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How to revise at undergraduate level?

I have nine exams in the summer and I don't even know where to begin.

I've got to prepare for essays and multiple choice and I'm feeling veryyyy over-whelmed. At a-level I read the textbooks multiple times, did past papers and made big posters containing all my notes condensed onto one poster (I'm a visual learner).

This method isn't possible at university as past papers for multiple choice questions aren't available and there's no way to get any feed back on essays. The amount of material is too large to even begin to know how to condense it.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what to do? Or if you've already completed your first year at university do you have any advice or anything? I'm doing Biology and Psychology modules.

Thank you.

Reply 1

sugarbomb77

For my biology modules when I was at university I had a similar problem and discussed it with my lecturer who basically told me you do not need to revise everything. Typically with essay type exams you only have to answer 3 out of 6 questions or something similar so you would only need to know about those 3 topics in order to do well. I suggest talking to your lecturers and finding out what topics they think you should spend the most time on. Typically whatever you spent the longest time learning in lectures is what you need to focus on.

Also with biology you will find that once you get the basics a lot of it will automatically be retained in your brain if you didn't have trouble with it when it was being taught. Multiple choice questions aren't too much of a worry, you can usually easy discount a couple of the options then just think through the rest logically.

With regards to revision if you are visual make sure the most important sections stand out and maybe study with a classmate who you trust. In general make sure you give yourself regular breaks (every 20mins) and hard as it may be try not to get stressed and worried because the more you do that the harder retaining the info will be.

As you're only in your first year I wouldn't put too much pressure on yourself. First year normally doesn't count towards your overall grade so I'd use this as an opportunity to get used to university style exams as I found them very different to my a-levels. Hope this helps but drop me a message if you have any more questions :-)

Reply 2

username858757

Take notes from text books and recommended readings. Then rewrite your lecture notes, adding in this new info. Or make posters if you prefer. This should cover you for the multiple-choice section and the basis of any essay.

If you can find past essay examples, I would practice writing some of them up even if you cannot get feedback. You can try to get a bit of bonus information by reading literature reviews about the topic and stealing their references, although this isn't really necessary for 1st year. If you spend an hour or so gathering info specific to that question, you can then try to write it up into a short essay, or at least a flow chart of your arguments/points. I know you can't get feedback, but its less likely that you'd get the wrong idea about the topic if you prepare an essay in advance. And its a great feeling when you look at the exam paper and see that the essay question is one that you prepared for! And its not too unlikely either: lecturers are pretty lazy when it comes to exam questions.