We’ve made it to March and suddenly those end-of-year exams don’t seem quite so far away. We thought we’d share our top study tips to help you improve your overall marks - and get a plan in place for uni, and beyond.
Get your notes in good order
Sounds simple? Yes exactly but only if you invest a bit of time on it. Where are your own notes? All over the place in little Word docs? In Word docs and on bits of paper? In the form of scribbled annotations on course notes or in textbooks or revision guides? It’s not going to be very easy to revise if you have recorded bits of information in multiple places. Make a resolution that going forward you will pull all the notes for each topic you cover into one coherent document and commit to spending a bit of time each week to tidy up those scrappy notes from last term and get them in one place.
MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE LEARNING
Make sure you really understand all the concepts you have covered. Did you find promissory estoppel a bit tricky? Perhaps resulting trusts or the running of covenants had you a bit befuddled? Now is the time to sort this out. Make an appointment to go to see your tutor with a list of everything that you found confusing and go over it. Much better to do it now than wait until immediately before the exams.
GET CLEAR ON HOW YOU WILL BE ASSESSED
Understand the form of the exams. Are past papers available? If so, start to engage with them. If not, why not have a chat with students in the year above you? How were questions set out last year? What tips for success can they give you?
GET SMART ABOUT YOUR SUBJECT CHOICES
You might be coming up to having to make your electives for next year. We’ve written a separate guide about this - but make sure that you choose the subjects that really interest you – not the ones you think you ought to do or the ones everyone else is doing. You’ll do best if you enjoy your studies.
START PLANNING BEYOND UNI
If you haven’t done so already start planning your future. What do you want to do after uni? There’s some really good evidence that students who engage with their future career planning do better in their studies. Oh, and you’re going to be much more likely to pick up a job too! The careers team at your uni won’t be as busy this term as last term. Make an appointment to see someone and try to find the person who knows most about the careers of interest to you. Ideally, you want the expert, not the person who can only give you generic advice!