Uni 101: Study Skills

Whether you are new to Uni or returning after a far too hot summer, it's always good to have a refresher on what study skills you need to succeed in your degree. Not only will good skills help you improve your grades, but also your confidence and wellbeing as you get more comfortable staying on top of things.

Time Management

Using strategies like the Pomodoro method - doing intensive work with frequent breaks at regular intervals - can help you to focus and lock in to the task at hand. Frequent breaks are the key to ensuring you don't get overwhelmed. The more stressed out you are, the more likely your work won't be clear. Aim for slow and steady rather than last-minute deadline panic!

With that said, making sure to block time out for working on specific things was so useful for me. Knowing what essay or piece of work you will be doing before you arrive at the library means you'll be way more likely to get stuck in rather than having a break as soon as you arrive to think (and pop to the SU Shop).

When things do get a bit overwhelming or you have four deadlines in a week, that’s probably a good time to use one of your extensions. All students are entitled to two extensions of two working days and two extensions of five working days - just check your assessment is eligible for these! They are automatically approved for any reason so don't save them up for your exams when you can't use them!

Taking Notes and Revising

Being concise in lecture and seminar notes and taking away key information in well-laid-out notes is crucial for how clear you will write, present, or perform. When it comes to lectures, take notes in a way that works for you, whether that’s Cornell notes or just a list. I always found it useful to come back after a lecture and rewrite these notes, cutting out information that was irrelevant and would only cause clutter in an assignment or when I was revising.

In terms of revising, reading things out loud or covering up answers and coming back later to see if you remember them can be really useful. There is always the classic flashcard as well!

The best thing you can do to prepare when exam season comes around (even if they are quite a while away, the time will fly by) is definitely to do practice papers and questions. Your course Moodle page will have plenty of examples of papers used in previous years, and you can always speak to lecturers about getting access to these if you can't find them.

Referencing and Help

The main thing that’s different between what you might have done before and studying at Uni is the need to reference. Making sure you get the bibliography right is crucial for your academic success (and not having to go to an Academic Misconduct panel - not fun).

The Uni has some tools to help with this, namely Academic Skills (formerly CeDAS) and RefWorks. Academic Skills can help look over an essay plan and see writing styles, as well as coding. RefWorks is a great tool as well; it's built into your Microsoft 365 and helps you create and manage citations. If you prefer in-person help, you can also speak with your School's Librarian, who often holds drop-in sessions for students. These can be good to help with the nuances of different referencing styles - especially if you have multiple in your degree.

The top tip here is to do referencing as you go, rather than leave it until the end!

But What am I Aiming For?

The best thing to do is to know what your aim is for yourself. Read the mark scheme for your course (known as the Rubric and found on Moodle). When you receive results via Turnitin, you also get to see the Rubric highlighted with what category you fell into for critical thinking, writing style, and loads of other stuff to see what you need to improve on.

Beyond this, really try to break down the assignment. Make a detailed plan and take this to your lecturer to have a look over (after checking with them, of course!). Take their feedback on board, they are human too and more than willing to help and give guidance.

After planning, and especially if it’s a different style of work than you're used to, see if you can find any examples of last year's work. These are often on Moodle and can give good ideas of what a good layout and argument looks like.

Above all, make sure to plan - including breaks - to ensure the best results and most enjoyment from your degree. These skills will help you in the workplace as well as on campus. Work hard and push yourself, but if you ever struggle, these tips should help ground you and know who can help when you reach out.