Category: Revision

Student life is BUSY. You’re working, doing activities, socialising, and remembering to feed and clean yourself… It makes sense that time management for students can go out the window. It also might be the first time you’ve been left to your own devices for a lot of the day. Gone is the structure of school, replaced with overlapping deadlines and long library hours.

One of the best reasons to use Proprep is to up your time management game. When I was a student, I always started the university term determined to stay on top of things. However, I would get more and more behind as the weeks went on. I was like a duck: calm on the surface, but paddling like crazy to stay afloat behind the scenes. If this sounds familiar, here’s how to work on changing your routine for the better.

The importance of time management for students

Good time management helps students to prioritise their tasks and submit assignments on time. Students can plan, set aside the time they need to complete work, and make better use of the rest of their time.

It might feel like some people are naturally good at using their time, but this isn’t the case. Time management is an organisational process that enables you to plan effectively, and anyone can learn to do it. Excellent time management skills will allow you to work more productively. You can then get more done with less stress, especially when pressure is high. Follow our top tips to start managing your time better today!

1. Prioritise your tasks

The key to time management for students is creating a to-do list. Identify what you need to do, then prioritise tasks based on the dates your assignments are due and the amount of time you’ll need. You can base your schedule for the day and week around what needs to get done first. If you’ve got some flexibility, start with what you most feel like doing. Hopefully the momentum will carry you through the rest of your list!

2. Break big tasks down

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by large tasks like ‘Start Chemistry revision’, and the anxiety can make you want to procrastinate. Start with shorter, simpler to-do items and then move on to larger projects or assignments. You can break these down into manageable chunks too. Rather than ‘Revise’, try and get through ‘Chapter 1 Notes’, ‘Chapter 1 Practice Exercises’, and so on.

3. Make a schedule that works for you

Some people like to divide their time and assign different tasks to each chunk; some people like to stay at one until it’s done. When I was at uni, I got bored if I spent too long on one thing, so I changed it up every hour. Even though overall assignments took me longer, I was able to be stay more productive all day. Try a few different ways until you figure out what kind of time management works for you.

Different people work better at different times of the day. If you know you’re a night owl, take it easy in the morning and get back to work after supper. I knew this would exhaust me though, so I preferred to get to the library early and try to leave by 6pm.

Whatever you choose, make sure you put enough breaks throughout the day to keep you sane and avoid burnout. Many people like the pomodoro technique, which consists of working for 25 minutes before breaking for five, with a longer break every four cycles. Once you’ve committed to a plan, stick to it!

4. Remove distractions

A University of London study showed that those who multitask see a drop in IQ similar to someone who didn’t sleep the night before. If you’re trying to juggle doing multiple things at once, you’ll almost always end up less productive. Get real with yourself about what might be distracting you. Are you spending too much time checking Instagram or TikTok? Even if you’re online for a productive purpose like Studygram, try and stay in the zone while you’re working. Can you turn social media breaks into rewards for crossing something off your list?

5. Treat yoself!

Speaking of rewards, positively reinforcing the work you do will help you keep working for longer. Use your breaks to check the apps you’ve been avoiding, catch up with a friend, or spend time outside to feel refreshed. Pick something you’re looking forward to each week to use as motivation to accomplish your goals. For example, when I’ve finished three practice papers, I’ll watch the new James Bond film.

If you’re struggling to relax during your downtime, give your mind a rest through meditation or yoga.

6. Build a good routine

After a couple of weeks of sticking to your time management schedule, hopefully you’ll build up good momentum and feel more in routine. An important part of this is also taking care of yourself: getting enough sleep, nutritious food, fresh air, and movement. Try and give yourself early nights when you can. These are especially important if you know you have a busy few days ahead, or you’re always late for the same lecture.

Your thoughts on time management for students

Have you tried any of our tips and found them helpful? What’s your best time management advice? Let us know in the comments!

Studying mathematics effectively at an undergraduate level is often about finding new ways to study. It can take time, for instance, learning how to take the right notes and how to pace yourself when working alone. If you are keen to find more effective ways to study, we can help. Here are five ways to master your maths study needs.

1. Ensure you understand one topic before moving to another.

It might sound obvious but in a maths degree, you cannot afford any knowledge gaps, so make sure you understand one topic before moving on to another. A good habit to get into is to review your lecture notes immediately after every lecture. This way, you can make sure you understand the main ideas and flesh out the details where you need to. If you then don’t understand anything, seek out the help of the lecturer, or bring it up in your tutorials. It’s the best way to learn and make sure you don’t fall behind.

2. Take lecture notes properly. 

It also pays to take notes in the right way. Unlike school, you do not need to write down every word, but you do need to understand what a lecturer is saying. Some top tips to get you started: 

• Take notes in a way that makes sense to you. Whether it’s in diagram form, with examples or leaving gaps for you to fill in with independent work, at a later date.
• Try to make your notes as complete and as accurate as possible so they are valuable but keep them brief enough so that you can still listen to what is being said.
• Be prepared for varied lecturing styles from lecturers; not all will use a whiteboard or equation examples when explaining topics.
• Annotate all lecture hand-outs as you are given them, to correlate with your notes, so you can see where they slot in.
• Organise your notes under topics; this will help for practice and revision.

3. Work with your peers.

Working with peers can help with understanding and theorising as well as with your revision. Peers can also provide enlightening insight and crucial ideas but try not to rely on them for solutions. The best peer group work happens via collaboration and support. To ensure this works for you, choose like-minded friends to work with, who have the same goals and work patterns as you.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Mathematics is all about problem-solving, and the only way to test your understanding is to work through problem sets and keep practising. It is impossible to study maths by just reading and listening so make sure you put in the required independent work too. If you are having difficulties with mathematical proof and analysis (common amongst first-year students as it’s so different from A-level maths), seek help either from your professors or an independent tutor. 

