It is much easier to ‘revise’ the day you are taught something, even if your exams are a long way off. Once you properly understand something, you will find it comes back easily during revision. After lectures, review what you have been taught, think about it properly and make sure you understand the topic fully.

By the time you come to revise, you should already have condensed notes compiled during the module. When taking notes for revision, be as brief as possible including:

• A short description of topic
• Bullet point key points
• Include URLs / references to text books (title, page number etc)
• Only insert comments where they add value, do not duplicate information from other texts

This should allow you to quickly run through your notes and check your understanding, whilst providing good sources of detailed information in areas you need to revise further. Your revision notes should not contain detailed content, but serve as a reminder / check list of the things you need to know.

Do not procrastinate when it comes to revision, you need to start early, building incrementally on what you have learned. Cramming before an exam should serve only as a memory jogger, making sure you do not overlook anything in the exam. You should not be trying to learn anything new at this point!

I have also added a shortlist of General Revision Tips For Your Degree Course

• There are rarely enough books for every student in the library
• Lecturers have a limited amount of time available to spend with students
• Specialist equipment may be in limited supply

With this in mind students need to make sure that they are not left behind due to any of the above constraints.

Try and reserve books from your reading list online. Try and get hold of the reading list ahead of the course starting. Consider buying second hand books on E-bay or Amazon if you would like your own copy, they can often be bought very cheaply.

Book as much time with lecturers and tutors as possible. Time with these people is the most valuable resource on your course, you can learn a vast amount in these sessions, not so much in terms of information absorbed, but in terms of ideas for further study / direction. Lecturers are a good sounding board for testing your ideas, whether something works or not, whether an idea you have is worth pursuing.

If technical equipment is in limited supply, make sure you get to practical sessions early. If necessary ask if you can use laboratories at different times when there are no classes.

University is competitive, it is not a rat race, but neither are all things equal.

• Some students make better uses of resources than others
• Some students get more time and information from lecturers than others
• Some students always get the reading list from the library, whilst others often find all the copies gone and and don’t bother to reserve them

Make sure you do not get pushed aside in any of these key areas.

Unlike school, no one is going to make you get up in the morning, no one is going to tell you to attend lectures, it is down to you as a student to motivate and discipline and organise yourself.

Failure to do this is the single biggest reason people fail their degree courses, it is essential that you get to grips with this aspect of your study early on.

Plan and manage your time effectively:

• Get a wall planner to give an overview of your commitments and deadlines. These are really useful tools, being able to visualise your deadlines in this way really helps you plan your time.
• Get a diary and list your day to day activities, appointments with lecturers etc.
• Keep a list of things to do, perhaps books you need to take out / return, questions you need to ask… anything at all. It is better to make a quick note of these things than risk forgetting to do something.

As far as possible set deadlines for yourself on tasks and stick to them.

It is important to work consistently from the beginning of your course to the end, do not laze around early in the semester and think you can do all your work in the last week… you will fail.

I once saw someone in the last weeks of my degree course come in for an exam having stayed up all night revising. They had been awake for over 20 hours when they went into the exam. They were talking about how they were going to get cracking on their dissertation in the afternoon, like they were really on top of their game. There were only a couple of weeks left to go before our dissertations were due in. I had already handed mine in with weeks to spare.

I do not know if that person passed their course, but why punish yourself by being an idiot!

It is EASIER to plan ahead and manage your work. You can actually do LESS work this way as you have time to ask for support as opposed to struggle through problems on your own.

Spend as much time as is necessary making sure you understand all the resources available to you, it is vitally important that you do this.

The main disadvantage of distance learning is the lack of interaction with other students. To overcome this, again find out what resources are available to you, for instance, does your course make use of IRC chanels (internet chatrooms) ?

Establish relationships with your tutors and fellow students as early as possible, again this is vitally important.

If your distance course does not already make use of it, sign up with a company that allows you to make IP phone calls. If you are not aware, IP telephony allows you to make calls free of charge over the Internet. As most distance courses are now online, it is also a convenient way to converse with other students, for example, if you are using a laptop wirelessly all you need to do is plug a headset into your laptop and you can talk whilst you work. Collaborating effectively in this way will prove a massive benefit.

You really need to form some kind of community with your fellow students and lecturers, look for these facilities when choosing your course, or identify alternatives yourself, in conjuntion with other students.

