Types of Study
When you think about study, what comes to mind?
If you thought revising lecture slides, reading the text book, or sitting a practice exam, you’re definitely on the right track. All of these are important elements of study each semester; however it is worthwhile noting that there are many aspects of being able to study successfully. Study is really important and vital to your success as a student. Below are some of the ways to achieve results:
Weekly revision
Revising your course content weekly is an important strategy if you want to stay on top of your study. Make sure you complete weekly quizzes or other assesable items you are given. Going over your notes and making a weekly summary is also a good idea.
Assessment revision
Often your assessments require information obtained from readings, in class experiments or field work, and of course your lecture material. There are many ways to study and revising for an assessment task should be carried out in a way that suits you. Try not to cram- summarise your work over a period of time; this will be less stressful when exam time is coming closer. Study key theories and themes from your subject.
Exam skills are something you should study in their own right. Try and set some time apart from your regular study at least once a month to do some exam example questions to get a feel for the format and the language. To make sure you are on the right track, take those practise exams in to a tutor and ask for a bit of feedback. Whether the feedback is good or bad, you will feel more confident in exam time if you know where you went well or not, rather than not knowing. How much time and feedback you get will really depend on the tutor, but hopefully you will find someone who is willing to give you detailed feedback on at least 3 questions every couple of weeks.
Group study can be very helpful - You can bounce ideas around the group, reinforce what you know by explaining it to others and getting feedback especially if you are unsure about something. PASS is a great way of connecting with other people in your course, and is run by someone who has already completed the subject with high marks. Students have said that when studying in groups such as PASS, they concentrate and are more focussed then when studying on their own .
Keep an eye out for Learning Development resources on study and for additional help visit their Blackboard site.