7 Tips to improve your analytical skills

One of the central skills that graduate school – and higher education in general – has to teach is critical analysis. Being able to develop an agile mind that allows you to work through problems, make a rigorous argument regarding a complex set of issues, and methodologically pick over a dataset, is the foundation for producing good academic research, and is a valuable professional skill in the workplace beyond university. But the intensity of postgraduate study can sometimes exceed what students might be used to from school or undergrad; are there any tips for quick and easy ways you can catch up to improve your analytical skills?

Below, we’ve assembled some simple, yet powerful life hacks for building up your mental muscles. Many of these can be pursued in your spare time, allowing you to improve your analytical skills without it even seeming like work.

1. Be reflexive – Reflexivity is a key subset of truly rigorous analysis. Reflexivity is the capacity to consider how your own position – as an individual within society – is shaped by (and, in turn, shapes) the topic you are thinking about. Reflexivity helps you account for personal bias, and identify the impact of your own personal foibles and experiences upon your analytical efforts. Ask: who am I? How does this research relate to my identity? How might someone with a different set of life experiences, answer these questions differently?
2. Travel – Travel is said to broaden your horizons, and it’s true; by being exposed to different cultures and ways of living, you realise how diverse and vibrant the world truly is. This, in turn, can help you to question aspects of your own culture, and aids reflexive thinking. Study exchange programmes – like Erasmus – are a great way to work travel into your studies.
3. Write the opposite answer for the same essay question – When you’re planning on writing an essay on a topic where there is a legitimate difference of opinion, try writing it twice; once for one stance on the issue, and once for the other. You can then compare the two essays, and use them to pick holes in one another.
4. Unpick statistics you read in the newspaper – Current affairs is awash with facts and figures; compiled from lots of different sources. It can be a great exercise to drill down into these numbers, referring to the original studies from which they are quoted, to place them in context. How was the original study constructed? How rigorous was it? Is there any difference between how the newspaper quotes the statistics, and how they are described in the original study?
5. Debate with friends (especially if they’re in other fields) – One of the best and most enjoyable ways to train your analytical skills at university is to engage in discussion with friends. Having a vigorous debate over some tea or a beer, particularly when the people present come from different academic fields – can be a tremendously valuable way of practicing your analytical skills; constructing arguments on the fly, and watching how others attempt to challenge your claims.
6. Go outside – Going outside not only presents you with a rich and vibrant environment that will stimulate your mind without exerting it too much, but it brings a wealth of mental and physical health benefits. Just go for a walk once in a while.
7. Read -  Reading widely in your spare time is difficult when you’re at university – there’s so much required reading, just within your syllabus – but do try!