Academic skills development

Students talk about how they build academic skills and good study habits.

Developing your academic skills is crucial to your success at the University of Melbourne. These skills include critical thinking and reading, note-taking, speaking and presenting, and academic reading and writing.

Academic skills go hand in hand with good study habits like preparing for classes, seeking out and reflecting on feedback and keeping up with reading and attendance in classes.

You will have already started developing these skills and habits in your previous studies, but you may find expectations become higher as you progress.

What are academic skills?

Explore the drop down links to learn more about the main categories of academic skills, and find resources that will help you to develop in each area.

  • Work on your reading skills to:

    • Become familiar with key concepts and technical vocabulary in your subjects
    • Learn about different perspectives on the topics you encounter
    • Engage with literature to use in your academic writing
    • Enable the development of your own ideas.

    Reading and note taking is a good place to start.

  • Listening skills are important for you to be able to:

    • Understand what lecturers, tutors and other students are saying
    • Participate fully in classes
    • Make notes of important information.

    Getting the most out of lectures covers some key learning strategies to try in lectures, while Listening techniques is a great resource for students who want to boost their English language listening skills.

  • It’s common for students to feel a little nervous about speaking up at first, but the more you develop your speaking skills, the easier it will be for you to:

    • Raise questions or points in class about topics you find interesting
    • Have discussions with other students
    • Deliver presentations with confidence.

    Visit Communicating in class and Listening and speaking for a range of resources on how to improve these skills.

  • Improving your writing skills will help you succeed in your assessment tasks and will also enable you to:

    • express your ideas about the topics in your subjects
    • showcase your learning

    Explore our range of resources on all aspects of developing your writing skills at Reading, writing and referencing

  • Study skills are all the things you need to manage your time, thinking and tasks effectively. Some examples of study skills are:

    • seeking out and engaging with feedback,
    • managing revision for exams, and
    • working effectively with peers and teachers.

    For tips to expand your toolkit of skills and strategies, explore our resources on Study skills

This is the end of this module. To support you to keep developing your study and communication skills Academic Skills provides resources, workshops and one-on-one advice. Explore our services and resources to find out more or get in touch with us at academic-skills@unimelb.edu.au.