Revising for exams..

[willhub]

So I've got 5 exams coming up in May..

Some people would say I'm revising too early, as we do have a 3 week easter break to revise on, but I just think best to get started due to the relatively low amount of work we have this semester compared to semester 1.

But what I want to know is anyone got any tips on revising? I've never really done much revising, but I'm in uni now and want to get good marks.

Do all these past exam papers some universities provide actually help? I just can't help but think I could end up revising for a whole chunk of stuff that is useless when the exam comes.

I don't know if I need to plan exam revision, I don't want to spend forever revising, I don't know how much a day I should do or anything.


Anyway any advice from people is welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Cosimo]

It’s never too late to start revising especially in areas where you are weak. I never did see the point of leaving it to the last week or so and then just burning the midnight oil because all you do is end up not taking a lot of it in. Start earlier and you walk into exams relaxed and in the right frame of mind.

What I did do was to sit down and revise without any distractions whatsoever and made sure that I finished what I set out to revise on any given day. If that meant cutting out on some social life then it was done.

 

[Sudden]

Do all these past exam papers some universities provide actually help? I just can't help but think I could end up revising for a whole chunk of stuff that is useless when the exam comes.

Useful for judging patterns. If one or two questions keep coming up in the paper year after year, chances are that it will this year too.

Though don't go the opposite way. I did that for one of my modules in final year. 3 past papers, all completely different. Barely one question in common between them. Made me think that this year also will be completely different, and due to the amount of content, made a decision to study everything that had not previously come up in those papers and ignore what had, because from what I could tell, nothing had ever been repeated.

Was not expecting the exam to be a carbon copy of one of the previous years paper >_<

So look for repeat questions and study them, but don't ignore stuff because it has come up

 

[Dave]

Obviously everyone has their own style, but it's never (in my opinion) too early to start revision. When I was an undergrad, I'd write up lecture notes and tutorial answers in free time as this helps the information to "sink in" - as an Engineering student it was important not just to know the mathematical formulas, but the derivations and maths behind them too. A few weeks before the exam is the time to do past papers - then that will shape the rest of the "final" revision as you should be focussing on things that you're not 100% sure on.