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Charlotte: Exams
Charlotte shares her advice on developing healthy study habits.
Revising at University is quite different to how you might be used to revising during your A-Levels. The exams differ significantly, as well as the course content you must revise from. However, some students (myself included) find University exams quite different to A-Level exams as they don’t find themselves having to revise two years’ worth of content for only a few exams.
At University, exam season comes at two points in the year: the semester one exam period which usually occurs after the Christmas break in January, and the summer exam period which usually occurs around mid-May. During this period, you find that different courses and different modules have a variety of assessments which take place. Some students will have in-person exams which run over a few hours, whereas others will be asked to complete an online exam where they have a day or possibly two days to answer a set or set of questions.
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Notably, throughout my time at University, out of the two exams I have taken both have been 48-hour exams. Compared to sitting my A-Levels, I found these exams to be more manageable, particularly because they were both open-book. Similarly, my revision strategy for these exams also looked particularly different than if I had to revise for a closed-book, in-person exam. I would first go over all the lecture notes for the module and pick the areas where I felt I would be most comfortable writing an exam question too. For certain modules, the lecturer may assign a specific question to a week of the course content. In this case, it makes it easier to identify the specific areas of interest you want to focus on and prepare for. From here, I rewatched the lectures and re-read essential and recommended reading for these topics or weeks, before moving on to searching for wider reading. While reading, I would make sure to copy or write out all the references I might need. This was a tip that one of my lecturers gave me to help us save time during the exam. Fundamentally, this type of revision can sound excessively boring and understimulating (and most of the time it is). However, I found that this type of exam to be the most effective for my course – it requires me to demonstrate a high level of critical analysis and understanding of the module but through the topics and themes I find the most interesting.
Nonetheless, many other students (including my friends) have had to do short in-person exams. Many have said that much of their strategies mimic the ones they used at A-Level, particularly when it comes to online revision tools like Quizlet and Anki. However, unlike A-Levels and GCSEs, revision can become a lot more unregimented and unhealthy study habits can occur far more easily. This is why doing all-nighters in the library or spending all day sitting at a single desk may seem like an inevitable experience at University, but it is fundamentally not good for your brain and can definitely lead you to go a little stir crazy!
The feedback you receive from your lecturers can be used as an integral part of your revision, particularly when completing those 48-hour exams. These 24/48 hour exams are graded differently from regular essay assignments, but if your writing style is constantly improving and you’re responding to the feedback you’re given then you are bound to improve, even slightly. Significantly, you can also go see your lecturers during their office hours to gain more support on specific areas you can improve on for your written exams. I know all too well that the idea may seem daunting, but they are genuinely just there to help you get better.
Written by Charlotte, a BA Politics and International Relations student
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Illustrations by Eilidh Muldoon.