REMINDER – IT DOWNTIME 3rd-6th JANUARY!

Exams can be stressful, there’s little hiding away from that – it’s the culmination of what you’ve learned over the past 15 weeks, and will probably make up a large portion of your mark for the term, so you might feel there’s a lot of pressure.

Well, try to relax. Yes, exams are tough, but they’re there to let you show what you’ve learned, not to purposely throw you and trip you up – and there’s lots of tips and tricks you can adopt to actually make the exam period a lot more manageable.

You can find the University of Southampton supporting guides here (the target audience is for Dyslexic students, but the content is very relevant and useful!), as well as simply searching online for tips, but here’s a few I’ve taken from various resources as well as used in the past:

1)      Take control – if you’ve got to a topic that you are struggling to understand or get your head around, take a 5 minute break, then spend 10 minutes writing down exactly what you want to know, and what you’re finding difficult. By breaking it down into smaller pieces, you can manage the information more easily, and if need be – will be able to more easily ask for help!

2)      Quality over Quantity – spending 12 hours in the Library is all well and good, but if you’re not concentrating, then it’s not making the most of the time available to you, and is probably going to just stress you out even more because you have less downtime. Timetables aren’t for everyone, but if you spend up to 45 minutes on a topic (15 minutes on lecture notes, 30 minutes on outside reading? Depends on the topic, so it’s up to you), and take a 10 minute break before spending 5 minutes recapping what you did, then you’ll be working effectively.

3)      Memory is something you train – you don’t necessarily have a strictly “good” or “bad” memory, and there are many techniques on the internet to help you remember that little bit better. One way to support memorising chains of information is to create your own sequence of the “who, what, when, where, how” questions, which can help you relate points together. Remember to have a “so what?” part at the end, to make sure you’ve answered the question. Using diagrams, mind maps or narratives are very useful ways of linking the points together.

For example, coming from a Social Sciences background, I asked myself: what do I know; why is it relevant to the question; where does it fit with the question/ my answer; how does it relate to other bits of information I know; so what – what impact does it have on the argument I’m creating.

4)      Active over Passive Revision– passive revision, such as writing notes or copying material, can be a much less effective form of revising than active methods, which involves really using the material. Think of it this way – it’s much easier to read through a page of notes and think, “Yes, I know this”, than it is to cover up the page and to give a talk on the topic. So to actively revise, think about:

•   Looking for underlying themes or principles.
•   Thinking about inter-relationships.
•   Relating what you are learning to ‘real-life’ situations.
•   Thinking how the solution to one problem may help you solve others.
•   Organising material into a hierarchical structure.
•   Creating a diagram or chart to represent a topic.
•   Looking for similarities or differences.
•   Looking for points for and against an argument.
•   Trying to really understand how formulae work.
•   Critically evaluating what you are learning.
•   Discussing topics with a friend

All our degrees are so vastly different, requiring many different methods, so a lot of the above might not be relevant to your degree (I know only about half would be useful for my Politics one!) – but hopefully there is something for everyone there.

5)      Explain it to yourself – sometimes you’ll find that there’s just so much going on, that you confuse yourself and get lost in your own thoughts. But if you step back and try to explain in your own words what you are trying to do, questioning yourself on why, you will quickly discover which aspects you understand and remember well, and those which you need to investigate further.

6)      Use the resources available to you – you all have tutors, lecturers, and past exam papers – use them! Practise past questions, and then talk to tutors and lecturers about your answers and the topics that are difficult. Most are more than happy to help those who show a bit of initiative to seek help!

Whatever you do – don’t panic. If the pressure is getting a bit much and you need help, SUSU also has resources to support you – come to the Advice Centre, located in Building 40 above the Stag’s Head, and they will be there to give you a hand.

If you have any questions, email me at vpacademic@soton.ac.uk, or the Advice Centre at advice@susu.org