Last day

Yesterday was the last day of term. Most of us have gone home, though I will stay over the weekend (the flights were cheaper on Monday!) and finish off some studying. Of course, I felt really sad about leaving this place and these wonderful people, but we all had happy goobyes, and I come closer and closer to fully realise I will see my family and friends again when I go back to Sweden! (I have known that for a loooong time, but as usual with me, it takes time for it so sink in and for me to really realise it... Sounds a bit daft, I know! hahaha!!)

So what I will be up to these two days before departing is basically packing and studying. We have so-called Progress Exams in January. I thought I would write a short post on study tactics – how to think about and organise your studies so that you cover both as much width and depth as possible with hopefully minimal effort. I give these tips to anyone who might be in a similar situation and in need of some ideas of how to make the most of one's time.

Our Progress Exams are all multiple choice questions, which means that we are given about five or more alternative answers to each question and must choose the correct one to receive the mark (one per question). Usually, some of the questions are really tricky, where the several alternatives makes you more unsure of what to think, and may thus sometimes be harder than clear short-answer questions. Multiple choice questions are meant to test understanding of main concepts and factual knowledge. The questions may be considerably specific on a narrow topic; rarely, they address major concepts – you are expected to be able to use your understanding of the subject to figure the more detailed problems out!

I love multiple choice questions! They are generally easy and fun; I enjoy in particular the trick questions. The norm is to be given at least one minute of time per question (we have fifty questions in an hour), so answering the 'easy' ones quickly gives you more time on the harder problems. This sounds obvious, but evoking that thought gives you a clue on how to study for multiple choice questions: (1) make sure you really understand all major concepts; (2) revise details. If the 'way of thinking' of the subject is your second nature, and if you have an additional set of detailed facts fresh in your head, you should be able to complete the examination smoothly and painlessly!

Our exams at the end of the year, however, will be both multiple choice questions and essay questions. The essay part will consist of several long-answer questions, out of which we will choose a given number and answer in essay form.

Preparing for essay questions is quite different from for multiple choice questions: indeed, the need to understand all major features and terms is essential, as are details – they make your essay more impressive. However, essay answers demand substantially more indepth and exhaustive knowledge on a subject. You definitely need broadth of knowledge, since you do not know what subtopics the given questions will relate to, so if you study only a few topics, there is a great risk of not having enough questions that you can answer! However, to make a really good essay, you also need deep and detailed knowledge. The more you have to say about the subject the better, and the more precise and appropriate your examples are, the more you will show that you know what you are doing.

How could I do this without going to too much trouble, then? My suggestion is to think about what topics to spciallise in! Assess each topic on (a) how much you have to say about it/how interested you are in learning more about it; (b) how likely it is that there will be a question on it; (c) how many other topics this one may relate to. The first point determines the depth, the second tells you how useful it could be to speciallise in this topic, and the third determines the broadth of questions you may be able to answer from that single topic. This is how you can minimise effort: by making sure you pick topics there is indepth knowledge easily available, by making sure you enjoy the work, by not reading (much) on topics that are unlikely to be of use, and finally by choosing topics that may relate to several larger areas and/or specific examples that can be used for many different topics.

To give an example, one of our biology courses, Diversity of Life, covers evolutionary theory, and the evolution and classification of unicellular organisms, land plants, fungi and most types of animals. It is highly likely that at least one question will be on evolution, since it is such a debatable area. Thus, to prepare for a question on evolution, I will look for and learn examples from as many of the different types of organisms we are taught about, and relate those to ideas on evolutionary theory. These examples will also prove helpful when discussing questions regarding these organism groups only, and I will make sure that is extract examples that relate to as many different possible questions there could be on the exams.

I hope these tips can ease some study pain for you, and wish you all a merry christmas, and a weird and wonderful new year!!