Study

20/20 – Day 1: 20 ways to engage with feedback

Over the next four weeks I’m treating you to a new series of posts, 20 Lists of 20 (or “20/20” for short).  Twenty posts on a variety of subjects, all as lists of twenty. I hope you find them useful.

Today’s topic is on engaging with feedback.

When you get your coursework back from your tutor, you hope the comments will be positive (as well as the grade).  But what about the constructive criticism and suggestions on where you could improve?  Even a well-received paper will have constructive comments, but a poorly marked essay is likely to go as far out of your sight as possible, not to be looked at again.  This is a mistake.

Your less pleasing essays probably have the best feedback to help you improve.  In Day One of my “20/20” series, here are some ways you can make the most of the feedback you’ve been given.

  1. Focus on what you’ve been asked to improve. You probably want to forget about the negative feedback, but that’s what you need to concentrate on.  Make a point of tackling those issues head on in your next piece of work.
  2. Don’t be complacent. Enjoy that shiny gold star and revel in the glory as your tutor suggests you publish your essay in the biggest scholarly journal out there. But don’t lose sight of the next essay. And the one after that. And the one after that.  You’re not looking for a one-off, you’re looking for consistency!
  3. Ask why.  Whatever feedback you receive, ask yourself why you think you got it. A few days after you get the marks, spend ten minutes taking it seriously and work out why you feel it happened the way it did.  It doesn’t always take more than a few moments to work out how to improve for next time.
  4. Get MORE feedback. Take some time with your tutor to chew over the pros and cons.  Always take the feedback seriously and seek out advice on improving your game via the people who know. After all, the tutors are grading you, so find out what will help them grade you higher.
  5. Re-read your work.  Are there any passages that make you cringe?  Do you yawn at the filler paragraph you added just to make the word count?  Could you have defined your argument more clearly?
  6. Read a study guide. When you’re given areas to improve upon, study guides are invaluable.  Something like “The Study Skills Handbook” or “Effective Study Skills” should help.
  7. Stop being defensive.  Criticism, no matter how constructive, sucks.  Big time.  But criticism is there for a reason.  Now is not the time to argue why the comment was uncalled for.  It’s time to address the issue and think about how you could change the coursework so you didn’t get criticised in the same way again.
  8. Don’t respond straight away.  Give yourself time to relax before returning to the piece.  No matter how well or badly you feel you did, you can’t focus on the feedback properly until it’s settled in your mind.
  9. Get creative. Some issues arise when you try too hard to conform to a particular way of writing or you don’t believe you can do better.  Get rid of these blocks and work to your own strengths.  Churn out great stuff in the most creative way you can and consider making it fit after that.
  10. Plan your next coursework in advance.  You can always use your time more productively.
  11. Play to your strengths and work on your weaknesses.  You know what you’re good at, so make sure you continue to shine there.  But don’t do that by neglecting your weak points.  Aim to turn those into strengths too.
  12. Don’t panic! A poor grade can be disheartening, but the whole point in engaging with feedback is so you can get a better grade.  Don’t worry about the feedback, embrace it and make good use of it!
  13. Read more around the subject. Ask about what research you have missed out on and go beyond the suggested reading list. Push yourself to find something new and unexpected.
  14. Give yourself feedback. Similarly to re-reading your work, why not be critical about your own work?  You know it’s not perfect, so where would you like to improve?  What aspects would you change if you could go back?
  15. Accept peer feedback in the same way you would from a tutor…at first.  You may not agree with the feedback and it may sound stupid. You’re more likely to discard comments from peers. What would they know?  But don’t be quick to ignore.  Take the comment seriously (unless completely stupid) and see what you can learn from it.
  16. Feel encouraged.  Feedback is designed to spur you on and help you improve.  The tutor isn’t laughing at you, they’re hoping you’ll take the advice on board and hand in a better piece of work next time.
  17. Focus on larger concerns.  We all make mistakes.  Don’t get bogged down with guilt over a spelling mistake and the odd formatting error.  Deal with the criticism regarding content.
  18. Spend time improving on key points.  Did the conclusion have nothing to do with the main text?  Were you lacking a solid introduction?  Analyse what’s missing so you don’t suffer the same way next time.
  19. Break it down. Negative feedback, especially lots of it, can be difficult to take in.  Take each point one at a time so you’re not overwhelmed by it.
  20. Make separate notes if you need.  What would you do different next time?  Engage with the feedback on a deeper level by noting problem areas, how you aim to improve, and go over what you could have included/changed in hindsight.  Taking the feedback further than reading the comments is important if you’re going to make the most of it.

One post down, nineteen to go. Tomorrow I look at how you can find your own voice. Hope you can join me then.

Photo credit: tiffa130 (cc)

Order Plus Focus Equals WIN!

When you see the list of things to do getting longer and out of control, take action.

Here’s a quick way to get back on track:

Order in importance and focus on just a few tasks each day.  Anything else is a bonus.

