Academic development workshops
We offer helpful insights into university life for high school students
Do you want to be a brilliant student? If so, check out this series of insightful and helpful advanced educational academic workshops. These are bite-sized quick tips that will give you a brief insight into the best methods of working to a tight schedule and submitting your assignments on time, and with better results. These tips come from an expert in academic excellence, and will result in a better performance at university and high school. They are also very handy for school leavers who want to start their higher education journey. ELT Central works in partnership with The Digest for these academic tutorials, and more will be added along the way, so subscribing to the channel is advisable.
Preparing for university: time management
Making the most of your study time is important at university, but it will also prepare you for life once you finish studying and go into the real world of working for a living. Making sure you allot the right amount of time to your studies is imperative if you want to get great grades and enjoy the social side of uni life too. It’s very easy to think that you only have a few hours a week to go to campus, but in reality this is now your full-time job, and you have to treat it as such. Check the video we made in partnership with The Digest for a full rundown of how you can make the most of your time at uni.
Overcoming the most common mistakes in academic English
The one thing you will almost certainly have to do while you’re at university is write assignments, reports or essays. Getting everything right isn’t easy; even if you’ve just been through high school, there are many mistakes that will quite probably have become fossilised, and you probably don’t even realise you make them. This video will help you recognise and overcome the most common mistakes second language (and many native) speakers make.
Getting your sentences right, with a small focus on grammar
The amount of student work we see that falls short on basic sentence structure is staggering. Even the most simple sentences need a proper structure, and once you begin writing formal academic English, it gets more difficult. This video will teach you how to form basic sentences that you can then build on, and work into more complex and intricate paragraphs. It will really help with your assignments and essays.
How to make great summary notes
Just scraping a Pass at university is probably not going to be enough. In this day and age, when looking for potential employees, more and more businesses look for grade scores. This is due to the amount of students currently earning degrees. We make these clips so that you can to get the best possible results from your hard work. If you’re going to get a degree, get the best grade you can. These Student Survival Study Skills video series will go a long way to helping you get a better grade at university whether you’re at foundation, undergraduate or postgraduate level. This clip shows you the easiest way of making effective notes and the importance of summarising. It also has some invaluable inside info on making referencing easier.
An introduction to research
This is a brief introduction to research that aims to help students who are new to university or about to finish high school. This handy clip provides you with some great insights into how to go about researching your subject. There are tips on citing and referencing, which is incredibly important, and it will show you how to cite within your text, and build a reference list for your sources in the correct format, and remember, don’t cheat in your university work.
Citing and referencing APA style
This clip will help all students who use APA referencing in their assignments. APA is the most common referencing system in higher education and research, and so this clip will prove invaluable to many of those in higher education and/or conducting research. Chicago and Harvard are a little bit different, and we will bring you a clip for those too, but as APA is the most common that’s the one we began with. If you don’t cite and reference properly, you could be guilty of plagiarism: whether you mean it or not!
Paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism
Paraphrasing is one of the most difficult aspects of academic writing, and to master it takes time. In this helpful step-by-step guide, we take you through the best practices and best methods of learning how to paraphrase. There are examples and exercises that you can try, with advice and demonstrations of genuine paraphrased work.
Step by step guide to writing a great essay
There are plenty of students who find the most difficult thing to do at university is to write an essay. This clip walks you through every step of the way, from forming your ideas to getting all the right kind of resource material, and making your reference list on the go. We will take you through the process of planning, researching, using referenced material, paraphrasing, building, structuring and completing a 1,500 word essay. You will learn how to form an effective thesis statement, use in text citations, and make your work flow in a logical manner. It’s a seriously handy step by step guide to writing a great essay. These tips can save you a huge amount of time and hassle, and I’m sure you will thank us for passing on these helpful guides.
Writing a killer literature review
This clip is designed to give you all the information you need to write a killer, Godzilla literature review. In this video tutorial I used my most recent paper as an exemplar; and it will guide you every step of the way from start to finish, with all the necessary information you need to make your lit review better – or even completely brilliant! It could be the best half hour of learning you ever have.
How to study effectively: tutorial 1
This is the first of a series of two helpful clips to help students in their studies. Setting up the series, in this tutorial I describe my journey from manual labourer to higher education lecturer and give advice on how students should challenge themselves and their teachers. It also provides a great insight into how you can develop your skills as a student.
How to study effectively: tutorial 2
After years of being in the education sphere, and attaining a Bachelor and two Master degrees, teaching at seven higher education institutions in five different countries, lecturing in critical and creative thinking, lecturing in academic development, and penning a total of nine books, ELT Central founder, Andy Pacino, gives an insight into how to study smart, and how to get a better grade without working too hard.