College time management
S.S.M.R: Study 2

This is the second page of the college time management series on studying.  This covers working with tutorials and understanding what passing means.

If you haven't read the first part of this 2 page tutorial you can read it here in this college time management page.  It covers breaking a topic into chunks and how to prioritize using past papers.

Tutorials

Many courses often have no past exam papers.  Often the syllabus is new and as such the papers that exist are out of date.

That doesn't mean the out of date papers are no use.

Often you'll find that much of the subject matter in a course is based on a previous course with some "tweaking".  If you ask the lecturer or teacher they can help you understand what remains and what doesn't.  You should still perform research on these old papers.

Past papers however aren't the only thing that will help you figure out the priority of your college time management programme.  Tutorials are often a powerful way of understanding what will be required at an exam.

If the exam is internally set within the university, school or college, you'll often find that the person setting you tutorials is also involved in the exam setting.  This generally means that the tutorials they set are in line with the material that will be in the exam.

Since there is a relationship between the tutorials and the exams it's really important that you figure out how to complete the tutorials.  You should be aiming to create for yourself example answers.

Tutorials are often set in a graded manner.  The starting questions in a tutorial will be simple.  Gradually as you go through the tutorial they'll get harder and more complex.  It is these harder questions at the end of tutorials that you need example answers for.

Create example answers for the important parts of the key topics.  Make sure that you fully understand them.  Then spend time thinking of variations on those answers.  How could they have asked the question differently?  Could they ask it with a different emphasis and so on?

You should also practise writing out the sample answer quickly.  What you're hoping for is that one of the answers you've practised will come up in the exam.  If it does you want to be able to write it out really quickly.  If you do this you create "extra" time for the other questions in the exam.

I've personally been in exams many times when at least two of the five questions have been ones I knew very similar sample answers for.  I blazed through those questions and had loads of time to work on answers for the other three questions.

However don't think this is an easy option.  You still need to put in the work to learn the sample answers.  This often means developing a very deep understanding of the various areas of a topic.  However you are now focused on what the lecturers want and on the key area of a topic.  If you've followed S.S.M.R you'll also have good knowledge of the other areas.  You should pass.

Understanding What Passing Means For You

In terms of college time management it's really important to understand what passing means.  For many achieving a pass is often not enough.  You don't want to simply pass an exam you want to come at the top of the year.  You want to be the person that is in the top ten.

Whatever your goal you need to be clear on it.  It might be that in some subjects you want a high mark and in others a pass will be sufficient.  You need to work this out before you study.

There is little point in just studying hard.  You need to study with purpose.  This means deciding where on the pass scale you sit.  For me I didn't care about the exams that led up to the final exams.  Generally I did poorly in them.  I saw little point in them since they didn't count towards my final mark.

However when it came to exams that mattered I worked very hard.  My goals for my college time management programme were very different.  For me passing took on a whole new meaning.  I'd coasted for most of the year and now it was time to work.  I learnt all the example questions, I studied the pass papers until I could recite them and I learned how to do every tutorial question.

I adjusted my understanding of passing.  I wanted top marks not just a bare pass.

For me this worked.  My college time management system ensured that I had the capability to move from minimum pass level to star student.  I had a method that I simply followed and it ensured I was focused correctly.

However, what it didn't do was to diminish the number of hours studying I needed to put in.  For the coasting I was doing only a few hours, to achieve star student level I put in every hour I could find.

The important part to realise is that you need to work appropriately.  I'm convinced that the reason I managed to succeed was that I only had to work really hard occasionally.  Many other students around me worked all the time through the academic year.

For them their college time management system didn't allow them to pump up their effort.  They were already at full throttle.  They had no more to give.  In some cases as the major exams approached they gave less because they were worn out.

So the final part of Study is to figure out all the time what you're trying to do.  Are you trying to be a star all the time?  Do you have that dedication?  Do you have that raw talent and ability?  If not create a programme that will fit more with your personality.