AIMS
This seven part course intends to cover:
Preparation
Strategies for better learning
Time Management
Getting the most of study time
The Study Toolkit
The Day of the Exam
Attacking Exam Questions

DISCLAIMER
Just to get the legal bit out the way, I take no responsibility for anything that comes out of you putting any information I give you into action. I supply information in order to help you achieve your goals; that is my primary objective. I do not guarantee any sort of result – you have the information, now it is up to you to put it into action.

So now onto the good bit….

PART 1 – PREPARATION

Doing well in exams starts on the day you decide to take a course; not a few weeks before you take an exam, not on the day you start your course, not half way through the course when you decide that it is time to start working. Of course any of these other times aren’t too late to do reasonably in an exam if you suddenly realise you want to do well, but you won’t perform to your max if you leave it much later than the day you start your course.

The underlying issue to studying and doing well is motivation:

Why are you doing this course?
Why do you want to do well?
Where will it get you in the future?
Is it important that you do well?
And the most important…Do you want to do this course?

You need to know the answer to all the questions when you decide to do take a course, whether it is when you are going to university for the first time, or whether it is subjects you are choosing for your GSCEs or A-Levels. Obviously while you are at school you don’t have any choice about some of the subjects you study, they are part of your core curriculum. However, you still have to do well in them if you want to go on to study at university, and that should be your motivation for doing well.

My guess is that you are reading this course for one of two reasons – either you are about to start a course, in which case you are obviously motivated, but are a little unsure as to what to do to do well. The other reason you might be here is because you have exams coming up and are starting to panic that you haven’t prepared enough to pass it. The good news is that I can help you, whichever reason you are here for, although if you are the latter, you are going to have to be prepared to work very hard!

The underlying theme that connects these two reasons is misdirected or undirected energy. Over this course we will look at both and try to put your energy to use in the right direction.

Preparing yourself for study ranges from making sure you have the right equipment – book, pens, pencils, paper – the obvious stuff you’ll need for study, to mental preparation.

TASK: Print out a piece of paper that you can stick on your wall with answers to the questions I mentioned before. Make it look pretty, be creative with it – the more energy you put into it and the more you feel the answers to those questions, the more likely you are to succeed. When ever you feel yourself loosing motivation to work, see those answers and remember why you are doing this!

If you know what your timetable will be when you start your course, you can start organising your day. First place the times of any lectures, seminars or lab sessions that are compulsory to attend; then fill in any extra curricular activities you do – sport, music etc – these are very important for giving your brain a break from work, they also get you up and moving about allowing your blood to get around your body better!

Lastly you need to work out how much learning you need to be doing on your own. Some courses might say, for example, that the compulsory contact hours only equal about 25% of the time that you should be spending working. So if you have 3 two hour lectures, 1 one hour seminar and 1 three hour lab session a week, you have 10 hours contact a week, so you should be spending another 30 hours on top of those contact hours learning on your own. That might include essays that you have to write, reading you have to do or just reading and learning around the subjects so you have a greater understanding. (This is just a guide so ask your tutor to find out how much time you should be spending in addition to your contact hours).

You have your hours, lets pretend it is 30, divide it by seven to find out how long you should be working each day (in our calculations that is 4 hours each day). If your number sounds like a lot of time to be working each day look at your piece of paper again – why are you at school/college/uni?

Break your {4 hours] up into manageable chunks. Personally I work best in the morning and evening, so I am going to put ½ hour from 6.30 til 7, then break for breakfast for 15 minutes, then an hour from 7.15 til 8.15. Then time to shower before heading out for my 9 o’clock lecture. You get the picture, build up your own plan that you can live with.

A few other points I ought to make:
Make sure your study area is well lit, tidy, not too hot or cold and away from distractions like housemates, siblings etc.
Don’t keep changing your study schedule, try to keep it consistent, that way when it is time to work, your body will accept it and you will just sit down and work without even thinking about it.
Use dirty motivation if you have to; Mum said I’d never do it; well I just have to prove her wrong.
Rewarding yourself when you do something right will also help keep motivation and enthusiasm levels high.

SUMMARY
Motivation is the key word – work out how to motivate yourself.
Identify why you are studying in the first place.
Prepare yourself mentally and physically for work.
Timetable your working, it will help to stop you putting things off – when it is time to work, do some work.
Use dirty motivation if you have to – anything to keep you focused!

Don’t forget to do the task I set, and in the next chapter we will look at strategies for better learning.

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Posted in Studying by Elyse 2 Comments