Unit:

Study and Communication Skills

Assignment title:
Paper A
Autumn 2022

Important notes
 Please refer to the Assignment Presentation Requirements for advice on
how to set out your assignment. These can be found on the NCC Education
website. Click on ‘Policies and Procedures’ on the main menu and then
navigate to ‘Student Support’.
 You must read the NCC Education document Academic Misconduct Policy
and ensure that you acknowledge all the sources that you use in your work.
These documents are available on the NCC Education website. Click on
‘Policies and Procedures’ on the main menu and then navigate to ‘Student
Support’.
 You must complete the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work. The
form is available on the NCC Education website. Click on ‘Policies and
Procedures’ on the main menu and then navigate to ‘Student Support’.
 All electronic media will be checked for plagiarism.
Learner Portfolio
You will use this Learner Portfolio to:
1. Record your learning style/s
2. Evaluate your study skills at the beginning of your study on the module
3. Plan for improvement in areas of weakness
4. Identify your goals for each topic
5. Identify barriers to successful achievement of your goals
6. Devise strategies to help you to overcome those barriers
7. Reflect on your achievements

Task 1 – 10 Marks
Self-evaluation and planning for successful study
You will need to evaluate your own study skills, explaining how you have developed them
and how you plan to improve areas that are less well developed. You will need to ask
yourself why you have been successful or unsuccessful, why you are strong or weak in
certain areas and identify what you need to change or improve. Please remember to:
 Write the date on each entry.
 Make sure you have clear handwriting or neatly-formatted typing and strong
presentation standards.

Task 2 – 10 Marks
Goal setting
For Topics 2, 3, 4 and 5 you are required to review the Learning Outcomes from that topic
and reflect on your own learning, identifying what you have achieved, the skills you have
used and what was successful and/or unsuccessful. You will then set yourself goals that
will help you to improve.

Your goals should be SMART:

 Specific – you should describe each goal clearly
 Measurable – It should be possible to know when you have achieved your goals
 Achievable – You should set goals that you can reasonably achieve while you are
studying the module
 Realistic – You should set goals that are realistic to your abilities and relevant to
your study
 Timely – You should think about the specific length of time it will take to achieve
your goals

Task 3 – 5 Marks
Reflection and re-evaluation
In this task, you will be required to reflect on how you have developed your study skills
throughout your study of Topics 1 to 8. You should explain what you consider you have
been successful and also less successful at and what further developmental activity you
need to undertake.

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Guidance
 You will practise reflecting on, analysing and setting goals during the Study and
Communication Skills module. If you are unsure how to write any of the above,
you should speak to your teacher.
 Do not write about your personal life, e.g., details about meeting friends, watching TV
or how you spend your free time should not be in your Learner Portfolio.
 You do not need to worry about how well you achieve your goals. You will only be
judged on how well you can reflect on and analyse your study skills and abilities and
your ability to select appropriate goals.

Submission requirements
The portfolio can be handwritten or typed. It must be in English.

Candidate checklist
Please use the following checklist to ensure that your work is ready for submission.

Have you read the NCC Education document Academic Misconduct Policy and
ensured that you have acknowledged all the sources that you have used in your 
work?
Have you completed the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work form and
attached it to your assignment? You must do this. 

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 Learner Portfolio
Task 1

Topic 1

Date: 18.3.2022

The survey indicates that my learning style/s is/are:

The survey indicates that my learning styles are reading and writing. I chose them because I prefer
to take notes and I like to do my assignments through worksheets, presentations and texts. Moreover,
I am also a social learner because I love doing quizzes and group activities. Also, I personally
think group activities can enhance communication skills and can even lead to understand new ideas.

Which learning tools and teaching methods do you enjoy the most? Give reasons for your
answer.
According to my preference, I like active learning method. Through active learning, I believe
students can be engaged well in class and will eventually be comfortable. Although a ctive
learning is in variety of forms, since its core purpose to make sure the students are
involved in class actively, I enjoy it the most. For learning tools, I favor ipad and laptop.
This is because I can take notes thoroughly through the ipad and Iaptops are very
convenient to write assignments and to research.

Which learning methods do you least like, and why?

I think each teaching methods can be benefit in their own ways. But if I were to mention my
least favorite teaching method, I would say “teacher-centered” approach. This is because
through this style, student learning is only measured through scored tests without any
group engagements.
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Now use the grid and tables below to:

1) Evaluate your skills and abilities

To begin the process, it is important that you know which study skills and competencies
you have already acquired and the level to which they are developed. These may have
been developed at school, in other former study or in previous employment.

