Read feedback and act on it: There was only one occasion when I only read a few of the comments in my feedback and that was because it seemed like it was the same throughout and I also new exactly where I had gone wrong in the essay. Apart from that I always read the comments and feedback and take a mental note of it and apply it in future assignments.
Attendance: Attending lectures and seminars is very important. Often people will say it isn’t, just watch the replay but when I have done that I’ve had a number of unanswered questions when it came to starting the assignments and have then had to message people and ask questions about things they may not remember off the top of their head.
Schedule: I always try and schedule days in the week to start assignments or specific days for each task. For example this week I spent today (Tuesday) and Monday doing the Edublog, Wednesday I will revise for my exam and do some questionnaires, Thursday I will finish off a poster, Friday and Saturday I will revise.
Routine: It is important to include studying in your daily routine even if you don’t get much done on a specific day as it’s very easy to decide not to study and fall out of routine. If this happens you are likely to end up completing assignments last minute.
Planning: It is important to plan a head and think about what needs to be handed in when and how long on average do you think it will take to do each task and then add some time incase anything goes wrong or something important comes up.
Essay structure: I’ve always found it hard to get into the ‘vibe’ of writing an essay. Often because of other problems I can find it very hard to concentrate or even think of the simplest introduction. To get my way around this I find it best to actually start with the middle part of an essay. By doing this I get right into reading journal articles and then end up having a flow of ideas and then the introduction and conclusion write themselves.
Word count time scale: Due to the fact it takes me a lot of effort to concentrate probably 70% of the time I have recently been setting myself goals for daily word counts. I will aim to start an essay three weeks in advance giving the fact that there will be days I am unable to concentrate at all and then calculate how many words I will need to aim for each day. So for example I could aim to write 250 words a day but have 3 days where I can only manage 100 words in 5 hours and then end up having two days where I am on a roll and write 400 words in a 3 hours. If I get stressed because I haven’t achieved much in a few days and then suddenly produce 400 words in a few hours I know I can then give myself a break and relax. I think this is a good tip for anyone with concentration and cognition issues.
Don’t over study: When the course first started I was very eager and overworked myself. I wasn’t giving myself time to relax. It’s important if you feel like you’ve over done it or are getting stressed out and having a bad day to just stop and give yourself a break but at the same time don’t get out of routine.
ALWAYS PROOF READ OUT LOUD: On one essay I got a lower mark and I realised I didn’t proof read out loud.
Get someone else to proof read your work: There has been times when I have proof read my work out loud and then read it out loud for a second time and noticed dozens of errors, this is why it is important to get a second opinion, maybe even a third.
One thought on “Task 10 – Top 10 Tips For Effective Studying”
Some really good tips here, I especially tip number 1. I think it is very important for students to read their feedback and attempt to put it into practice for their next essay.
Some really good tips here, I especially tip number 1. I think it is very important for students to read their feedback and attempt to put it into practice for their next essay.