Summary of Course Taken

I’m a mature, third year Physiotherapy student and didn’t discover that I was dyslexic until I came to University. I found the volume of reading in the first year of my course overwhelming. I struggled with the time management of my studies as a result and quickly realised I needed to find a smarter way of studying. It took me on average 2 hours a day travelling to and from University; 2 hours loss of valuable study time! What I needed was to be able to consolidate the day’s lectures or revise my anatomy and physiology during this time.

Description of Strategies used.

To make use of my travelling time I dictated Netter’s Anatomy flash cards on to my Sony mini disk player,transferred them onto my computer and from there onto a CD. This meant I could play them at home on my PC whilst looking at the cards or listen to the recordings on my CD player whilst in my car. These have proved invaluable, particularly travelling to and from placement. I still use them now when travelling to keep my anatomy fresh.

I also found it difficult to structure essays and case studies. I would research the topic and make copious notes and even start to write paragraphs around them but got lost in the collage of notes that littered my bedroom floor. To help me formulate a structure I used Inspiration software. Inspiration software uses mind maps to help plan your essay and give structure to your thoughts. The mind maps are useful as a visual aid for revising, for outlining and pulling together essays and storing research notes such as web links, graphic and audio links. One of Inspiration’s features is a ‘rapid fire' function which allows you to get your ideas down as quickly as you think of them. The software also includes different templates covering a wide variety of subjects to guide if you’re stuck for ideas.

Having pulled my ideas together and produced the finished article I needed to ensure that I did not lose marks as a result of poor spelling. Using Spellex Medical Dictionary solved the problem as unlike the standard Spellex software it recognises medical terminology. There is also a function which links to the internet which not only gives the correct spelling but a definition of the word as well.

As mentioned earlier I often found the reading volume during my course daunting. As I am sure you will agree it can also be very tiring. To help me with this I used a programme called Texthelp which is designed to read word and pdf documents out loud. The software is easy to use and has a tutorial to guide you. Options can be tailored to suit your preference, ie reading voice, reading speed, pitch etc. Unfortunately, I have experienced a problem with my version (Read & Write 8) the speech didn’t always flow very well when reading pdf documents. It was stilted not following the punctuation in the text correctly. It would often pause at the end of a line rather than the end of a sentence and if there were subscript or superscript letters or numbers in the text the software would interpret these as full stops which interrupted the flow of reading which was quite irritating.

To help with revision and the practical side of our course one of our tutors made video clips of manipulations and treatments for patients which could be accessed via Blackboard. These could be viewed online at home, or University. Consoles were provided for use in the practical rooms on campus so that the videos could be accessed and techniques practiced at the same time.