Using the grid below, assess your level of competence in each area.

Competency/
Skill Low High

Reading 1 2 3 4 5

Note taking 1 2 3 4 5

Writing 1 2 3 4 5

Listening 1 2 3 4 5

Numeracy 1 2 3 4 5

Reflective learning 1 2 3 4 5

Organisational skills 1 2 3 4 5

Time management 1 2 3 4 5

IT skills 1 2 3 4 5

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(2) Give examples
It is important that you base your evaluation on examples. For example, if you believe you
are excellent at reading, what kind of reading material are you basing this on, why is this
so and how would you demonstrate this ability?

Skill/competency How have you acquired/demonstrated this?

Reading I have enhanced this skill by reading a lot of texts from textbooks.
By having to read during my research for assignments, I assume my
reading skills have improved a little.

Numeracy Honestly, I love using numeracy. I still am learning numeracy until

now and I think I am good at it because I’ve been using it since high
school.
Time management I usually draw timetables to access my time management. I
systematically mark the dates, the deadlines and make a to-do list. I
think that’s why I have improved my time management skills.

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(3) Plan
A key to successful learning is the ability to identify your own individual learning needs.
For example, if your ability to be a successful learner is compromised because your
organisational skills are poor, what strategies will you put in place to address this? Your
ability to evaluate your own study skills and devise plans to improve areas of weakness
should continually grow as you progress into further education and study.

Going back to your self-evaluation, consider the competencies/skills which you have
identified as being at a lower level and plan how you could improve in those areas. Set out
your objectives in the table below. You need not be constrained by the areas in the grid at
Stage 1. You may have identified other skills that you would like to develop and you can
identify a plan for achieving these.

Skill/competency Action plan to develop

Listening I am trying to do more listening exercises. Also, I believe watching a
lot of movies and tv shows with English subtitles can help me improve
my listening skills too. Moreover, I am currently trying to boost my
listening skills by listening to audio books and songs.
Writing For writing skills, the only way to improve my writing skills to write
various topics as many as I could. Besides, in order to improve my
writing skills, I believe I should read more books and articles.
Through reading, I could learn more vocabulary and sentence
structure.
IT skills I consider watching more tutorial videos on youtube to upgrade my IT
skills. Plus, I would ask my friends who can apply their IT skills well
to help me out.

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Task 2

Topics 2 – 5

You should prepare this log after you have completed each topic.

Date: 19.3.2022

What are the Learning Outcomes for Topic 2?

In my opinion, the Learning Outcomes for Topic 2 are the ability to organize, the ability to
comprehend the related subjects and the ability to speak out without any fear.

What I achieved/didn’t achieve in Topic 2 and why. What examples can I give as evidence
of this?
I didn’t achieve in public speaking skills and I’ve always had difficulty in it. In class, whenever
I was assigned to any sort of topic to speak in class, I always feel nervous and stutter.

Skills I used in Topic 2.

The skills I used in Topic 2 are reading the textbooks and note taking skills. By reading
the textbooks regularly, I have enhanced my reading skills. Besides, I have improved my
organization skills through note taking.

Reasons why I think I was successful / unsuccessful.

(Did you complete everything? Achieve your goals? What went well and why? What didn’t work and why?
Provide examples to illustrate your point.)
I suppose I was successful because doing the skills I’m good at and afraid of definitely helped
me to become a better person. For example, I have already applied both of my reading skills
and note-taking skills in my assignments and studies.

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Changes/improvements I need to make. How will these changes benefit me?
Given the fact that I didn’t achieve in public speaking skills, I think I need to improve bit by bit
in it. Plus, by doing so, I believe I’ll be able to boost my self-confidence and communication skills.

Date: 20.3.2022

What are the Learning Outcomes for Topic 3?

The learning outcomes for Topic 3 are proof-reading skills and self-analysis skills.

What I achieved/didn’t achieve in Topic 3 and why. What examples can I give as evidence
of this?

I achieved recognizing the key points skills. I like to manage things accordingly and I
usually highlight the key points to understand the subject. It helped me to understand
the topic better. Plus, it’s easier to self-review before the exam. Through that, I have also
improved my organization skills.

Skills I used in Topic 3.

