Pressure of tests

My first test in this university was biology which is one of my favourite subjects, i was pressurised because i had no clue on the kind or type of questions to expect since i was new,also i had this notion that exams and tests put students under pressure.I was not really scared or bordered about it, because i studied hard and was fully prepared and ready for the test, i ended up taking the test and was very surprised and highly elated at my excellent performance.

I believe that success comes with hard work, meaning that for me to be very successful in my academics i have to study and be very serious with my lectures, and also work towards achieving the standard i have set for myself in my academics.All i can say is that am happy due to my performance in all the test i have written so far, except a few with comments on improper referencing,which am currently working on now so as to improve and do better in the next test.

 In order to prevent or avoid the pressure of tests and exams,students should always study so as to be ready for any test  and avoid waiting for few days to the test or exam before studying.When you prepare for a test or exam before time, you tend to understand more because you are not being tormented by the fact that the test is near, and you are not yet ready for it,on the other hand, if you prepare for a test in a short period of time, you tend to be pressurized especially if you have loads of areas to cover for the test .

lecture technique

Personally,i think people react to lectures in different ways,to some, attending lectures is unnecessary and less important because they feel they can study on their own,while to others attending lectures is very important .I like attending classes because i feel that being physically present in lectures is very important, because it gives me the opportunity to listen to my lecturer teach, and have a better understanding of the topic,rather than staying in my room studying on my own.

The lecture technique here is far different from the one in my country,in the sense that lectures are conducted in a well conducive environment  with short and untiring lectures,unlike in my country where lecture rooms are over populated ,with very long and tiring lectures.The lecturers here are so dedicated to their job and are always willing to offer assistance to students having difficulty in their academics by organizing personal tutorials for them, which is impossible in my country.I always attend my classes, listen while lecture is going on, then take notes from my own understanding of the lecture which makes studying easier and better for me.

pressure of tests

The tests came around just as I expected with loads of pressures especially as they were my first tests here, I did not know what to expect, as a result of this I had to study really hard just to be on the safe side and not run out of ideas when taking a test, also time management was not much of an issue even though I did not start off early enough there was not much we had done so the little time I had was enough to cover all.

All in all the test went well or so I had thought because when we returned from the Christmas break and we got back our test scripts I was not so excited about a particular test script, something about not properly referencing (in cite referencing and some other stuff)so it really brought down my mark and this made me sad because I really studied for the test, well I have decided to learn from it and have really been working on my referencing skills incite referencing and all but the others turned out just as I had expected very good , but even with all these I am definitely not looking forward to another test, even though it is inevitable.

lecture technique

Well as lecture techniques are concerned I think it is very ok as compared to the lecture technique back home because it gives me enough room to study as well as attend classes and still have time for myself. Back home classes were done at a stretch but here we are given ten minutes break if the classes would last for at least two hours.

The lecturers and tutors are very good they show so much dedication to their work and also give students the opportunity to do very well if they want to by arranging tutorials. As all lectures can be interesting I have had a fair share of boring lectures and this is not as a result of the lecture technique used it just happens that some topics are quite boring and they just have to be covered. In general I am very satisfied with the lecture technique being used as I understand everything covered and if I do not here is always room for assistance from my lecturers and tutors.

Lecture techniques

When it comes to lectures some people think that it is boring while others think that it is a valuable opportunity to obtain information on their study and to learn new things and discover their subject area further. However, personally, lectures are different from our ordinary lessons during school days. It is restricted to listening only and that questions can only be asked at the end of the lecture most of the time. So freedom to ask whenever you want is out of the option as lecturer generally holds more authority in terms of power.

Fortunately, we can make lectures more interesting rather than listening and taking notes on whatever the lecturer says. Passive note taking does not require much thinking and that information won’t be reprocessed for our brain to remember them and that would make revision harder. Instead of using passive notes taking we can make our own notes by adding what we think besides what lecturers have said. Things like adding an opinion rephrase sentences to create our own, making comparison tables and try out different notes making/taking techniques can help dramatically.

Apart from taking good notes and get into a good habit to using our own knowledge to explore, attending the lectures is also important because you will miss out important details and explanations given by the lecturer. Although many lecture materials can be found online, they do not explain things by simply looking and reading them won’t help you to learn unless you are a genius.

You may think that reading a friend’s notes will help you but that will make it harder as different people have different notes taking preference and that style might not be suitable for you or you simply just can’t read their hand writing. I for example prefer linear style notes taking because it looks neat on the page. However, to make the notes appeals to me more visually I’ve tried tables as well as spider grams.

LECTURE TECHNIQUE - GROUP 2

Hi all and welcome to our fourth blog. The subject of this blog is lecture technique. What we would like you to think and write about is how one can best approach lectures. Is it vital to attend or do you think you can read friend's notes or use Listen Again? Also, how best to take notes. Do other styles to linear note taking work for you? What are your observations of the lectures so far. Should one re-write notes or is this a waste of time. Does just revising your notes through reading suffice. Please let's hear your thoughts. This blog entry is technically due at the end of week 20 although I will permit an extension until Friday of week 21. If you haven't completed all your other blogs please do so ASAP. Remember that one of the marking criteria for the Reflective Event is completion and quality of blogs. Good Luck - Chris