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We want you to make the most of your student experience and to get the best out of yourself whilst studying for your University of Leeds award. The responsibility for this success is up to you but good basic academic skills will play a big part in helping you achieve this. |
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If you need help with any of the issues noted in this section during your time at the University, it's important that you talk to your personal tutor about it straight away. They're here to offer as much help, guidance and encouragement as you need and want to see you succeed. |
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Organising Yourself and Your Time
Don't panic if you're having difficulties in organising your time and your workload - the most important aspect of time-management is planning. To help you stay on top of things, it's important that you:
- Identify your aims and targets: per module/per week/per semester
- Prioritise your workload and be clear about what work is urgent and what is important
- Identify your strongest and weakest subjects and allocate study time accordingly
- Identify when/where you work best and study accordingly
- Allow for things going wrong
- Monitor and review your work plan to make sure you're on target
- Ask for and use all of the available feedback and support offered
- Assess how well you have met your targets and identify ways to improve - what you could have done differently/what additional help you might need
For further information, guidance and online resources visit Skills@Library:
http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/
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Note-Taking
Good note-taking is an essential part of the learning process. Your notes form a record of the work you have learnt, help you remember vital information and also help you revise. There is no one correct way to make notes but below are some useful hints about note-taking effectively:
- Make sure you can clearly read and understand what you have written - your notes will be an important revision aid
- You need to make sure you get down the essential points, but it's rarely necessary to write down everything a lecturer says. If you try to make notes on everything, you'll find it hard to keep up. Long sentences take time to write and read back - often you only need a key word or phrase to remember an idea
- Learn to use abbreviations when making notes. You don't have to stick to conventional abbreviations - you can develop your own as long as you understand them
- You probably won't have time to write out your notes again after the lecture/tutorial, so make sure you highlight the important points and leave plenty of room on the page to add further notes when you're re-reading them or revising
- When note-taking from books of journals, read the section in its entirety first and then decide what to take note of. Remember to make a note of the page number, author, title of the book, edition, publisher and published date if you want to quote or use any of the material
For further information, guidance and online resources visit Skills@Library: http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/
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Essay Writing
To write a good essay, you need to start by making sure you know exactly what is required - it may sound straightforward but it's not always easy to identify the purpose. A very common reason for a low mark for an essay is that the answer is not directed sufficiently to the question or topic.
Writing an essay has two main stages - planning and using your plan to write the essay:
1) Plan your essay:
- Identify the features of the essay
- Identify the purpose and audience for the essay, and how this influences your writing
- Identify an appropriate/accepted structure and style for your purpose, audience, situation and the subject matter, including complex subjects
- Plan the processes needed
- Identify time, resources and information needs
2) Use your Plan:
- Use the essay format appropriately for the purpose, subject and audience
- Organise and present information/ideas/images to make your meaning and argument clear
- Use style and language to make mearning and argument clear
- Gather information for your essay
- Edit/re-draft your essay to ensure coherence and clarity, following standard conventions of grammar, spelling and punctuation
- Pull together and include information/evidence which is accurate to identify an opinion or bias
- Use academic conventions, such as referencing, correctly
For further information, guidance and online resources visit Skills@Library: http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/
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The Print and Copy Bureau
Located on level 6 of the Roger Stevens Building, the Print and Copy Bureau is a one stop shop for all printing and copying requirements.
For information on all the services provided contact:
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Preparing for Exams
The exams you sit as part of your degree don't need to be as traumatic or as daunting as they may first seem, as long as you have some effective strategies to cope.
To perform well in exams it is important to know what is expected of you. Misunderstanding about this can lead to poor results. In order to find out what is required by the Examiner, you should:
- Look at past exam papers
- Look at the aims of the modules for which you are revising
- Look at the assessment criteria to see what is required to get a good mark
- Speak to your Module Tutor
When deciding on which revision techniques to use, you must consider which will:
- Best suit your strengths
- Help you overcome your weaknesses
- Best suit the subject and the type of exam
- Help you get the best possible result
Remember, your revision plan must be realistic so make sure you allocate time appropriately, including allocating time to those areas you find most difficult.
For further information, guidance and online resources visit Skills@Library:
http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/
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Coping with Nerves
It's only natural that you might feel nervous before an exam, but it's crucial that your nerves don't hamper your performance. Below are some pointers to help you keep your cool:
- Prepare and revise well
- Make sure you know where your exam is to be held and how long it will take you to get there - plan adequate travelling time, allowing for possible delays
- Avoid being over-tired - consider whether staying up late to do last-minute revision is really worth it
- Avoid alcohol the night before an exam - exams and hangovers definitely don't mix!
- Avoid revising on the morning of your exam - this will only make you more anxious
- Exercise - walk to the exam if possible
- Make yourself as comfortable as possible - wear comfortable clothes and, if necessary, take as many handkerchiefs and hay-fever tablets into the exam room as you think you might need
- Do something simple in the first 10 minutes of the exam to steady your nerves - check the rubric (the instructions), write down your name and Student ID Number, read through the paper - jumping straight into a question without this planning/settling phase might mean you make a silly mistake and cause you to panic
- If you do panic during the exam:
Stop, close your eyes, breathe in to a count of six and out to a count of six. Do this ten times.
Stop, read the question and jot down any ideas you have, then put them into some sort of order to help you answer the question
Stop and move onto another question, returning to the question you are having difficulty with later in the exam
Stop and do a question you can answer to get a 'success' under your belt
For further information, guidance and online resources visit Skills@Library:
http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/ |
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This page is maintained by the Academic Quality and Standards Team |