Aside from this, most elements of a distance learning course, or online course are the same as an attended course, so reading the other study tips contained in this site will be of benefit to you.

Another area you need to be more concious of than a student attending a course is time management, you will be responsible for organising your own time and structuring your day. Daily structure is vital for successful study.

You will need a higher level of motivation to complete a distance learning course also, establish a schedule and make sure you stick to it!

If you have to follow a reading list, make sure you order the books in good time. Some online courses may offer to ‘remote loan’ library books, prioritise this, make sure you receive your books in good time.

Consider buying your own copies of books, second hand books on Amazon or Ebay are very cheap and can be resold when you are finished.

See if your course has a second hand book store where previous students sell their books on to new students, again this is common across many establishements.

Make sure you fully understand what is required of you on your course, then, check in with your tutors as often as possible.

View time spent with your tutors online or otherwise as a valuable resource… compete for it if necessary!

If you are asking this question the night before your exam you are probably too late! Plan for your exam revision well in advance of the actual date!!

The best source of information on what is likely to come up in an exam is past exam papers. Often questions in exams are recycled from previous years. Even if the same questions are not asked directly, they are often related or grouped around important topics.

Past exam papers are a good indicator of common themes or subjects that are likely to provide sources for questions in an exam. Take these “themes” as indicators of important areas you should study for.

Another way to find out what you should study for an exam is to ask your lecturers! Most of the time they will not tell you anything, but some may offer some clues. They will usually go as far as advising on the essential elements…. in a round about way.

They key to knowing what to study in an exam really lies in attending your lectures and taking good notes. This will allow you to identify important topics which are likely to become the source of exam questions. Taking effective notes will also increase your efficiency when it comes to studying for an exam. Use a system such as the Cornell note taking system throughtout your course, this will dramatically increase your productivity when it comes to revision.

Another source of informaiton on what you should study for an exam can come from students who studied that course the year before. If you are friendly with students in the following year, then speak to them about it, although they will often not remember…

The fact is, exams are designed so that you DO NOT KNOW what questions will be asked, that is the point of them, so all you really have to go on are the four things I identify here:

• Past exam papers
• Lecturers
• Your own notes
• Students who took the exam the previous year

Do not rely on the above, they are at best indicators of what you should study for your exam.

The first time I used past exam papers I was very successful, all the themes form previous years came up in my exam… I thought I had hit the jackpot!

The next exam I took, I did the same thing, I used past exam papers, none of the questions were repeated, my exam was totally different.

There is no substitute for knowing your subject, attending lectures, taking good notes. When the chips are down this is what will get you the marks.

You should really only use things like past exam papers only to ascertain the level of difficulty / standard required, and only use information from Lecturers or past students to try and ensure you have missed anything out of your revision.

• Start work as soon as the assignment is set, do not wait for the hand in date to approach, get ahead so you have more time to refine and get feedback on your work
• Read and re-read the assignment brief, make sure you fully understand what is being asked
• Speak to your lecturer to check your understanding of the brief
• Try and find out what your lecturer is looking for, remember all assignments are designed to lead you down a particular learning path / line of thinking. There will be topics / issues you are expected to cover, i.e. are considered mandatory
• Once you have covered all the mandatory topics, expand your research and push beyond what your lecturer has taught
• Contrast and balance different view points and arguments
• If your view differs from what you have been taught, then introduce your view as an alternative, not as the answer or truth
• Make sure your conclusions are robust, again, if you introduce your own arguments make sure they are balanced with the core arguments presented by your lecturer, never imply that you are right and what you have been taught is wrong!
• Only introduce your view if you can support it with a strong argument and supporting evidence / references
• Add as many good references as you can find to support all arguments
• Add a bibliography of everything else you have read which is relevant
• Format your document properly with appropriate headings, sub headings, table of contents and page numbers depending on the format requested by your lecturer
• Make sure you spell check it properly, be aware that even English (British) spell checkers contain some American spelling’s, particularly words where Americans use ‘z’ as opposed to ‘s’
• Be aware your spell checker will sometimes correct to the wrong word, i.e. the correct spelling, but of a word that you did not intend to use
• Get your assignment proof read, correct it, get it proof read again. Continue with this process until you have a highly polished piece of work that is the best you can deliver

Do this with every assignment from the very beginning of your course. Earlier modules which do not carry as much weight toward your final mark should be used as training for the later more important modules.

