Copy

To view this on grads.co.uk visit:

http://blog.grads.co.uk/2014/03/04/fun-simple-revision-tips/

With it coming to the final semester of university and maybe your most important semester with your final exams what’s the best way to prepare for them? The answer is to simply revise as hard as you can! But being a student and all, this can be extremely difficult? So here are a few revision tips to keep you going.

1)      My dad used to always tell me “Son, read your notes before bed, it’ll all sink in then” I don’t know the science behind this, but it does make sense, after all sometimes the old fashioned techniques are the best way forward! But with social media on the rise it certainly can be a distraction however, social media can be an advantage, as I describe in tip 2 and 3.

2)      How about making yourself a power point presentation? It’s just like being in a lab session. Although it’ll refresh your mind on your notes. Once made you can share it online using slideshare.com to classmates as well as other people who may find your notes useful. Or if you don’t want to make your own presentation, you can always find out what others have done online and use their notes to help you revise.

3)      Using social media you can create a facebook group with your classmates. Here you can share all your knowledge and questions to each other. The success in this is that the more you post when answering peoples questions, the more confident you become as you know the answer and you’re helping others at the same time. As well as this if you feel like you don’t know something you can ask for help or if you’re too shy to ask, (which you shouldn’t by the way, everybody needs help with revision!) you can sift through all the comments and post and hopefully you’ll find the answer you’re looking for.

4)      Moving on from social media, Revision can be fun! (I know right, sounds weird) but if you integrate simple childhood games into your revision it makes things a lot easier. One game that certainly helped me was the memory game. It certainly does test your memory of your notes well Its really easy to make as well as all you need is two sheets of paper and some scissors. First draw a grid on one sheet and then jot down some terms/names/theories/words etc. Then on the other sheet of paper write down the definition/theory/quote etc from the set of words from the first piece of paper. Finally cut them out, jumble them up and match them up! The trick is to keep repeating this until you get every one correct. One wrong answer, then do it again! This way you’ll remember the correct answers and won’t make the same mistake when it comes to remembering that in your exam!

5)      Another great word game comes from a family board game. Articulate. This revision game is a lot more fun because you can learn and play with friends (woohoo!) For this instead of using the board you can simply just use DIY revision cards. On each card you write down four definitions or terms, just like the memory game, but you do each one in a different colour. Then shuffle them up, and distribute between your revision buddies. Each player has thirty seconds for the opposite player to pick a colour. Then the player with the card has to DESCRIBE what is written to the opposite player and the person playing has to name what they are describing. The one with the most correct answers in 30 seconds wins! So both people are being tested and learning at the same time.

So there you have it. Some fun and yet simple techniques that can trigger your creative side and your memory, all in order to make you have fun and do well in your exams at the same time. What’s not to miss!?

If there’s one thing everybody loves it’s a good film, but who would have known that we graduates could learn from them?  Here are 4 classic film quotes I’ve put in order of importance that could really teach us a few tips.

1)   “Nobody move a muscle”

-          Dr Alan Grant – Jurassic Park

Although originally said whilst being hunted by dinosaurs, in today’s world, its a dog eat dog world. Finding a job once you’ve graduated can be hard. VERY HARD! You could find yourself using your free time that you now have after graduating, apply for lots of different positions left right and centre, getting through to the next stages and not landing it in the bag. With all that effort spent job hunting you will find yourself exhausted. So why not take some time off, and not move a muscle. Enjoy the free time you have. Take breaks now and then and pace yourself. For example perhaps aim to apply for jobs once a week and use the rest of the week doing something you’ve not had the time to do before. Take up a new hobby or catch up with your long lost TV or book series.  After all once you successfully find yourself a job, you’ll find yourself with little free time and you’ll be wishing you had more.

2)   “With great power, comes responsibility”

-         Uncle Ben – Spiderman

So once you’ve found taken some time out and find yourself applying again, what’s next? Well before you start applying for jobs it’s important that you make sure ALL your social networking sites are in order. This is important because with the digital age we’re now in all employers can look you up on the internet and in a mere few seconds can find out something to change their mind about you.  So make sure your networking profiles are set to private or remove anything you wouldn’t want them to see. It’s also a good idea to boost your online profile. Start creating blogs or websites (with your name in the url so they can be found easily) to show case and build your LinkedIn account. Get as many connections from professionals such as past employers and your lecturers. The more you have the better you look and the greater opportunity to increase your profile via recommendations and endorsing.

3)   “Shaken and not stirred”

-          James Bond  - Dr. No.

After your clean up session online, it’s time to begin applying again. However you’ve got to think realistic. It can be very hard stirring the same skills and getting your ideal job and instead you might have to shake things up a bit. Start applying for different jobs that your skill set could benefit. For example guaranteed at University everybody has typed up a report or essay. There you go, that’s not one, but three different skills:Report writing, Microsoft Word, and Typing. So if you’ve got the ability to type, then you’ve probably got the ability to do some creative writing or type up a report. This could lead to publishing articles for a paper or becoming a project manager of a company. The sky is the limit when it comes to skills, so make sure you shake up your options.

4)   “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything”

-         Doc Brown – Back to The Future

Finally to end on a high note, just like the Mc Flys in Back to the Future, a happy ending can happen to you too if you put your mind to it and not give up

To read the blog post online you can view it here: 

http://blog.grads.co.uk/2014/01/14/inspirational-film-quotes/