While you may have one-off assessments throughout your course, chances are you will have a whole load of assessments grouped together at the end of each term, which may leave you feeling a little overwhelmed.
Assessments can include a mixture of past exam papers to revise, assignments to write, and projects to hand in.
Some helpful tips below:
The first thing you’ll want to do when creating a study plan is to put in all the things you know you have coming up in the next few weeks, so you can see how much time you actually have left to play with.
Write down the key assessment dates and schedule them in your outlook calendar or diary. Mark in the day and time of your exams, as well as any hand in dates for assignments, dates of final presentations, or final group work sessions you have to attend.
This is the bare bones of your study plan, and allows you to see how your other time is going to work around it.
You may have an exam in a couple of months that you don’t feel you need to worry about right now, but you may have an assignment which is due in three weeks which will require your immediate attention. Whereas if you have an exam that isn’t for a little while yet, you can see that you can plan out spending a little bit of time revising for it everyday between now and then so you feel confident you’re covering all the material.
If you have two exams on the same day, you may think you would want to spend the same amount of time in the lead up to the exams studying for them both. However, you may feel totally confident in one area of study and a bit more worried about the other. You might want to consider splitting your time so you spend 25% on the topic you feel happy about and 75% on the one you feel needs more work. This means you’re still working on both of them, but just focusing a little more on the area you feel weaker in so you should hopefully be up to speed and feel confident going into the exam.
All your studying activities will not require the same level of concentration or work, so this is an important thing to take into consideration. If you have to do things like re-writing study notes, this may be a quick activity that you could fit in even when your concentration level isn’t at it’s best. However, if you’re sitting down to write 1,500 words for your assignment, you’re going to need to allow time for drafting and produce your best work. For something like this, you’ll want to make sure you find a slot in the day when you feel most productive, as well as giving yourself a generous chunk of time to make sure you get it finished.
It what works for you. You need to figure out what study methods is most effective. Everyone’s ideal study pace and approach is different.
Writing a study plan may seem like a waste of precious time if you’re already stressing about exams and assessment submission, but it is well worth taking a couple of hours to get it done. How much time do you actually have to study and when and where will you do it ?
Not only will a study plan help you stay organised, it will alleviate the stress your experiencing if you’re trying to get everything done at once. It, allows you to see exactly how much work you have to do. It may not even be nearly as much work as you thought! It also prevents you forgetting about a hand-in date until it’s passed, or suddenly remembering you have an exam tomorrow !
There is lots of research that indicates a calm mind makes you more open to learn. If your mind is getting worked up, then study will be more difficult and less productive for you. There are times when you will need to take time our for yourself and relax. Take a walk in the hills or the beach, fresh air, clear head. Adopt exercise as part of your routine to reduce stress levels
A study plan is the perfect way to stay in control of what you need to do. Spending a little time planning your time out before you jump in will prove highly beneficial in the long run.
We hope you consider some of these tips as you start on your exciting journey of learning with CMI.
