John Love Electrical Apprentices

Want to know how to use the eLearning site? Check this out:

Have you been thinking that you wish you could just download the videos for your study once and then be able to view it anytime? Well, now you can! Your favourite subjects are now available as a podcast, which is available here. You can either play it on your ipod, or you can just download it and play it on your computer. This means you only need to download ONCE, not everytime you get half way through!

Have you heard of Electrical Talk? It’s an online forum for electricians, and could provide you with some helpful tips, or just some insight into what your future career might be like!

I found this post, which has some great tips for apprentice electricians.

Sunshine Coast Exams:

Becker, Stevenson, and Spillios

Caboolture Exams:

Woods, Matthews

Brisbane Exams:

Scheepers, Christison

We all know what procrastination is- and we all do it! But when we are always procrastinating, we need to start to do something about it, otherwise we can suffer anxiety attacks which can lead to bad performance, and sometimes dismissal from our jobs.

So WHY do people procrastinate? Well, there are lots of reason, but some of them are:

1. Difficulty: What you’re doing might be just too hard for you with your current skill base.
2. Fear: If you’re afraid for whatever reason that you might fail, then you might procrastinate doing the task.
3. Priorities: Maybe when it’s a Thursday night you would rather go out with your friends then stay at home studying, which is fair enough, but which is going to get you to your goal?
4. Perfectionism: Maybe you think that you simply HAVE to get 100% on the exam, and so you put off doing it because you know deep down you won’t make it there.
5. Confused?: This is the one that stops me sometimes- I just don’t know where to start!! (tip: the beginning is always a good place to start- thanks Maria).
6. It justs sucks: You just don’t like what you have to do.

Want to know if you’re a procrastinator?? Well, saying yes to five or more of these means you are.

I often put off starting a task I find difficult
I often give up on a task as soon as I start to find it difficult.
I often wonder why I should be doing a task.
I often have difficulty getting started on a task.
I often try to do so many tasks at once that I cannot do any of them.
I often put off a task in which I have little or no interest.
I often try to come up with reasons to do something other than a task I have to do.
I often ignore a task when I am not certain about how to start it or complete it.
I often start a task but stop before completing it.
I often find myself thinking that if I ignore a task, it will go away.
I often cannot decide which of a number of tasks I should complete first.
I often find my mind wandering to things other that the task on which I am trying to work.

So you’ve found out that you are a bit of a procrastinator, and you know WHY you do it, but what can you do to stop??

1. Motivate yourself. Realise that it’s okay to make mistakes, and that with our course, there’s always a second try.
2. Reward yourself. Maybe you need to say to yourself, if you finish a chapter of study, then you can go our with your friends, or treat yourself to a pizza while you study the next chapter.
3. Break it down. Can you swallow an entire steak without taking a bite? I think not. You cut it up and eat it slowly. So the same with your study. Work on a learning outcome at a time.
4. Commitment. Be commited that if you start a task, you will finish it. This way you have a much higher moral because you know you are actually achieving things.
5. Get Help. Not sure how a question is meant to be worked out? Send us an email, or come see us for help! Or if you know someone who’s doing the same subject as you, or has already done that subject, as them for help!
6. Rotate. If you do a hard task, do an easy task next, then a hard one again, etc. etc. This will help you to acheive without being really over, or under whelmed.

Find out some interesting things about yourself when you do the following tests!

Your learning style.

Are you visual, aural, reading, or kinesthetic? Find our here.

Your emotional intelligence. People say that this test is a better indicator for success then an IQ test!

The multiple Intelligences.

And more here!

The SQRW strategy for reading text books is helpful because it helps you to focus, and get the information that you need- not all the confusing lingo and extra bits you don’t need!

Survey:- Similar to a brain storm, surveying is putting together everything you already know about the topic. This will help you focus on the subject, so that you’re mind is ready to learn about it. Have a look through the chapter you’re about to read and take note of the titles of sections, and spend time viewing the pictures. This will allow your mind to start processing the information before you get to it!

Question:- You need to know what you’re looking for! When I was in high school, for Ancient History, we had to have a main focus question, and then several questions underneath that were more detailed and specific to what we wanted to know. When you’re working on your focus questions, make sure you cover the who, what, when, why and how. You can form these questions based on the topics in the text book, which is easier.

Read:- Read through the chapter or section and answer the questions you’ve made. Remember to BE FLEXIBLE. If you can’t find the answer, then maybe you need to look for it at alternate sources, or you might find that you need to change the question, or make it into several questions.

Write:- This is obvisously writing down the answers to the questions you’ve made. A recommendation would be write down all the information, not just the main words. What makes sense to us while we’re reading a text book doesn’t always make so much sense when we’re re-reading it later! Also make sure that your handwriting is legible, and that you have answered the questions properly.

Another free tip is to go through the SQRW steps chapter at a time. Don’t brainstorm and write questions for every chapter you need to cover right at the beginning, or you will end up forgetting it, or becoming confused.

The RQWQCQ Strategy for Solving Math Word Problems is a great tool to help you comprehend what’s being asked of you, and how you can work out the answer.
Read:- read the problem, out loud helps. And drawing a picture, as you read it, helps as well.

Question:- Look in the problem and identify what the question actually is.

Write:- Write a list of the facts you need to answer the question. If the question gives you information, write it in, and if the question has extra information not needed for working of the answer, then cross that out.

Question:- Question yourself- “What formulas will I need to answer this??”

Compute:- Apply the formula, and compute!! Make sure you check your answers for accuracy.

Questions:- Ask yourself, “Is the answer I got possible? Is it probable?” If the answer is no to either of these, then check through it again.

Next Friday, 15th of February we’ve got a bucket load of you doing your exams!! They’ll be an email coming out to each of you, but also check below!!

Brisbane:

Jonathan Kearney (56/1)
Xavier Chaffey (56/1)
Dominik Hudak (56/1)
Jason Beer (56/1)

Sunshine Coast:

Joel Watson-Brown(56/1)
Peter Becker (163)
Dylan Trinder (56/2)
Peter Shaw (57/1)
Mitchel Heath (57/1)
Michael Farrier (57/1)
Peter Sippel (57/1)