This post comes to you from one of our Level 5 students, Katie Ryder, who wanted to share her advice with our current Level 4’s.

As a level 5 (second year) Biological sciences student, I wanted to share some advice with level 4 students about handling exams, revision and stress because last year some words of encouragement from someone whom has experienced first year would have helped me.

Exams, revision, preparation, these are words that may scare you or even pass over your head because you try as hard as possible to ignore them. I hope that by reading this post I can change your attitude towards these three words, as after Christmas you will be sitting exams and it is crucial to start thinking about them now, 3 months may seem like a long time but it will fly by (as I have experienced). You’ll be told time and time again to revise as you go, I know from last year this just doesn’t happen, you’ll get a text asking if you’re going out tonight and you think, this can wait…  I left all my revision until the last month before the exam and trust me when I say I regretted it, I was up late many a night, cramming material and hoping some of it went in therefore SOME preparation would have saved me a lot of stress!  Which is why before my April exams I was determined to be more prepared. Different revision techniques work for different people, you may be a visual learner or an audial learner so I can’t promise that what was useful for me will work for you but below are a few ideas you may want to use.

• Key terms cards – highlight definitions and key phrases in your lecture notes, go back to these when you are following up with your reading and copy them out onto revision cards, definition on one side and the term/phrase on the other. When you get five minutes, between lectures, at lunch or even just before you go out! Test yourself, understanding the terminology is a very good starting point.
• Youtube videos – You come out of a lecture just not understanding a process or wanting it explained again, but it’s too late the lecturer has gone. Videos are great for this and can help you get to grips with tricky topics, just be careful and make sure that the content is aimed at undergraduate level because you don’t want to be learning unnecessary content.
• Condensed pages – For these I would take a lectures worth of material and try to condense it into the smallest amount of words/images/diagrams as possible, this makes you focus on what is important and highlights what you don’t know! Use lots of bright colours to make you want to look back at the notes, no one wants to read pages and pages of black ink.
• Repetition – This is probably the most important point, there is no point sitting in front of your notes for four hours straight and expect to understand everything in one go, it’s more useful to spend half an hour each day over a series of days on a specific topic area. If you break it down, it’s more manageable, it isn’t fun but you have to keep revisiting the key terms and the processes in order to make sure you understand them. Repetition is key. 

Remember that you’re not just learning to pass an exam, it’s important you understand the material and the processes so that you can begin to apply them, next year this knowledge is the foundations upon which you will build further (as a second year I have already applied last year’s knowledge to this year’s work) and as you move forward with your career you will carry this knowledge and these skills with you. If you start now, future you will thank you!

A final important point to make is that revision, deadlines and exams are stressful and having something else to focus on in your downtime is so important, so if it’s lunch with a friend or going to play a sport. Make sure that you take a break, give yourself time off and if you are struggling to manage your work/stress, don’t be afraid to ask for help, there will always be someone willing to listen.

Best of luck with your first year and of course your upcoming exams, remember preparation is key to success!
Katie Ryder (Level 5 Forensic Biology student)