Planning and time
management
Identify a list of topics you need to
cover, ranking them in importance from most important to least. You will
probably find it helpful to incorporate this list into some form of timetable to
plan when you will cover the topics. The following is a list of suggestions for
doing this:
- Draw up a planner (or print out the
weekly planner)
to cover the days or weeks you have between now and your exams.
- On that planner mark out all the commitments
you have such as family, work and sporting activities as well as any assignments or
projects you may have to complete.
- Consider whether you can make any arrangements
to buy extra time: you may need to negotiate temporary shift changes at work, let some
commitments go and seek extra support from family and friends for a while.
- From the time remaining calculate how much of
that time in actual hours that you can give to revision for exams. You
will need to be realistic here. There are likely to be unexpected demands on your time and you
will probably experience study fatigue after a while so it may be wiser to
under-estimate the time available than over-estimate it. If you have to
prepare for more than one exam calculate the time available for preparation
for each. Write this figure down in hours and monitor yourself against this
goal.
- Then work out approximately how much time you
can spend on each topic. So for example, if you have 7 topics to revise in each
of 3 subjects (21 topics in all) and 7 days to revise them then you will need to
cover about 3 topics each day. How many hours per day are available?
Remember that some topics may take longer or shorter amounts of time depending on how
complex they are and how familiar you are with them already.
- You know when you study most and least
effectively. Consider this in allocating the work across the day so that
part of your most effective time is given to each course.
- Finally, on your planner allocate particular blocks
of time to revising particular topics so that you cover them all
with a suitable balance.
- If necessary adjust your timetable as you go
along, making allowances for the unexpected variations that occur.
Note that a study plan whereby you work on one
course then another, neglecting some altogether until others are completed, can
result in poor preparation for the exams that occur at the very end of the exam
period.
Next: Before the exam: long term
planning
Back: Before the
exam: final weeks