to themselves over and over | 525 | 529 | 529 | 524 |
| they force themselves to check to see if they remember what they have learned | 492 | 515 | 535 | 544 |
| they try to figure out which concepts they still haven't really understood | 481 | 505 | 533 | 554 |
| and they don't understand something, they look for additional information to clarify this | 490 | 512 | 532 | 550 |
| they try to understand the material better by relating it to things they already know | 504 | 507 | 535 | 540 |
| they figure out how the information might be useful in the real world | 539 | 535 | 515 | 521 |
* based on too few responses to be valid
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