Thank you to those of you who attended one of our Exam Essentials workshops this week, where our focus was on Planning Your Revision. If you missed the workshops, you can view the recording of the online session at https://eu-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/6bd776945cc4495d9c37d3f1b36712e9
Don’t forget we do it all again next week, this time on the theme of Effective Revision Techniques. Meanwhile, here are some of the key takeaways to come out of this week’s workshops:
- You can’t cover everything. Everyone was in agreement on this one. Especially with the exams following on directly from the end of semester, there just isn’t time to extensively revise all the material. So it’s important to prioritise by identifying your strengths and weaknesses and focusing as much time as possible on the things you don’t yet know. It’s a hard thing to do, but you have to accept that you probably won’t be able cover everything
- Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) and lecture aims & objectives can help you determine what material you might need to prioritise. Each module has a set of ILOs which outline the learning you should be able to demonstrate by the end of the course, whilst individual lectures and classes will often have even more specific learning goals. You can use these aims, objectives and outcomes to get a sense of where you currently stand in relation to the desired learning, and to prioritise accordingly
- Revision plans need to be achievable and balanced. It’s easy to produce an impressive revision timetable which has you working like a well-oiled machine and covering all the content on the course. But it’s entirely counterproductive, and even harmful, if that timetable is impossible to achieve and only leaves you feeling overwhelmed, stressed and overworked. This is where the previous points about prioritising come in – your plan needs to be realistic and achievable and needs to include looking after yourself and striking the right work-life balance
Next week we’ll look at effective approaches to learning which help you to maximise the time you are able to give to your revision. Join us for one of the workshops and keep checking back here for next week’s blog posts. In the meantime, have a great weekend.
