Students at Chester College International School in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, recently took part in a four-day Study Skills Workshop designed to help them study more effectively, organise their workload and strengthen long-term memory.
Led by specialist staff from the Instituto da Familia in Ourense, the sessions — held across February and March — introduced practical strategies for concentration, revision, planning and note-taking. The workshop provided students with a range of study skills and revision techniques that they can apply throughout their academic journey.
If you are reading this as a student, you might like to make a note of some of these ideas too — many of them can make studying both easier and more effective.
Day 1: Understanding How We Learn and Building Study Habits
The first session focused on understanding how learning works and how study habits can affect concentration and performance.
Students explored different learning styles — visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (movement-based) — and reflected on which approaches help them learn most effectively. Recognising personal learning preferences can help students choose study strategies that suit them best.
The importance of physical wellbeing for learning was also highlighted. Hydration, for example, plays an important role in concentration and cognitive performance. Students learned that even mild dehydration can reduce focus, so keeping water nearby when studying is a simple but valuable habit.
Students also discussed study environments and identified common habits that can reduce concentration, such as studying in bed — where the body associates the space with rest — or working in busy or noisy areas like kitchens or living rooms.
Instead, they were encouraged to create a calm, organised study space that supports focus and productivity.
The session also introduced time management strategies for students. A helpful method for prioritising tasks included:
- Starting with tasks of medium difficulty
- Moving on to the most challenging work
- Finishing with the easiest tasks
Students also learned two structured study routines:
- 40 minutes of study followed by a 10-minute break
- 20 minutes of study followed by a 5-minute break
These cycles help maintain concentration while preventing fatigue.
Day 2: Planning and Organisation
The second session focused on organisation and planning, two essential study skills.
Students were introduced to two key tools:
- A calendar, which provides a visual overview of deadlines and important dates
- A planner or agenda, which helps organise daily tasks and assignments
Students practised planning their month and breaking larger tasks into manageable steps.
A key message from the session was the importance of writing everything down instead of relying on memory alone, helping students stay organised and avoid unnecessary stress.
Day 3: Effective Summarising Techniques
The third session focused on summarising information effectively, an important part of successful revision.
Students were introduced to purposeful highlighting using a colour-coding system to organise information visually:
- Red – Titles
- Purple / Pink – Subtitles
- Orange – Names and dates
- Yellow – Main ideas
- Blue – Supporting details
- Green – Examples
This system helps students quickly identify key information and create clearer, more structured revision notes.
Day 4: Memory, Revision and Mind Mapping
In the final session, students applied the highlighting techniques to produce well-organised summaries. It was encouraging to see how effectively they used the colour-coding system to structure their notes.
Students were then introduced to the Forgetting Curve, which explains how quickly information can be lost if it is not reviewed.
They learned that memory can decline rapidly without revision:
- Up to 50% of information may be forgotten within an hour
- After one day, we may remember only around 40%
- After two days, retention can fall to 30%
- After three days, it may drop to 20%
However, the key message was encouraging: regular, spaced revision significantly improves memory retention and helps strengthen long-term learning.
The session also introduced mind mapping as a revision strategy. Mind maps help students organise ideas visually and encourage active learning.
Students practised how to:
- Place the central topic in the middle of the page
- Create main branches for key themes
- Add sub-branches for supporting information
- Use keywords rather than full sentences
- Include colour, symbols and images to strengthen memory
Finally, students explored mnemonics, memory techniques that use patterns such as acronyms, rhymes or phrases. Examples included:
- ROY G. BIV for the colours of the rainbow
- My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas for the planets
- Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants to spell because
These creative cues can make information easier to recall during assessments.
Supporting Independent Learning at Chester College
The workshop highlighted that successful learning is not simply about memorising information, but about using effective study strategies, organisation and active revision techniques.
At Chester College International School in Santiago de Compostela, we aim to equip students with the tools they need to study confidently, manage their workload and approach their learning with independence. Workshops like this form an important part of supporting students’ academic development and helping them build skills that will benefit them well beyond the classroom.
We are ever so grateful to the team from the Instituto da Familia in Ourense for delivering such engaging and valuable sessions for our students.