Using AI at University: a new online resource from the Study Skills team

Posted on by tim.worth

How do you feel about the huge developments in Artificial Intelligence we’ve seen over the past year? Depending on your point of view you may feel excited, overwhelmed, anxious, or all 3 of these things (and perhaps many more) all at once.  

Many of us in the study skills team felt precisely these things. We’re particularly aware of the opportunities and challenges that generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard and Claude present to students. When used appropriately they have the potential to massively enhance your learning and take your skills in any number of areas to the next level.  

But these AI tools can also be used unethically: to write essays or generate code for assessments which students should be creating themselves. We also know that lots of students want to use these tools but don’t know how, or are worried they may inadvertently break the University’s rules. That’s why we’ve put together a guide to help you. 

The online resource

Our online resource Using AI at University explores how generative AI works, so you can understand what it’s capable of and what it can’t do. We also set out some of the university rules about using AI for assessments, and explain why these rules will vary from unit to unit. The key principle behind these rules is to consider your own learning – are you using AI in a manner which develops and enhances your skills? Or are you using it in a way which is actually stopping you from gaining some really important skills for your subject? 

Besides understanding the rules about AI we want to help you start putting these tools to practical use as study aids. Our guide contains a catalogue of some of the most popular AI tools, and pages on writing effective prompts and turning these AI programs into your own virtual tutor. AI tools are far from perfect though, so it’s important you approach them critically and cautiously as we outline on our page about AI errors, hallucinations and fact-checking. 

AI playgrounds 

We hope that the online resource will help you to understand generative AI and how to use it within the university guidelines. However, we also believe that the best way to develop your AI skills is through practice. That’s why we’re running AI playgrounds in November. These are practical sessions where you can experiment with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Google Bard and more.  

In the playgrounds we’ll show you how to how to access these tools and discuss some strategies for using them effectively before giving you some space to play around with them. Our Study Skills tutors and student advocates will be close at hand to assist.  

You can view times and dates of our upcoming AI playgrounds and book into them here. 

Letter to my undergraduate self: Becky Selwyn – ‘Be yourself and do things your way’

Posted on by study.skills

Inspired by the Big Issue’s regular feature Letter to My Younger Self, we’re asking staff to think back to their own experiences as a student and tell us what advice they would give to their undergraduate selves.

In this post, we’re delighted to hear from Becky Selwyn, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering.

Photo of Becky, the author of the blog post

What and where did you study? 

I studied my MEng in Mechanical Engineering here in Bristol, and as part of the course I spent a year studying in Saint Etienne (in France) for my 3rd year. I stayed here to do my PhD as well, and then realised that lecturing was the thing I wanted to do with my life so I’ve been here ever since!

Did you experience culture shock when you started university? 

Yes and no – the studying wasn’t too bad as I had been used to self-motivating and managing my own time from secondary school, and had been working full time during my gap year, but it was overwhelming being surrounded by so many new people all the time. I’m quite introverted, and had only attended relatively small schools, so the step change up to large halls of residence and 100-person lectures was a lot to deal with (I have no idea how UGs cope now that there are sometimes 450 students in a lecture theatre!). Eventually I made some friends to sit with in lectures and to spend time with outside lectures, and that helped me to manage the social overload I felt the rest of the time.

What was your biggest failure and what did you learn from it? 

I failed a unit in my final year, and was absolutely devastated. It didn’t stop me graduating, but my initial response was to contact the Unit Director and ask whether I could attempt the resit (obviously without it being recorded on my transcript) – I was desperate to show that I could pass the unit properly, even if it wouldn’t count towards anything. The Unit Director told me to get in touch after the resit period and they would send me a copy of the exam to try. Of course by the time the resit period arrived, my initial feelings about the failure had faded and I didn’t ask for the paper – I was busy enjoying the start of my PhD. It made me realise that initial responses to failure can be very intense, but context, patience, and time make it easier to accept and move on from.

What are you most proud of about your time at university? 

In my first year, we had a group design project to make a cup dispensing machine, and my group won the competition. I’d suggested the design for the door, and we were the only group who had that type of mechanism and design, so I like to think that my idea helped us to win, even though our outer casing was held together with tape!

What was the best bit of feedback you received? 

I don’t remember receiving any feedback on my work other than a numerical grade and maybe a couple of vague words, but I do remember how I felt after various informal conversations with different members of staff. Some were really positive and left me feeling like I could take on any challenge. Others left me feeling that I didn’t belong here and should give up. I guess the impact of those conversations has influenced how I try to interact with people now – I saw that kindness, reassurance, and support went a long way towards helping me believe I could succeed on my own, so that’s what I try to provide for others. It also made me realise that feedback isn’t just a written comment on a piece of summative work – it’s everything that happens that makes you think about your work, and I try to help students see that too.

What advice would you give to your undergraduate self?

My undergraduate self wouldn’t believe it, but I’d tell myself that I am enough, and should have more confidence to be myself. Everyone is different, and that is where our strengths come from, so stop seeing all the things you aren’t and start embracing all the things you are. Be yourself and do things your way, because it will eventually show others that they can be themselves and succeed on their own terms too.