I’m sure you don’t have 20 tasks that all need finishing TODAY, even if that’s how it feels sometimes.  Let’s say time truly is tight and you have a week to get 20 important things complete.  That’s less than three things you need to do each day that week.  Even if you relax at weekends, you’d only have four tasks to do each weekday before completing all 20.

I’m sure the jobs will take different lengths of time, but this doesn’t when your list is out of control.  Every job will seem to take up too much of your valuable time.  In the circumstances, you need to claw things back and be the master of it once more.

Do this:

  • List all the stuff you need to do.
  • Make sure you really NEED to do it.  Anything not important or urgent, take off the list.
  • Arrange items in order of importance. But,
  • Anything that requires urgent attention over the next day should come first. And,
  • Shorter tasks that are inconvenient to complete, but won’t take long, can be dealt with as soon as possible too. That’ll take them off the list and give you a warm, fuzzy feeling.
  • Everything else follows on the list, still in order of importance.

If you won’t feel any more warm and fuzzy just by removing the shorter tasks off the list quickly, it may be best to skip that step.  Just order in importance and don’t focus on anything else until you’re out of danger and able to relax once more.

This is a quick and dirty method that still requires a push on your own part, but it helps get the job done.  With a tight focus, you shouldn’t feel so overwhelmed, especially when you get closer to clearing the list of tasks.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a regular way to deal with your time!  The exercise is simply to get you over a panic.

May you never need to use such a method. 😉

26 Sharp Essay Tips

Essays.  You can’t get away from them.  And even if you’re up for the challenge, that doesn’t make the writing process less stressful.

Whatever happens in a single essay, don’t be distracted or downhearted.  I remember handing in an essay that I was proud of, yet it barely scraped a pass.  I was gutted.  In the same semester, I couldn’t get my head round a particular essay and handed in what I thought was mediocre work…but my tutor didn’t see it that way and gave me an amazing grade.

No wonder the essay experience is a stressful one!

While I can’t take away that stress, I do have 26 tips below to reduce some of the uncertainty.  They’ll point you in the right direction when it comes to making the grade.  It’s not exhaustive, but when it comes to essays, nothing is!  If you have any killer tips that you can’t live without, let us know.  We like advice.  Advice is good!

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Make Time For Time: 6. Find time to create your perfect study setup

Welcome to the final part of the “Make Time For Time” series of posts.

It’s not always possible to get a lot of help from study advice.  There’s no magic answer, because everyone works differently.  Making time for time involves finding your way.  That, in itself, does take some time.  Allow yourself different trials in your quest to find the perfect study setup, otherwise you may never find what works for you.

photo by m00by

photo by m00by

Some trials to consider:

  • Place of study – Are you better off at your personal desk, at the library, in an outside space?  Location is an important factor in effective work.  Everything else may be right, but if the space doesn’t feel right, it’s hard to work well.
  • Belongings – This is an extension of your study space.  If you’re working in a field in the middle of nowhere, you won’t have much to think about.  A desk in your own room, however, is a different matter. You’ll have loads of distractions in front of you and there may be a messy desk cramping your style.  You may work wonderfully in your current location, but the stuff around you can get in the way instead, without you realising.  If you have an ‘off’ day, check the junk and distractions putting you off and get them out of your sight.
  • Time of day – Night owl or morning lark?  The time of day you do your work makes a huge difference. What works best for you?
  • Your general health – Do you have a 30 minute study session planned just before you eat dinner?  If you’re already hungry, it’s probably a bad time to start working.  Get the food out of the way before you start working the brain.  And what about exercising physically before you exercise mentally?  A quick walk can do wonders for the mind.  Just a 10 minute walk about campus, or around your local area can be enough to give you a jolt in the right direction.  You may even get some ideas on the walk.  Carry a notepad and pen…just in case!
  • Headbanger, or silent wonder? – Music helps some of us and hinders others.  Even the type of music can make a difference.  I’ve known some people who don’t like classical music who swear by it when they study.  They don’t even notice the music, but it helps them zone out.  So think about the sounds around you and use music wisely to work effectively.  Try listening to different random white/pink/brown noise if you like, or choose a soundscape with birds and rainfall, or just listen to your favourite song.  There’s bound to be something out there to get you in the mood, even if it’s total silence. Earplugs, here we come!

photo by svenwerk

photo by svenwerk

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From this series of articles, I hope it’s clear that time is something you have a lot of control over.  It may not feel that way much of the time, but there really is a lot we can do to manage time more effectively.

Even the most brilliant planners don’t have a perfect time-management technique.  Lives change, as do priorities.  I called this series ‘Make Time For Time’, because we should never stop thinking about the time available to us.  The moment you drop your guard and think you can’t manage your time any better is the moment you’ll slip up.

In my early teens I was awful at time-management.  It was only after my A-Levels, just before I went to uni, that I realised how much better I could do.

I went from being rubbish at time-management to being okay.  Yes, just okay.  Because it’s hard to be better than okay.  I’m happy to call my time-management a strength, just so long as I’m clear to myself that the real strength is to have a constant awareness that my time can always be managed better and that I will always strive to improve.

If that sounds like your attitude towards time-management, you should be happy to call it a strength too.