Studying for Exams

**Rhyfelwyr** · 04-17-2009, 00:48

I am starting to wonder why I bother. I study History and Politics at Uni, and while I know it will be different for the sciences, I'm starting to see that there is not a lot of point in studying much. Every semester (there's two each year), we have exams at the end, and I make detailed notes on every possible essay I see in the past papers, make notes on them in a paragraph-based bullet point format, and read them again and again until I can rattle them off by heart.

But then, when it gets to the exam, I always end up finding some topic I think looks interesting, and I'll write an essay on that based on my own general knowledge I've gained from reading etc. Like last term in history the general topic course was on early modern Europe, but by chance there was a question on whether or not the development of absolutism in the Three Kingdoms (Britain) was inevitable, and so of course anyone who's seen me in the Backroom or Monastery will know that I had to answer this question, and so I did. And I got 21 out of 22 for it (and my tutor said only 2 people out of the 40 he marked even got A's, which you need 18 for!). Whereas in Politics, which I'm not so interested in, I rattled off one of the standard respones and got IIRC 17 which is 1 mark off an A.

And since this term History focuses on Scotland from the National Covenant up until the Jacobites, I can just tell that I will end up going off in one of my rants which gets me good marks because I actually enjoy what I'm talking about.

This is what Uni seems to be like, its completely different to exams at school where you got marks by sticking strictly to the curriculum. Does anyone else find this?

**Thermal** · 04-17-2009, 02:03

The more I study the worse I do

I focus on what i've been taught when I could have done better with a different topic, plus sometimes the topic your told to study on doesn't come up in the exam, annoyingly!

Besides, if you knew me you'd know I'd never bother with study, 80% attendance, god noes how many lates and no willpower to study in my own time, but i get B's mostly, so I'm not too fussed tbh.

Last official science exam (and I HATE science) I got 71/100 (B) & Maths 75/100 (B).

**LittleGrizzly** · 04-17-2009, 02:15

I find I make my way through usually not to far off the top of my class (or top if maths subject) with very little effort. At most I spend about an hour studying... mostly I try to do it off what I remember....

It does help that I find most of my subjects intresting, for example in my political economy exam i knew some stuff independently of the course which does help...

**naut** · 04-17-2009, 03:47

Never had anything like that really, my subjects don't lend themselves to it, they are similar to school exams, stick to the curriculum, etcetera, because well you can't exactly do your own thing in a Business or IT exam, you'll fail.

And it depends entirely on the subjects, usually if it's an average maths based subject a quick refresh is all I need. Stuff like Marketing and Management is simple and requires barely any. This semester I'm trying to pull up my marks to HDs, (kept getting 84s and 74s, so one of HD and D respectively), so I've been trying to work harder. And I'm glad I have, Stats is boring and whenever something is boring my marks tend to slip. As is Accounting 2. Databases is death in lecture form, seriously, the lecturer doesn't explain anything, he sticks up slides of queries and then reads the code out and doesn't explain what they do! I'm royally screwed for it.

Anyway, liking your subjects really helps.

**Cute Wolf** · 04-17-2009, 06:35

Well, actually your study will much more improved if you like the subjects, especially if you can spend some of your time for think deeply about your interest... Good luck...

**tibilicus** · 04-17-2009, 12:15

I just feel swamped by the sheer volume of work I have to study for.

Politics and history require a lot of my attention due to the fact that the courses are content heavy but on top of that I have to juggle Philosophy and Ethics and psychology. I'm starting to think the 2 hours I've set aside each day for revision purposes isn't going to be enough, I should probably up my game.

**The New Che Guevara** · 04-17-2009, 12:24

Doing AS this year, and I know I've still got like a month to the exam... but I'm actually worried sort of.

4 AS with 8 exams, and last year, I essentially coasted through my GCSEs with little revision and wound up with 3A* 3A 3B 2C... which I was actually dissapointed at... never the less...

My teachers want me to get As... which if you know A level... is slightly difficult, and I've yet to get an exam back where I got an A. Very frustrating...

Albeit geography is so easy... I redid the exam and got an A but that was after the teacher had gone through it, but I was still the best in the class.

**Quintus.JC** · 04-17-2009, 19:43

Originally Posted by Thermal Mercury

Maths 75/100 (B).

That's an B? which curriculum (OCR, AQA, Ed) do you study? In Edxcel that's an A, 5 off an A*.

What do you learn in philosophy and psychology anyway? I'm thinking about studying them next year for A Levels, but don't much about it...

**The New Che Guevara** · 04-17-2009, 20:00

At least two of my friends do it... from random comments...

you learn that you want to sleep with your mother, children beating other smaller children up, some theories and that may be about it... then again, one of my friend rarely goes in.

**Vuk** · 04-17-2009, 20:15

Studying should not be to make a detailed game plan, but simply to familiarize yourself with the content and gain a better understanding of the concepts. That is how I think of it, and I never plan ahead for essays, even when I am given the questions in advance. Only once have I not gotten an A or -A.

**tibilicus** · 04-18-2009, 13:35

Originally Posted by Quintus.JC

That's an B? which curriculum (OCR, AQA, Ed) do you study? In Edxcel that's an A, 5 off an A*.

What do you learn in philosophy and psychology anyway? I'm thinking about studying them next year for A Levels, but don't much about it...

Psychology, depending on your exam board can be ridiculously hard to reach an A grade but other than that the content is quite interesting. Can't really comment on Philosophy as I took a Philosophy and Ethics course in which I've learned pretty much bugger all on the Philosophy side. Whoever is in charge of the 6th form decided to ship in some substitute teacher for the whole year as the teacher who was meant to be teaching went on maternity leave. This teacher really can't teach at all and as a result I'm concerned about my exam prospects. As for Ethics that is fine, no problems with it and content of course is fairly enjoyable.