Written by John Morris for The Correspondent, newsletter for UW's correspondence students. What's the secret to success at school? A UW psychology professor may have the answer for students worried about how they'll fare in the world of books, lectures -- and audio-tapes. In fact, Dr. Bob Seim gives more than a dozen study tips to students taking his courses, offered both by correspondence and on campus. His main field is educational psychology, and he hastens to stress that it's highly relevant in the classroom. To prove his point, he spends his entire first lecture explaining why that's the case. "It's not just useless theory," Seim says in an interview at his office in UW's Teaching Resources and Continuing Education office, where he holds the additional title of distance education adviser. His particular field is rooted in fundamental research done throughout the discipline of psychology. "Here's an opportunity to see how all this basic research that psychologists have done with rats and other seemingly nonsense things can have meaning in the classroom," he says. Drawing on this body of knowledge, Seim attempts to show how students can boost their learning abilities. First, students must understand how learning occurs -- in other words, how the mind receives, processes and retains information. "We also have to look at the student as a receiver of this information and recognize that the person has to be in the best state to do it," Seim says. "We have to find out the student's preferred learning style." That was the topic of a well-attended lecture he gave at last fall's correspondence open house, when he engaged participants in the intriguing search of their personal learning styles. The latest research, he notes, demonstrates that all information processed in our heads enters by means of the senses. "If it doesn't get in through the senses, then as far as we are concerned it doesn't exist." The three senses considered necessary for effective learning are vision (sight), audition (hearing) and tactile (touch). "Some people do better in the auditory mode than in the visual mode or the tactile mode," Seim says. "In other words, they learn best by listening to the lecturer. "Others prefer to process information with their eyes -- reading or watching -- while still others require a hands-on experience, such as writing down the information." Whatever their choice, students must do something with the information obtained in a lecture. They must rehearse it immediately or risk losing 50 per cent within the next 24 hours. "They have to focus on it in order to retain it in their 'memory box'," Seim says. "You're rehearsing the information, even if you are having an argument in your head with what the instructor is saying. Without rehearsal, learning doesn't happen." For correspondence students, determining their personal learning style is particularly crucial so they can make the most of distance education's varied ways of packaging course materials. "In some courses the greatest weight is put on tape, and that means the auditory preferred person has the advantage over the visually preferred person," he says. "So a visual person had better recognize that they have to approach the material in a different way." How? Take thorough notes of the taped lectures. And when studying, the visually preferred student should review those notes, instead of listening again to the tapes. What about the tactile types? "They benefit best from hands-on experiences, and correspondence students should create their own," Seim says. As an example, he urges students taking his course on exceptional children to arrange a visit to a local school and attend a class of such pupils. "I can explain to my students in my tapes and notes what the children are like, but nothing beats seeing them in action in a classroom." When it comes to figuring out personal learning styles, Seim offers up a few ideas. Correspondence students, for instance, can find out by approaching the guidance counsellor at a local school for an assessment. Or they can turn to how-to-study books. "A number of them have been written by experts in educational psychology -- those are the ones you should be seeking." Learning can also be enhanced by analysing the content of a course, Seim says. "You can make a determination of the learning style that the course is favouring, and if it is favoring a style that isn't yours then convert the material to your learning style." So if the course is made up entirely of audio-tapes, and that's not your best learning mode, then you should take copious notes of the lectures. Equally important, from a student's standpoint, is the teaching style. "If you know the prof is giving information a certain way, it helps if you look for information in that way," Seim says. "You get some professors who give students a fair amount of liberty, and they expect the student to dig out a lot of material. Others are very didactic and they spell it all out." And knowing the prof's preferred style will give students a good idea of the type of test planned for the course. For example, if the professor during a lecture emphasizes a point ("This is an important concept") students should be doubly attentive. Research indicates that one quick way to boost learning is to have a study nook at home. "It puts you in the mind- set when you walk in, but the kitchen table won't do because it is associated with eating and other activities," Seim says. If you get bored, however, take a break and leave the study area. The idea is to keep the area as sacrosanct as possible, without distractions such as the radio or TV. "But absolute silence is not necessarily good," Seim says, "because then any kind of a noise draws your attention." Play soft music, instead. Last but not least, sit in a firm chair and keep the room temperature at a comfortable setting.