The future is starting to look positive post-covid. Many students who have never attended college in person or those about to start will be entering the college campus. This means experiencing college to its fullest as opposed to being at home; some have never done self-directed learning and will not know what to do! When we return to a normal world post-covid, many students will begin a party lifestyle, having not been able to enjoy one for the past year, meaning more than likely, will want to spend as little time on college work as humanly possible!
This post is going to focus on Ireland and offer,
To those within Ireland in order for them to be able to make the most of their college experience.
Study Smart
Studying! The idea of it turns so many to actively engage in ways to avoid this through distractions, “oh ill organise my study space so I can focus better” we have all done this. Then 3 hours later we are still cleaning!
Well, no need to look further; many have heard of the phrase “Work smart, not hard”, and hopefully, this guide will allow you to study smart and will help with exams! This guide can be used for those aiming for the stars and those who may just want to pass (we have all had that subject!)
Everyone will cram for that big exam coming up, whether it be an accounting module to a maths module, cramming is how students’ study. I am a crammer. It is still, in my opinion, an excellent idea to study the day prior to the exam, but I’ve learned to not cram it all into that single day. Spread it over a week. Now I know you are thinking to yourself, cramming is last-minute, not a week in advance. I hear you, but here is an analogy, trying to fill a glass with water, when it is full, it keeps overflowing with no more water entering the glass! This is what it is like trying to cram everything into one day; if you spread it out, say 1hr each day as opposed to 7hrs total, some information will leave, but during the next session, you will learn it faster and continue on with the studying.
Continuing on from point one is taking breaks! And I’m not talking about 5 minutes of study, followed by 55 minutes on your phone for the “hard work” you completed! When you are training for something, such as running, you wouldn’t go out and run 40km straight away; you would start in advance with regular breaks. For myself, my break is 5 minutes every hour to stretch my legs; I walk up and down my garden to get the blood flowing and a bit of air, and then return to study! With an hour break for lunch, it is important to get air and sunshine during the breaks if possible!
This may sound strange, but my best study comes from working in groups! It allows for each member to ask possible questions, and if someone else understands, they are able to explain it to you; explaining something to someone who may not understand it better helps you know it and show you know the information, it allows you to see possible gaps in your knowledge when explaining, meaning you won’t get caught out! But it is vital that when you study in groups, you are able to remain focused and not get distracted!
4. Reading is not studying!
I am prone to this. “Reading” meaning having a book open near you while you use your phone or watch tv and read it sporadically; I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately, this does not count as study as you aren’t actively engaging with the material, simple, practical solutions that can be done in bit sizes are to redo old exam papers, this sounds daunting, but spending an hour or so on old exam papers can really help and will also be apart of exam advice later! This is a simple task but allows you to understand the type/standard of questions that will be asked!
Exam Advice Ireland
Exam time! Hopefully, the studying techniques have meant you have not left everything last minute and are adequately prepared. No matter how prepared you are, many people will still suffer from many exam stresses, this has been heightened during the covid world we are currently in, but for students who hopefully will sit exams in person, this stress can be different than when they were seated online! An example is for students from UCD & TCD who will face their exams in the RDS, the pinnacle of nerves and stress. We are going to take small baby steps that can be done to hopefully help reduce the exam stress and make you well relax, isn’t the word, but calmer.
Coming up to exams, plan in advance, as discussed in the study tips, give yourself sufficient time to study, come up with a study timetable in advance, but be realistic with yourself; most students will try pencil in 12 hours a day coming up to exams, which as we all know, is never going to happen, that 30 minutes scrolling Facebook/Instagram in the morning or hour prior to bed add up, so be honest and realistic with a study timetable otherwise, you won’t do the hours you had planned and will just lead to more anxiety and panic.
We all love a red bull fuelled all-nighter to complete an assignment, but this is never going to work when it comes to exams; exams are not something you can prepare for last-minute and do well in; you may be able to just scrape a pass, but to do really good in, it requires a disciplined approach over the weeks prior to the exam, you want to close the laptop and turn off at least an hour before bed that way your sleep will be restful and get those oh so essential REM cycles in! This sounds counterproductive, but over a few weeks, it will help you maintain your stress levels and keep you sharp and at your optimum performance!
The day of the exam is nerve wreaking, I remember my first third-level exam and the nerves, but over the years and having spoken to many students, I’ve learned some advice for the actual exam day, have everything ready in advance for the exam, you would hate to go into a maths exam and not have a calculator, all those weeks of study ruined over a calculator, so it is crucial to make sure you have the correct stationery! Arrange it on your desk when you sit down and take deep breaths, do not chat to other students prior to the exam, as if they say something, it may be incorrect and cause you to panic! This has happened to me during my Financial accounting 2 module!
If you feel unwell during the exam or prior, speak to someone, and they may be able to help you; unfortunately, some students I talked to had this issue who were too unwell to sit the exam, but they received extenuating circumstances and sat the exam at the next set of exams in the next semester, so if you feel unwell and are able to prove it, contact the programme coordinator!
During your exam, make sure to keep an eye on the time and stick to a strict time per question; if the exam is 100 marks and 120 minutes long, you should spend 12 minutes per 10 marks, you can not get any marks for leaving something blank, so it is better to give something 75% in the 12 minutes and move on, rather than 100% but take 25 minutes as you will lose this time in a different part!
Assignment Tips Ireland
Oh, the dreaded assignments! For first-year students, this is a nerve-wracking experience, coming from secondary school in which you babied the whole way through and told what to learn and what not to learn, to college, in which the lecturers will not give a sense of direction to take, and everything is self-driven. You ask yourself how to do this over and over and doubt yourself every step of the way, unsure if you are even doing it correctly! Well, this will give you 3 assignment tips to help you make the most of your time while completing your assignment!
Yes, yes, I know, reading, the part of every module everyone hates, the part that you wonder why and then having to search through hundreds of articles to find relevant points to what you want to say, well my tip for this is to plan out your assignment and topics, then when looking for articles that support your points, just read the abstract, if it lines up with what you are trying to say, then delve further into the reading to discover more points that can be used within your assignment. Remember to cite all references to avoid plagiarism when completing those assignments!
Some courses will require group work! Some hate group work, and some love it; if you fall into the bracket of hating group work due to possible piggybacking students, try discussing it with the student, if you have exhausted all avenues and are getting nowhere, it is okay to go to the lecturer/module coordinator about
a student not pulling their weight, it is not secondary school anymore and going to a lecturer about a student not pulling their weight is not considered “uncool” it is an integral part of college and the working world, so try to work it out with the student first!
This is my understanding of my time in UCD, but I will make an assumption all Irish colleges share this trait. There is plenty of ways to help with assignments, such as a maths support centre or academic writing workshops! These usually are in a set place such as the library, and they will be able to help you with your assignments, but it is essential to know they will not help you from nothing, the writing centre will look over an essay you already wrote and help you fine-tune it, while the maths support centre will help explain questions you have already attempted. These are great tools to help you throughout college and should be used to make the most out of your assignments!
Simple, I know, but extremely useful, rereading an assignment can help you notice grammatical errors you may have made when writing it. No, Grammarly will not spot all these mistakes, so it should be done by you! The number of times I have noticed simple errors when re-reading my assignments, like a sentence that does not make sense or missing commas or full stops.
Best of luck making the most of your college experience and found something useful! Remember