With the impending doom of summer exams drawing ever near, us students at Aberdeen begin to eat, sleep and breathe revision. Spending our days in Duncan Rice, watching the outside world go by as we long for the next month to pass so we can enjoy our fourth month long summer extravaganza.
Over my four years at Aberdeen I have found that each student handles exam time very differently. Some become a complete hermit who limits all social contact and shuts themselves in the silent room only to emerge for coffee. Others make the most of four weeks without classes and increase their social activity, going on rowdy nights out and cramming for in the early hours before each exam.
Whatever way you choose to spend your time around exams, I have found that making a revision timetable ensures that you can keep on top of your revision and you can even schedule time out to enjoy social activities with the confidence that you won’t end up unprepared for exams.
Being one of the most organised people around, I take pride in my revision timetables however it took me a while to establish the method I use. I therefore thought I’d share my wisdom with you so you can hopefully make this revision period that little bit less stressful.
- Personally I prefer to write my timetable by hand as it means that I can score out things I’ve completed and make changes if I miss anything or get ahead of myself. To do this I just basically draw a calendar on a piece of plain A4 paper marking the dates from when I want to start revision up until the day of my last exam.
- Once I have the structure of my timetable drawn up, I write into the timetable every commitment that I have over revision time. Starting with the dates and times of my exams and then additional activities for example if I’ve committed to a friends birthday or a sporting event. After doing this I am left with all of the free time I have left for revision.
- I then turn my attention to my subjects. I go through each module that I have an exam for and make a list of the key topics for each subject that I wish to revise. This means being selective, as it is impossible to revise everything. I look at past papers to determine the most important topics and also look through my notes to see what the lecturer focused on.
- Upon doing this for each subject, you should end up with a list for each exam, of topics that you wish to revise before the exam date. It is then a matter of fitting these topics into the timetable. I choose a colour for each exam and try to mix it up as much as possible to avoid boredom. It is important to have in your head how much time each topic will take. For example, having each topic only once of the timetable will not be enough to cover it in depth. Depending on your preferred revision method you may have each topic appear once in the first week and a half then repeat this sequence.
- It is important to make sure each topic is given enough attention and that you fit them all in before the exam date. I usually split my days into three sections, morning, afternoon and evening and put a different topic in each section.
- If you don’t manage to fit everything in that you have scheduled for a day there is no need to panic. There will always be days where you manage to do more than expected and if you finish all the work you have timetabled for a specific day earlier than expected, just move onto the next days work and it allows for flexibility. You may find that you have an extra half-day somewhere in the middle where you can treat yourself and take the afternoon off!
I hope my tips make everyone’s revision period that little bit less stressful and wish you all good luck in your forthcoming exams!