I used note-taking in lectures. I usually make the keypoints and pay attention to the teacher
while taking the notes in important parts.

Reasons why I think I was successful / unsuccessful.

(Did you complete everything? Achieve your goals? What went well? What didn’t work? Please give specific
examples.)
I think I was successful except for guessing meaning skills. I don’t think it’s very nice to imply
In real life because I personally think instead of guessing meaning, doing a through research
and analysis is much easier to have the actual answer.

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Changes/improvements I need to make. How will these changes benefit me?
As I have mentioned in previous topics, I need to make changes in my public speaking practice
and assessment. The changes will help me realize that facing my fear can definitely change
me and notice my true capabilities.

Date: 21.3.2022

What are the Learning Outcomes for Topic 4?

The Learning Outcomes for Topic 4 are the research skills and organization skills.

What I achieved/didn’t achieve in Topic 4 and why. What examples can I give as evidence
of this?
I achieved in note taking skills. As I have already mentioned beforehand, I tend to pay attention in
every lecture and take notes, so, I am confident to say I have achieved in it.

Skills I used in Topic 4.

I used essays planning and organizing notes. Whenever I write an essay, I firstly plan the prompt,
the structure and guidelines regarding the topic. When I do that, I sometimes use the help of my
notes that I have organized.

Reasons why I think I was successful / unsuccessful.

(Did you complete everything? Achieve your goals? What went well? What didn’t work? Please give specific
examples.)
In my opinion, I suppose I was successful because through doing research on texts, articles
and websites, I have improved my research skills. Now, I can do the given assignments quickly
through related references without hesitation.

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 Changes/improvements I need to make. How will these changes benefit me?
I need to make changes in accessing libraries and reading strategies. By doing so, I believe
I will improve development of learning skills, developing critical thought, developing values,
altitudes and assisting with developmental tasks.

Date:22.3.2022

What are the Learning Outcomes for Topic 5?

The Learning Outcomes are the proof-reading skills and public speaking skills.

What I achieved/didn’t achieve in Topic 5 and why. What examples can I give as evidence
of this?
I didn’t achieve in academic style. I still am struggling against it. Whenever I was assigned to do it,
I tend to make mistakes.

Skills I used in Topic 5.

I used journal and articles-based research skills. I believe journals and articles are easier to look
online and understandable. I also improved on proof reading and checking my grammatical errors.
Last but not least, I came to understand how to use the citations and references properly. (such as
APA, Oxford etc. )

Reasons why I think I was successful / unsuccessful.

(Did you complete everything? Achieve your goals? What went well? What didn’t work? Please give specific
examples.)
I think I was successful. With everything that were mentioned in topic 5, I became a
quick thinker with impressive researching skills. Although I didn’t achieve in academic style,
I no longer have difficulty in my proof reading skills and analyzing skills.

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 Changes/improvements I need to make. How will these changes benefit me?
I need to make improvements in critical reading. Although I’m good at reading, critical reading is
on whole another level. Changing in it will benefit me into a perfect researcher with great
analyzing skills.

Task 3
End of unit reflection

Date: 23.3.2022

Look at the self-evaluation that you carried out in Task 1. Complete the exercise
again.
Throughout the Task 1, I have acknowledged the plethora of teaching methods and learning
styles. I eventually found out my favorite ones. Also, I have learnt how to be effective in following in
those.

In what areas have you improved? Please provide specific examples.

I have improved in proof-reading, note-taking skills. Through reading a lot of resources
when I did my research, I have known how to browse the data and how to check for plagiarism.
Plus, I think I also enhanced my organization skills. I make better notes and organize them
accordingly.

Why do you think you improved in those areas? Please provide specific examples.
I improved in those areas because I practiced them repeatedly. I correct my mistakes and
I look for solutions whenever I face any kind of difficulties. For example, when I was doing my
research, I had had a hard time in looking for a fruitful resource. However, going over and over in
different articles patiently helped me big time.

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 Are there any areas which you need to focus on for your future study? What are they?
Why do you need to focus on these areas and how are you going to do this?

Most importantly, I believe I must improve in my public speaking skills. This is because I always have anxiety
whenever I try public speaking. My knees are shaken and I tend to stutter. I have decided to face it and practice it whenever I
get a chance. I’ll practice with a small group of friends. I’ll make presentations in class. I’ll also practice my public speaking
skills by engaging in group activities. By trying my best , I believe I can change myself into a confident person who isn’t afraid
of the public.

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