10 Effective Revision/ Exam Techniques

 No matter what age you are, most people feel nervous when sitting exams.  It’s important to realise you’re not alone J.  By establishing a practical study routine early on, and by minimising or changing certain aspects of your lifestyle which may be having a negative effect on your ability to focus, you will walk into the exam with confidence, not letting nerves get the better of you J

You need to have a quiet place to study in, which can be used frequently without interruption, and is free of clutter and distractions (I’ve had to remove all clicky-top pens from my room, as I’ve wasted hours at a time perfecting drumbeats and composing masterpieces with them L!).  By identifying what type of learner you are (I’d be a combination of visual and read/write learner type), you can employ different, specific techniques which will help, and make recalling information a lot easier.  I find it really useful to write and rewrite my own notes from text books, then highlight key words in a bright colour.  Figuring out which Learner Type you are only takes a minute, and could really help you out.

When coming up to an exam, give yourself plenty of time to study.  Aim to have all your revision done the day before the exam, don’t leave things till the last minute and pull an all-nighter. I’ve done this before; believe me it’s not worth it.  You’ll just make yourself sick with worry, and you’ll be brain-dead when taking exam.  There’s a lot to be said for a decent night’s kip J.  And avoid talking about the exam with others before you enter the room; Anxiety is Contagious

9 Time Management

I, being a life-long, chronic procrastinator myself, can fully sympathise with any student who feels there’s just not enough hours in the week L!  Trying to balance college, study, family life, work and (some might say, most importantly) socialising can feel like an over-whelming task if you don’t have some system to manage your time effectively.  Inefficient time management will lead to at least one or more of these areas being neglected.  There are a multitude of on-line resources aimed at helping students utilize their time fully, and to stay on top of their course work.
  

You need to prioritise tasks and assignments in terms of importance and urgency.  The implementation of Moodle has been extremely helpful in keeping track of assignment “due dates”, but some lecturers do not use this programme.  Marking due dates on a calendar, making your own time schedule (or whatever works for you), will help remind you of the time limits imposed.  Try to get the assignment or task finished a day or two early, as this will give you time to thoroughly proof read and check your work, references etc.

Breaking daunting or in-depth tasks down into manageable “bite-sized chunks” will make the whole process easier.  If you actually catalogue how you fill each day, you may be surprised to find how much valuable time is wasted (for me it’s daydreaming, and watching bad TV).  A great piece of advice is to make use of “dead-time”, i.e. time between classes can be used to revise key points, and bus journeys can provide time to look over lecture notes.

5 Plagiarism

Plagiarism has been defined as “the practice of claiming or implying original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else’s written or creative work…without adequate acknowledgement”.  This can include stealing the actual wording used by another source, by building on someone else’s ideas in your own work without referencing them properly, or by replacing or changing some wording in a passage (paraphrasing) without giving the original author due credit.  Using someone else’s artwork, graphs, photos etc. without referencing the source also falls under Plagiarism. 

Plagiarism has a long-standing history in journalism and academia, but the emergence of the Internet has made the physical act of stealing another’s work much easier, simply by copying and pasting.  Plagiarism occurs either intentionally, by stealing another’s work or purchasing an essay from an on-line “paper mill”, or unintentionally, through carelessness (not referencing properly). 

Regardless of your motivations, if you get caught plagiarising in college, there’s major repercussions.  Every college has their own anti-Plagiarism guidelines, and adopt standard referencing systems (i.e. Harvard referencing), so every student should familiarise themselves with these.  You may be asked to submit assignments through on-line, anti-Plagiarism detectors, like Turn-it-in, so remember to re-read every assignment thoroughly, checking that every source has been accurately acknowledged.  Make sure to keep track of all your sources as you go, especially when researching topics on the internet, as it is very easy to forget where that excellent quote or statistic came from once you finish your assignment!  

Here's a useful link for correct referencing techniques

1 Effective Note Taking

When I previously attempted to take notes during lectures, I would sometimes be too focused on taking down word for word what the lecturer was saying, so I would miss half the lecture.  Or my chicken-scratch writing would be illegible when I read back over the notes.  Then in communications, we were shown 4 different standard forms of note taking:

1)      Cornell Format

2)      Outline Format

3)      Sentence Format

4)      Mind Mapping

 I personally found two of these quite useful (Cornell and Mind Mapping), through trial and error.  Not all of them will be of benefit, but you can test them out, and adapt them to work for you in your own notetaking. 

I’ve begun using the Cornell Format in class.  It involves jotting down related key words/memory triggers in a margin alongside your lecture notes.  I find this to be a great revision aide, and I can take in more information during lectures using shorthand.  I use Mind Mapping when making my own notes from Lectures slides.  It’s a great way to link in other related information, and you can use images as memory triggers if they work for you.  

 

When taking notes in class, listen for key expressions the lecturer might use, if they stress something as being very important, or as being “a perfect exam question” etc., make sure to highlight this piece of information.  While waiting for a lecture to start, take the time to read back over your previous notes to refresh your memory.  I hope some of these tips will be of use to you J

4 Effective Presentations

When I first heard we had to give a 5 minute presentation in front of our class group, I have to admit I nearly died!  When talking one-on-one, or even to groups in less formal situations, I’m fine, I can express myself clearly and get my point across, but even the thought of public speaking leaves me with a feeling of panic!

Our lecturer broke down the structure of an effective presentation into 3 easy steps:

1.       Tell em what you’re gonna tell em

2.       Tell em

3.       Tell em what you told em

First explain to the audience what subject you’ll be discussing, and what you hope they’ll take away from the presentation.  Next you develop this further, expanding on the information already given.  Try to be as concise as possible, consider how long you’ve been allocated to present, and stick to it!  This will stop you from losing the audiences interest by overloading them with too much unrelated information (“Waffling” J ).  Then you finish up the presentation by summarising what you have discussed.  This format was a big help as I had never given a presentation before.  It helps you to critically assess which information is most relevant, especially if you’ve selected a broad subject, and gives you a proper framework for the presentation.  If you're using Powerpoint in your presentation, this video gives a few tips on how to keep your slides looking effective, but direct and to the point:

 
The most important bit of advice I was given was Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.  Even though I was quite nervous, I had researched my topic thoroughly, and had spent a lot of time rehearsing.  I got through the presentation, and received high marks as a direct result of Preparation.  As long as you really “know” what you’re talking about, you’ll successfully deliver your presentation J