Improve Your Ability to Learn
At Learning Resource Services (LRS), students can develop strategies to optimize the way they learn, study, organize and take tests.
“Students often find their way here when they want to maximize their learning potential in this rigorous academic and clinical training environment,” said Peggy Ryan, Learning Specialist in LRS, part of Student Life at UCSF.
Every UCSF student is eligible to utilize Learning Resource Services, where students consult with a specialist in learning techniques to develop strategies customized to their strengths and designed to enable them to improve their learning, better organize their study time, hone their writing techniques, use memory more effectively, and prepare for exams and presentations thus reducing the stress associated with test taking.
“A good deal of evidence-based information is currently coming out of the Science of Learning field about practices that promote effective learning,” said Ryan. “Our objective in LRS is to make this information available to students along with the ‘tried and true’ methods that have worked for students in this environment in the past.
“If we can further show them how to customize those strategies to fit their collective and individual needs, they will then have valuable skills for lifelong learning.”
In addition to individual consultations, LRS offers group consultations for students who study together and, at the request of the various UCSF schools, workshops for classes or larger groups.
The workshops are developed individually in collaboration with a School to address the specific needs and interests of students within that school. Some examples of the types of workshops routinely offered are:
Your Brain on MEPN (Master’s Entry Program in Nursing)
Academic Skills for the Physical Therapy Program (Creating a Study Plan and Effective Learning Strategies)
Preparing for the Test and Reducing Stress around Test-Taking
“At all stages of education, students basically have to be able to do two things,” said Ryan. “They have to be able to learn, and they have to be able to demonstrate what they’ve learned. LRS is here to assist students in figuring out how to do that effectively and efficiently in the UCSF environment.”
Check out the LRS website (learn.ucsf.edu) or call 415/502-1484 or email JoAnn.Lopez@ucsf for an appointment. The LRS offices are located at the Parnassus campus MU 108W.
Your learning specialists are Peggy Ryan, point person for students in the Graduate Division, the Physical Therapy Program, the School of Dentistry, and the School of Nursing, and Susan Whitlow, point person for students in the School of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy.
