10. EFFECTIVE REVISION/ EXAM TECHNIQUES

If there's one thing for sure is that all or most of us get very stressed out coming up to exam time. However, by doing effective revision before the exam (and I don't mean cramming the night before) this lessens the amount of stress you will experience on the day of the exam.

There are many different things that you can do to help with your revision. Firstly, draw up an effective timetable for you to follow when revising. Be sure to give yourself appropriate breaks and also to give yourself a day off during the week so you can relax and take your mind away from it all e.g. going out with friends. Stick the timetable up somewhere where you will see it and don't leave it in a draw so you forget about it.

By looking back at previous exam papers, I find that it gives you an idea of the questions that have been asked and how they were asked. It also allows you to practice doing an exam paper and seeing how effective your time is or if you spend too long on certain questions and less on others therefore losing out on valuable marks. When I look back on exam papers I look back to see if any one question is repeated a lot throughout the years and what questions are rarely asked.

The night before your exam you should try to relax and get as much sleep as possible as the less sleep you get the less active your brain is going into the exam as it hasn't had time to relax and absorb all the information it is receiving.

9.TIME MANAGEMENT

Time management is very important in my college life. Without time management, assignments and revision wouldn't get done accurately or efficiently. Since starting college I have had to abide by a timetable which organises my time during the week. After college I have to organise how I am going to study and prioritise my assignments in order of importance.                                                                                     

As I have a job I must make sure I'm aware of my time and manage it  between work and college effectively otherwise I would be become unorganised and the goals I have set for myself wouldn't get done.
In the next few weeks I have to really prioritise my subjects in order of importance for my exams. As my Christmas exams aren't starting until January, I have planned a timetable for revision over Christmas so I can enjoy a few days off to relax and then get back into my revision.

Time management I have found is more important yet harder to grasp in college. When I was in primary and secondary school I had all my time management organised for me and I didn't have to think what I was to do next because it was arranged for me e.g. in primary school I went to school during the day, done my homework in the evening and spent a half an hour to an hour after that on my spellings and maths. In college I have to set out my own timetable after college and motivate myself to stick to the times I have allocated for each subject.

5.PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is defined as deliberately representing someone else's ideas or work as your own without giving the correct acknowledgement to the source of the information. When carrying out an assignment student's are allowed to quote another person's work if it is relevant to that topic. However, they must accurately reference where they got this quote and whose quote it is in both the text and reference list at the end.

When a student has completed their assignment, they have submitted their assignment through a plagiarism detection software called 'Turnitin' which highlights the percentage of the assignment that is plagiarised. It is a very serious academic offence to plagiarise any work. If a student's work is found to have been plagiarised brought before their college board and disciplinary procedures will be taken. Plagiarism can lead to a student being kicked out of college and losing out on their degree.

When I am carrying out any assignment I carefully make sure that any work that I have sourced from an internet site or book is correctly referenced in both the text and the reference list. I also make sure that I have clearly shown the parts of my assignment that are direct quotes. I also put my own words and understanding of the topic into the assignment. Before handing in my assignment I check that the work I have got from a second hand source is properly referenced.

7.COMPILING A LITERATURE REVIEW

I will talk about my experience of compiling a literature review. I have recently composed a literature review about why certain skills are important in the workforce.

                                                                                                            I had never compiled a literature review before and I was very interested in seeing how it went and what it involved. Before I typed up the literature review I wrote down on a blank piece of paper my own understanding of the importance of each of the skills and how they make the company a success. I also researched some information on the internet and in books and then compiled the literature review. I had to be careful with the information as I had a word count to abide by and I also had to make sure not to take the first amount of information I found at face value. I did find the referencing difficult in the review as it was my second time referencing and I wanted to make sure that the quotes I got from websites, books and articles were correctly put in after the sentence and in the referencing list at the end.

                                        By doing this review it has given me an insight into how to compose a literature review and has given me more confidence in the future if I am doing a review. I have learned how to critique the information I found and use it efficiently. It has also shown me how to research a topic and compile the information effectively. It has helped me to improve my referencing skills.

4.EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS

In this post I intend to give some tips on how to carry out an Effective Presentation. I have recently done an oral presentation, were I talked about my hobby and the background of where it originated from.

                      Before I started my oral presentation I was really nervous about doing it because I was worried I would talk too fast and my class mates would not understand what my topic was about. When I had put my oral presentation together I decided to practise it in front of my mam and see what she thought of it and if I had the whole presentation talked about in the whole 5mins. After some practising I was confident that my presentation would be delivered in the 5mins. I also decided I would use cue cards to help me if my mind went blank during the presentation.

                     Looking back on my presentation there is a few things that I would do differently. I noticed that during my presentation, as a lot of people are, I was very nervous and at the beginning I was talking a little too fast due to my nerves. If I was doing it again I would be a bit more relaxed because everyone in the room was "in the same boat" as me. I would also make more eye contact as I noticed that I wasn't making as much eye contact with my classmates. I think that instead of some images I had of myself I would put up a short video of me dancing in a competition so people could see what my style of dancing is like.