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Many successful graduates look back, years later, at their final year at university as a time when they pulled out all the stops. However, most also look back and wish they'd done it somewhat differently. Some remember throwing everything they had at the challenges of that year, but wish they'd done more to get the balance right. Even more look back and wish they'd put more energy into tackling the whole of that final year. You can learn from their experience, their mistakes, and the challenges they faced. You've still got time to strike a better balance than most. |
Be sure to buy to learn about 50 essential things you should do in your final year.
ISBN-13: 9-780-335-20511-0 £14.99 July 2000 |
Your final year is the time to be quite strategic. If you’re doing something with a high learning pay-off, you’re winning. If you’re spending ages on something, but not learning much in the process, you should consider changing tactics.
What is ‘learning pay-off’ anyway? Probably the best way to think of it is like this: contribution, per hour spent, towards gaining your degree, and getting your act together for the next part of your life. Let’s look randomly at some of the activities you’ll do in your final year, and see which of them deliver high (or low) learning pay-off as defined here.  Copying down notes in lectures, from what you see on the board or screen, or transcribing directly things a lecturer says. This tends to have low learning pay-off, because you can do it without really thinking about it. You will do better by trying to make your own notes, based on what you see and hear; this helps you to begin learning about it.
Copying out bits and pieces from journal articles and textbooks into essays (duly acknowledged, of course). Low learning pay-off again. It is better to keep your quotations short, and to make your own comments about each extract you use.
Writing out (or typing out) the eighth draft of an essay or report. This may get you slightly better marks than the seventh draft would, but may take far too long to be worth the extra reward.
Looking back over a set of lecture notes for a few lectures, and spending an hour writing down 107 short, sharp questions which you will aim to become able to answer about the content of those lectures. This has high learning pay-off, as it gets you thinking critically about what you have to do with the content, and it provides you with a tool to help you become able to deliver on what you’re learning.
Deciding what the standards of your forthcoming exams are by analysing past questions critically, and working out exactly what you would need to be able to do to answer them well. This has high learning pay-off, as it helps you to tune yourself in to the assessment standards and the culture of the assessment system within which you will be working.
Writing a list of questions that you can’t yet answer (whether from your lecture notes or from reference sources). Provided you keep a keen eye on your published syllabus and on any information you can glean about the assessment criteria you’re working towards, this can have high learning pay-off. If you know what your questions are, you can ask people (lecturers and/or fellow students) till you find out the answers. Alternatively, you can look up the answers in further source materials.
Looking regularly (and quickly) at the advertisements for the kind of jobs for which you think you will be applying. This can have high learning pay-off towards the overall success of your final year, by familiarizing you with the field you’re planning to enter, and reducing the time you will need to spend on job hunting when pressures of studying become higher.
Making a very rough draft of bits and pieces which will go into any
final year dissertation you may have to write. This has high learning
pay-off, as the earlier you start on it, the more time you have to polish
it (and polishing takes far less time and energy than starting).
Preparing a draft of your CV really early, and getting as many people’s feedback on it as you can. This can have high learning payoff, and means you will only need to make relatively slight adjustments to your CV when you need it – particularly useful at times when other pressures such as revision may be present.
Practising on some ‘dummy’ application forms, of the sort that you’re soon going to be filling out for real. This can have high learning payoff, especially if you get feedback from other people on what they think of your draft applications. You will be learning to tackle application forms better, and more efficiently, and this will pay dividends when you’re doing applications alongside concentrated studying.
Working with fellow students, rather than against them. This can have high learning pay-off, as you’ll learn a lot by explaining things to them, and will be practising explaining those things for real in your final examinations.
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