5. Give Proprep a try.

As the key to taking maths at university is to get plenty of practice, Proprep can really help you here. Our video tutorials not only match your syllabus and textbooks but also take you step-by-step through each problem and solution for all of your course’s topics. 

This enables you to practice at your own speed and master any topic area in three steps: 

• Watch the video tutorials.
• Solve practice problems.
• Then watch the video solutions to check your work.

It’s an ideal way to master complex problem sets when you are working on your own and will give you insight into new areas you haven’t come across before. Also in response to the outbreak of Covid19, we have now opened up all our customised learning resources for free to all students until the end of the academic year. All you need to set up your account is an email address, no credit card details required, which you can do by clicking here. 

If you’re looking for some extra support during the lockdown look no further than your smartphone and laptop. The key to feeling connected and getting more out of studying and socialising is at your fingertips.

Proprep  

We aim to make your life easier, with our personalised system of STEM video content and study guides tailored to your needs. Knowing this information is there whenever you need it means you can cover the work you need to do in your own time. This not only helps you tackle tougher subject areas with more confidence but will also enable you to practice as much as you need to. 

Evernote App 

The Evernote app helps you focus on what matters most thanks to its easy to access pool of information. You can manually input information and add to-do lists, photos, images, web pages, audio and work documents, and access them on all your devices. Better yet, it’s all instantly searchable. It’s especially useful for annotating documents with notes and comments, as well as being able to share everything with fellow peers.

Trello 

Trello is the best task-tracking app on the market and will make studying that much easier to manage. You can create cards for individual tasks, label functions to place them in order of priority and tick them off as you go. 

For ease, you can also view on boards for each topic area, or via a calendar for daily to-dos. Plus you can share study boards with students you work with, and they can add comments to the cards, helping you to study and stay in touch.

Google docs

Working on documents with your tutors or peers is easy with Google Docs. Instead of sending documents back and forth through email, and then trying to track everyone’s change, you can just save your file as a Google Doc and select the people you want to share it with. It’s a live document so you can see comments and changes from others, making for some good collaborative work.

Photo credit: Africa studio, shutterstock

House Party app

The Houseparty app uses a split-screen to make multiple video chatting easy between 8 users, adding in a feature that allows for secret chats among participants. You can also create rooms and ask people to join your video-chat room by sending a link through text. The idea is when you open the app; it is similar to a house party where you chat with other people already ‘in the house’. When you use the app, your friends will be alerted that you are available to video chat and can join in.

Zoom app 

Zoom is the new Skype and was downloaded 2.13m times around the world on 23 March, the day the lockdown was announced. The free version allows for video calls of less than 40 minutes, though reconnect on the same link after your 40 minutes is up, and you are all back on again. Launching a chat can be done at the click of a button, or you can either generate a link to send to your friends.

Google Hangouts

There are two versions of Google Hangouts; Hangouts Chat is the consumer version of Hangouts, used for connecting with your friends. Unlike Zoom, hangouts are also far easier to use on mobile and tablet if that’s your preference.

Messenger VS WhatsApp

It’s likely you already have these two apps on your phone. WhatsApp wins on the privacy front as everything is encrypted. But when it comes to giving you a wide range of access to contacts, Facebook Messenger wins over WhatsApp. For calls WhatsApp seems to have better signals for international and rural calls.

University life can be hard work. Aside from lectures, exams, revision and challenging assignments, we know how tough it is to fit in the fun stuff and not let your grades slip. Which is why Proprep is the helping hand you need.

Make your life easier

Photo credit: Solis Images Shutterstock 

Our aim is to make your life easier, reduce academic stress and improve the understanding of challenging materials in a time-efficient, student-friendly way. We know what we are doing as we have already helped over 500k students over the last 10 years and can ensure you have all the resources and tutorials you need to get the results you want. 

The key is our easy-to-use personalised system of STEM video content and study guides. This powered by a technology that customises STEM courses according to the specific needs of your university.

How we do it?

Photo credit: GaudiLab Shutterstock 

University professors create our library of tutorials and we have over 3.5k+ courses and 60k+ videos on offer. As well as a vast selection of textbooks and study guides with every single concept broken down into bite-sized modules (the optimal way to learn according to neuroscientists).

Each video tutorial is created by going through the different syllabi of each course, with each department in each university. We then assemble video tutorials that will offer you the exact materials at the level you need. You also receive a course textbook, study guides and practise exams based on your professor’s testing style. All of which means your all your academic bases are covered.

Knowing this information is there at your fingertips also means you can cover the work you need to do, at your own speed and in your own time. This not only helps you tackle tougher subject areas with more confidence but will also enable you to practice as much as you need to. Best of all, as we help you study in a smarter way you can save time and have more time to enjoy student life. 

Get the most out of university life.

Photo credit: MAD.Vertise Shutterstock 

Depending on your learning style, you can choose to binge-watch a whole series at once (Probability box set anyone?) or pick and mix the topics you need help with when you need them. This allows you to master any STEM subject in 3 simple steps:

1. Watch the video tutorials
2. Solve the practice problems
3. Check your work against the video solutions

Also the best part is that, in response to the outbreak of Covid19, we have now opened up all our customised learning resources for free to all students until the end of the academic year. All you need to set up your account is an email address, no credit card details required, which you can do by clicking here.