Study skills

Looking to get your study skills up to speed for university? Probably not – the first three months of any course are generally filled with trying to drink or spend away the annual textbook budget in a burst of hedonism after being released from the restrictions of home and college. If and when you do come across some specific aspect of academic life that you feel needs some extra support, there are loads of helpful resources to get you started.

Bloomberg Study Skills

Publisher Bloomberg now offer a series of videos on topics from learning strategies, note taking tactics, critical and analytical thinking skills, sustainable living, and more. Doubtless each lesson will end with a massive advertisement for one of their study skills books but you can safely ignore those. There are plenty of study skills books available in the Library and library staff will be more than happy to help you find what you need.

Just one little caution with referencing advice – every University has its own specific referencing style and ours is explained in an easy to at Referencing@Portsmouth. Other sources of referencing advice, and quite often referencing tools, tell you the wrong thing.

Click the blue/white [ r ] button on the library website and choose your referencing style, which unless you are studying Pharmacy, Biomedical Science, or Law, will be APA 7th ed. Library staff are really happy to help with referencing as well. Just click the big blue chat button on the right side of our website or pop in to the Duty Librarian office off the Library Atrium (the big entrance area – it’s on your left at the far end from the entrance and clearly signposted) and speak with the duty librarian. The duty librarian lives in a small corner of the main office that you can wander into from the Atrium just waiting to help anyone getting started or getting stuck finding information, discovering or getting to grips with library resources, and referencing things they have used.

Study skills on MyPort

There are a whole host of learning resources on MyPort that help you discover how you learn best and linking to LinkedIn Learning, which offers comprehensive training in pretty much anything you can imagine.

Tips and tools on the Library website

The Wellbeing pages on the Library website all offer bite-sized guidance on tools and sustainable study, from tools that convert text to an mp3 audio book to collage tools for the visual learners among you and tips on reading for relaxation and resilience.