I wish I could be a cool kid and say "Wing it and see what happens" but I can't, because this is what I do:

  • Learn deadlines for all major assignments/assessed presentations as early as feasable.
  • Create a timetable with aforesaid dates on. Schedule work to ensure that I have sufficient time for each piece.
  • Get work done.
  • When it comes to exams, study previous year's questions, the syllabus, and teacher hints to guess at the questions. (May be unnecessary depending on how strong the hints are ) Select one main and one backup topic of study for each question group (We usually have two lists of questions, six to eight per list, choose one q per list to answer).
  • Read over lecture notes, important publications, etc. Then make short revision sheets outlining the framework of my arguments, and a few essential facts and figures.
  • Revise from said sheets, a lot, every day leading up to the exam.


Keeping to the assignment timetable has been tough, because of sickness in 2nd year and heartbreak in 3rd, but the timetable itself saved me both times because I had enough work out of the way that I could ignore most uni obligations for a couple weeks without being in any trouble.

As for exams, sometimes the revision turns out to be pointless. I slaved like a dog for my US Politics exam last year, and whilst one question came up perfectly, the other stuff I revised was totally absent. I had to wing a question on immigration, and I ended up getting my best exam result ever on that test (Though whether you can call something I've been learning about for five+ years "winging" I don't know xD)

Yeah I am a giant nerd I've got to finish my 10,000 word/30~ page dissertation real soon (as in today, so that I have a few days to sit back before I read over it all for final corrections etc.) and I cba though. Really cba cba cba.

Edit: Also, attend all classes. In the last two years of college I've missed fewer classes than many people I know miss in a month.