techniques for learning verbatim
 

Currently on foundation course at college, and have written assessment in about 6 weeks times

looking for advice on good ways to learn a great deal of info verbatim, i know you'll have all been through it, so whats worked for you?

try and write out as much as you can over and over again. then just go over it out loud or in your head.

There are no shortcuts unfortunately. And it sucks. I hated it. just get on with it and remember you only need 70%

acronyms
 

Acronyms worked for most of us on my course. Some guys even had acronyms for their acronyms!

Agree with the other post about writing lists over and over. Most ATCs tend to be visual learners (as opposed to auditory or kinesthetic) so seeing it in black and white should help.

Also we used to use palm cards with a question written on one side and the answer written on the other side (sometimes the answer took two cards!) That way you can quiz yourself without accidentally cheating, plus helps with the repetition factor mentioned above. Also get together with some of the other students and quiz each other.

A friend of mine made tapes of questions (followed by a long pause and then the answer) and played them in the car so she could study while driving.

It seems like there's a lot to learn, I know. But don't worry, by the time you graduate, they will have rewritten, changed or deleted most of the procedures so you can learn them all over again! (Not cynical at all!) Good luck with your exams.

Suggest you show interest in the subject matter - and think about it, i.e. study the subject, after all, it's going to be the basis of your bread-and-butter. This is not a facetious comment, but I feel that some people view the necessary learning as merely a chore to be addressed in order to pass an exam.

Agree with 2 sheds. Try to understand what it means - it will pay off ten-fold when you have to start applying it for real.

Writing it out worked for me, as did running through it my head until I could do it parrot-fashion for the exams (that's what assessments were called in them days). And, whether it's useful or not I'm not sure, 30 years on I can still quote substantial parts of the MATS Part 1.......so long as nobody has gone and changed them in the intervening years!

And good luck with the assessment.

Agree with all of the above.

Plus; look for the obvious "shopping list" questions where a ready made and easily marked list is contained in the relevant bit of Mats part one or wherever. Eg, list the weather phenomena associated with SIGMET, you will note on the written paper that a number of marks will be given for the answer....this is usually a clue as to how many items will be in the full list.

Pretty much as above. For me writing out the question with the answer on the other side, followed by constant reading of the aforesaidmaentioned card worked for the verbatim stuff. Acronyms (with acronyms for the acronyms) also helped a lot. Discussion at the local watering hole helped with the understanding of the application. It must have worked as I passed!! In fact 30+ years later I can still quote a number of the answers verbatim

ex-egll (28(!!) course

Hello Ben,Looks like you have a lot of reading to do. Might be good to break it down into paragraph or list chunks and learn it from there.V

I agree with cards, question/answer over and over again til you know it! But as above make sure you actually understand what your learning word for word!! We had (64 cc) one person on the ADC got 100% in written but failed the oral, then re-sat it and passed with flying colours and is now a very experienced Area Controller. :ok:

Do they still give students a question bank ?

I didn't learn the way many students did as it didn't work for me. I would read and read and read , then would turn to the question bank and see if I could answer the questions. When I could I knew I was there.
No easy answer it is just down to sheer hard slog, but I think you will find years on we still remember most of it and verbatim.

ex-EGLL
Hi B.
Still a few of us ex 28 course about !!
I agree with you about acronyms. They worked with me. We started training in 1973 and to this day I can still remember some !!
Hope you're well.
C.

Agree with all the above...different ways to learn some found the cards a good way....personally i struggled with verbatim answers and only way was write it out again....and again...and again(brings back nightmares, was a bit like writing lines in detention at school) verbal questioning with colleagues can help.
The main thing is if you have a good understanding of it all this is key to the oral board....as that is not always book answers, a case of adapting written procedures into working knowledge.
Good luck:ok:

When at Luxenbourg - the instructors all but gave us copies of the exam papers - so the "verbatim" was kept to a minimum...

Centre of Excellence...

Hi C,

Still alive and kicking in the colonies. Got dragged over to the dark side a couple of years ago but still (mostly) enjoying it.

"Collect, collate, edit and disseminate aeronautical information necessary for the safe and efficient conduct of flight"

That and Rule 5 still stick prominently in my mind:ugh:

ex-egll

I know the pain you are going through - I failed every Area written exam first time around a few years ago and just scraped through some of the resits.

I just could not get the verbatim answers flowing! I thought I knew it the night before after spending hours talking to myself and writing them down again and again...at least you only had to resit the questions that you failed! However I did ok in oral boards and managed to accrue just one partly in my time there so maybe it balanced out in the end!

In addition to agreeing with the above advice is to not panic in the exam, and make sure you read the questions twice.

we're all different
 

Ben- vrs
Try the writing out bit then highlight key words ,I found that by recalling the key words, the rest followed.
Also three hours max studying. 1st hour reading ,making cups of tea, Cigar more tea more cigars ,look at clock think must get into it .Middle hour most productive ,last hour thinking of pub. Down the pub discuss any problems with fellow students argue the toss eventually reach a concensus, job done.
Enjoy it whilst you can.:ok:

I learnt every law in the book and could cite them parrot fashion up to the exam day. My advice would be to use the card system. For example, write "state rule 29" on the front of the card, then write the rule on the other side. Do this for every rule you need to learn then go out for a long walk (better than sitting in your room) and learn them keep reading and reciting them until it is second nature. Ther was only one thing I did not know for the exam which was one definition which I could not fit in to my head and I was too knackered to learn. It came up in the exam and I got 98%.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Very TastyHmm? Hmm? Jumpers for goalpoasts

Or the other way round....

Tired Virgins Make Dull Company.

This may make me sound a bit odd but I recorded a load of it onto my phone and then listened to it as I was going to sleep for a few weeks before the exam. Obviously I had to do all the writing it out etc as well but it seemed to help with retention. Good luck!!