Many students do not put effort into earlier modules, which they do not believe will contribute toward their final mark. This is a big mistake. You need to use lower level modules to learn the standard, to learn how to get a first class mark.

Trying to learn how to get a first class mark on more challenging modules which are critical to your degree is not a good idea.

The first assignments I wrote were torn to pieces by proof readers. I took lessons learned forward to later modules. Because I gained an understanding of what was expected early on, and continued to improve with every assignment, my dissertation was far easier.

My dissertation was not torn to pieces by the proof readers!

Since leaving University I have attended a number of short (a few days) and very expensive training courses. Observing and speaking to the trainers on these courses made me reflect on the way I approached my degree studies.

What professional trainers tell me:

There are three distinct learning styles, Visual, Auditory and Haptic.

Professional trainers vary learning styles throughout a course, switching style every 20 – 30 minutes, using presentations, exercises, group activity and discussion.

How I studied at University:

This knowledge made me reflect on how I studied:

• I visualised graphical information I was studying
• I sometimes read / thought out loud
• I often paced around whilst thinking about information
• When I got stuck on a problem I would sometimes go for a walk and think about it
• I preferred quiet study environments free of distraction

These activities resemble traits of the three learning styles. Most people are a mix of all three personality types.

To get the best results from your study time you should experiment and reflect on what works best for you, devising your own mode of study.

Firs of all consider:

• At what time of day do you find study most effective?
• In which environments do you study best?
• How do absorb and retain information studied?

Study Tips: Memory

• When you first study information it is retained in “short term memory”
• As you persist with your studies information passes into “long term memory”

In order to do well in exams you need to get information into long term memory, revision close to the time of the exam should serve as a refresher, putting information back into short term memory, which will reduce the amount of time it takes to recall information during an exam (information in short term memory can be recalled more quickly than information in long term memory).

Study Tips: Repetition

The key to committing information to long term memory is repetition. The more time you invest studying a particular topic, the better your chances will be of retaining it in long term memory. To achieve this, read through notes regularly right the way through your course. Do not leave your notes un-read until the day before an exam!

To make your studies more effective, you should also consider what type of learner you are, Visual, Auditory or Haptic.

Study Tips: Visual learners

Visual Learners study best when the material is graphic, for example diagrams, graphs, charts, tables etc.

Visual learners study best un-disturbed, so seek out a quiet environment free of distraction.

Take detailed notes during lectures, adding diagrams, graphs, charts where appropriate. You may also find “Mind Maps” an effective tool.

I found that looking away from a page / diagram, or closing my eyes and actually visualising the information was the most effective means of retaining visual information.

Study Tips: Auditory Learners

Auditory learners study best when they can hear the material.

Try reading aloud, see if you can find tape recordings on the subject you are studying, and consider making tape recordings of your notes, which can be replayed to yourself as part of your revision. If you do this be sure to summarise notes, as you would when using the Cornell note taking system on paper.

As well as reading aloud, plan your study aloud, think aloud etc. Although this may seem odd, it will help you retain information.

Take every opportunity to discuss your study with lecturers and other students.

I found discussion and thinking aloud very effective, though thinking aloud is best done in private

Study Tips: Haptic Learners:

Haptic’s are people that can’t sit still! This kind of person tends to pace around and like having music or a television on in the background. Distraction is a problem for Haptic’s trying to study!

Haptic learners should vary their activities and consider studying whilst doing something physical such be as pacing around.

Haptic learners respond well to the use of colour, try using highlighting pens and vary the appearance of notes.

If you get stuck or frustrated with a problem try switching tasks for a while, or going for a short walk.

Make a note of distractions to act upon at a later time, as opposed to stopping your study to do something different.

If it helps, play music in the background, but do not tell yourself you are a Haptic learner just because you like listening to the radio, most people will find it a distraction!

I found listening to the radio a distraction so did not do it. Don’t try and convince yourself you are a Haptic learner on the basis that you like listening to the radio

I did find going for a walk to think over a problem, or a change of environment (room or location) helpful.

In summary, work out what approach suits you, it is likely to be different to that taken by your peers. Don’s assume that what works for your friends will work for you, or vice verse. Learning styles are quite distinct between individuals.

