EDUCATION IDIOMS - LEARN SOME USEFUL IDIOMS FOR DESCRIBING EDUCATION
MEANING: If a group of people “brainstorm”, they have a meeting and think of ideas for something.
EXAMPLE: “We got into groups to brainstorm ideas for the end-of-term trip.”
MEANING: If you “drop out”, you stop going to school or college. A dropout” refers to the person.
EXAMPLE: “She dropped out of university because she was offered a part in a film.”
MEANING: If you say you’re going to “hit the books”, you mean that you’re going to study a lot.
EXAMPLE: “After the long summer holiday, it was finally time to hit the books.”
MEANING: To learn something so you can repeat it without thinking or looking.
EXAMPLE: “We used to learn a lot of poems by heart in our English class.”
MEANING: If you “pass an exam with flying colours”, you pass it easily and with a high score.
EXAMPLE: “She passed the entrance exam with flying colours.”
MEANING: If you “skive off”, you don’t go to a school.
EXAMPLE: “He skived off because there was a history exam and he hadn’t studied for it.”
MEANING: If the teacher asks for a “show of hands”, he/she asks everyone to put up their hands in order to vote on something, etc.
EXAMPLE: “The teacher asked for a show of hands to see how many people had been to the city.”
MEANING: Someone who copies another person’s work, or the way they dress, live, etc.
EXAMPLE: “He’s a copycat – he sat next to me in the test and copied everything I wrote!”
MEANING: To start thinking seriously about something in order to find a solution to it.
EXAMPLE: “We need to decide what we’re going to do, so get your thinking caps on.”
MEANING: If students are in “single file”, they’re in a line with one person standing behind another.
EXAMPLE: “The pupils had to line up in single file before going into the hall.”
