Tracking and boosting your progress

If you have done any recent study college or completed a course that utilises modern learning methods you might have encountered something called a 'reflective log' or 'reflective diary'.

Your reflective log - often called a learning log, diary or journal - is a steadily growing document that you (the learner) will use to keep a record of your achievements and the way you feel about your learning.

You can keep a learning diary for any course that you undertake, or even for your daily work. The diary is a little bit more than just a summary of your work or a record of the things that you have done - it is a record of your 'reflections' and thoughts - the way you feel.

A reflective log gives a detailed answer to the questions "How am I getting on?" and "How did I do?"

You will benefit from keeping a reflective log simply because the fact that you are keeping a record of what you learn is an incentive to keep pushing ahead.

There's an old saying "you don't know what you know till you've written it down" - and several research studies have found this to be true. By telling yourself what you've learned, you can track the progress you've made. You also begin to notice the gaps in your knowledge and skills.

The Learning Progress Log (Main Log) provides space for you to keep reflective notes about your training in addition to a factual record of the sessions you have done and the material you have covered. You can record your thoughts on the specific 'Own thoughts/Reminders' pages in the Preparation Units and in the 'Notes' space on the log for Units 1 to 20.

When recording your thoughts you might include?

• The main points that you have learnt from any particular session/assessment

• How you might develop your practical skills as a result of a particular session/assessment

• How you might develop your knowledge and understanding as a result of a particular session/assessment

Here's a simple example of 'reflection':

"While working through the motivation section I realised that I am more unhappy in my current job than I have been acknowledging to myself - this has made me keen to progress. I found the stuff about towards and away motivation interesting, I think that a lot of my motivation is to move away from stuff that I'm not happy with at present. I find this writing a reflective diary thing a bit odd but I'm sure I'll get used to it"

The example above is probably the minimum you would need to write for the reflective element of your log to be useful, however you can write as much or as little as you like - as you develop new ideas and knowledge your log will become a powerful tool to help your learning and development.

Your Progress Log forms an integral part of your course and should be updated after every study session – we must advise at this point that the log is an essential element in helping you to succeed - failure to keep a proper log of your progress could invalidate your refund guarantee.

The Progress Log will enable:

• You to monitor your own progress
  
• You to target and revise areas of knowledge that can be improved
  
• Third parties (with your permission) to assess your progress/competence

The log contains a record of your progress through both the online and Trainer Assessed sessions of your ADI Course.

There is a log listing for every unit of the course – the options for recording progress vary slightly for different elements but include the following listings to complete when you have:

• Studied the material
  
• Completed the research
  
• Completed the project
  
• Completed Foundation Questions
  
• Discussed the material with others
  
• Revised the material

There are spaces for you to record the date and notes against each of the elements listed.

Using the log

Simply keep a log of the dates when specific tasks are completed and make reflective notes as you progress; do this on specific log tables and on any notes that are made by either you or your trainer. When a particular section is complete, ‘sign it off’.

There are date spaces for two ‘revision levels’. We recommend that as a minimum you spend:

Revision level 1: 10 minutes revision for every hour of study 24 hours after the study session

Revision level 2: 15 minutes revision for every hour of study 1 week after the study session

The more often you revise – even if only for a few minutes, the better the new information will be committed to your long-term memory; this will help deepen your understanding and help develop ‘neural links’ to new information as you study.

In addition to your main logs there is an additional log. Use the additional log sheets to record information about any extra stuff that you study; for example you might join an advanced driving group and record stuff from their sessions, or you could study some stuff in the Driving or Members section of the SmartDriving (.co.uk) web site and record that.

Remember that keeping a reflective record of your study will help you to gain more from it.

Download your log sheets from the right-hand panel.

Next: If you have not already seen the official DVSA information there is a link in Step 3.

Step 3 also contains useful links relating to your application for DVSA registration.