You may also be interested to read Analytic Style Study Tips

Speak to your university lecturers, try and find out what direction a particular field is moving in, what is on the horizon?

Using the Internet is invaluable in this process enabling you to:

• Find contemporary academic papers relevant to your degree subject
• Join discussion forums relevant to your degree subject
• Discover the latest / most recently published developments in your field

The Internet, can, if used properly, put you on the cutting edge in terms of your knowledge of current research and thinking.

It can allow you to join debates regarding current and future developments relevant to your degree subject.

Discussing your degree subject and express your own opinion’s on it really gets you thinking.

It is this kind of advanced up to date knowledge and thoughtful debate that can give you the edge required for a first class degree.

Be selective, there is a lot of rubbish published on the Internet (hopefully not this site ), and over reliance on electronic sources is frowned upon by Universities.

You still need to find a good quantity of recognized texts to support your arguments within degree assignments.

Get as deeply involved with your degree subject as you can, this will not only help you excel in degree assignments, but can really help generate ideas for your dissertation.

“Treat your degree like a job”

meaning start University work at 09:00 and work to 17:30 with an hours break time each day.

Treat this as the baseline for your entire degree course. Never do less than this!

Always try and keep two weeks ahead with your work, handing degree assignments in at least one week early.

Once you have established your lead of two weeks you will be able to enjoy quality free time in the evenings and at weekends, free from the worries of your degree course.

When the pressure is on, you still have extra study time available in the evenings.

For this to work you need to be productive during your working week, i.e. not chatting or messing around.

On this not there is an interesting study time calculator available, which flips my method on its head.

It suggests you calculate available study time by considering the following factors:

1. Number of hours of sleep each night
2. Number of grooming hours per day
3. Number of hours for meals/snacks per day – include preparation time
4. Total travel time weekdays
5. Total travel time weekends
6. Number of hours per week for regularly scheduled functions
7. Number of hours per day for chores, errands etc.
8. Number of hours of work per week
9. Number of hours in lectures per week
10. Number of average hours per week socialising per week

Add the totals and subtract from 168 hours (in a week) and what you have left is your potential available study time.

This method only helps if you use it to develop a realistic timetable of activities and stick to it.

The danger of this method is that it may lead you to over estimate how much time you can really study for, encouraging procrastination on your degree course.

Also, unless you are working properly on your degree assignments, you have no way of accurately understanding how long a particular assignment may take.

As you work on degree assignments, the effort required becomes more evident.

So, whilst I think the above is an interesting approach, I still place more importance on establishing a regime / routine for your degree studies.

Self discipline is the key to being a successful degree student, not knowing how many hours you “could” work if you wanted to.

Very early on in my degree I allowed another student to read some of my work. It quickly became apparent they were planning to plagiarise it. I warned them not to and nothing came of it, but it was a valuable lesson:

• Only work with people who share your commitment and ethics
• Never give anyone else your work, or leave work unattended

Plagiarism is taken very seriously by universities, if someone copies your work, you will also be penalised.

Freeloaders come in many guises, using a mixture of humour, charm, flirtation and sympathy as emotional levers. Failing this more unpleasant forms of guile and pressure are applied.

Never the less, freeloaders are usually easy to identify as:

• You will not see them at university lectures
• You will not see them in the university library
• When you do see them at university they will be messing around
• They will ultimately try and manipulate you into helping them with their own degree assignments

A proactive approach is often helpful in countering attempts at manipulation:

• Suggest they start their degree assignments
• Advise them to turn up to university lectures
• Advise them to seek help from university lecturers if they are struggling
• Make it clear that they are heading toward failure (as opposed to being bailed out by you)

If they take your advice they will not need to ask for your work.
If they do not take your advice then you have already put the onus back on them and implied you are not going to bail them out, thus making it harder for them to ask for work, and easier for you to say no.

I guarantee, if you start giving work to freeloaders on your degree course they will keep taking all the way through your degree and give nothing of value back in return.

That said, you should help others on your degree where you can, it’s a good thing to do, and at some point you will need help and advice from other students in return. If you see someone working hard to help themselves, but struggling with particular topics on your degree course then there is no reason not to help them.

What I am saying is set your boundaries and don’t let anyone take advantage of you.