 

If you’re a staff member or postgraduate student and would like to write own letter to your undergraduate self, please get in touch: study-skills@bristol.ac.uk

 

 

Student perspective: overcoming anxieties about giving presentations

Posted on by tim.worth

by Helen March, English and History student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Helen, the author of the blog postDeadline season is looming and along with it comes a myriad of assessments, exams and sometimes even presentations. Delivering presentations at university can often be pretty overwhelming. Most degree programmes will ask you to give at least one during your time at university, and this might be the first time you’ve ever had to speak in public before. This can be quite scary, especially when you are presenting to a large audience or panel. Personally, I found the prospect of communicating my academic ideas incredibly daunting, as it was something I’d never done before.

But it doesn’t have to be daunting! Presentations are a great way to express a level of creativity in an assessment and can often result in really good marks. Below are some helpful tips about public speaking which can help tackle those nerves for your next presentation assessment.

Make a Script or Prompt Cards

It can often help to have some prompts to read from when giving a presentation; nobody is expecting you to remember everything word for word! Whether it’s some flash cards or a word document with your entire script, having something in front of you with the relevant information on will make sure you know what you need to say next. It can prevent you from having a mind blank if you’re worried you’ll panic when you get up in front of everyone.

Eye contact

Having said that, don’t stare at your script too much! It’s important to engage your audience. Although everyone is always encouraged to look people in the eyes when giving presentations this can often be quite difficult to do. It’s also pretty intimidating! Instead, try looking just above people’s heads. It will look like you’re speaking directly at them, but avoid the awkwardness of staring at anyone too much.

Project!

Make sure you are speaking at a good volume. It’s okay to be a bit too loud but make sure you’re not too quiet. As long as everyone can hear you then you should be okay. If you have the opportunity to, it can often help to visit the room you will be presenting in first so you know the size of it, check whether there is a microphone, and can test out how loudly you need to speak.

Practice!

Whether it’s in front of a flat mate, family member or just recording yourself on your phone, practising your presentation before you actually give it can really help. Not only will it make sure you’re familiar with your entire script, but it will improve the communication of your argument and allow you to work out how to pace yourself more easily. It can also help to pick up on anything which you might have missed from your presentation or script when you were putting it together. Practising your script will hopefully mean you’re less reliant on it when it comes to the actual presentation, and your argument will flow more easily.

If you’re still struggling, you can also attend one of our presentation skills workshops, which will give you the opportunity to discuss these skills and try out your public speaking skills.

Have you got any tips for public speaking? Share them below!

Letter to my undergraduate self: Kerrianne Orriss – ‘Everything is fixable as long as you’re willing to learn’

Posted on by study.skills

Inspired by the Big Issue’s regular feature Letter to My Younger Self, we’re asking staff to think back to their own experiences as a student and tell us what advice they would give to their undergraduate selves.

In this post we’re introducing Kerrianne Orriss, Study Skills Tutor.

Kerrianne, the author of this blog post

What and where did you study? 

History BA (Hons) at St Andrews, Royal Holloway and then Liverpool (three universities in 4 years – don’t ask!)

Did you experience culture shock when you started university? 

Yes – to the extent that I changed universities twice. I kept worrying that either I wasn’t performing well enough, or I did not fit in with my peers (or both). At St. Andrews there were many privately educated students who had bucketloads of confidence and could (it seemed to my 18-year-old self) converse fluently in ancient Greek and Latin. In my first classical civilisation class, the lecturer repeatedly referred to Persia and I panicked – where was this place and why had I not heard of it? My head was a-blur with so many unfamiliar words and concepts that belonged to a different world. At my school, showing an interest in ancient languages (or anything that was fascinating to me!) meant instant ostracisation. At university I became aware that other students had a head start on me – not only in their places of education but in their exposure to other worlds.

What was your biggest failure and what did you learn from it? 

The many times I kept silent in a tutorial. I was petrified of the sound of my voice filling the austere silence of the room. I often had a theory to put forward but my inner voice told me it was wrong or stupid. I then felt like an idiot when someone else gave ‘my’ answer and was praised. I gradually learned that my opinions were just as valid as my peers and that my difficulty with thinking under pressure was not insurmountable. I found that I could prepare not only by doing the pre-reading for the tutorial but by anticipating the kind of questions and arguments that might arise.

What are you most proud of about your time at university? 

As you can tell by now, I was not the most confident or self-aware student! I am proud that I developed my own techniques for studying as a dyslexic learner during a time when there was much less support for those with learning difficulties. I am proud that despite lacking confidence, I did start to believe in myself and speak up in classes. I am proud that I developed from a terrified nerd to a student who led study support groups in the third year and was confident in standing up for their beliefs. I am still a nerd, though.

What was the best bit of feedback you received? 

Typically, the only feedback I remember is bad feedback; bad on behalf of both myself and the tutor. He merely wrote ‘17’ at the end of my essay and popped it in my pigeonhole so he didn’t have to talk to me. I collected it and cried because I thought I’d failed. I went to my personal tutor to say I was leaving the university as I wasn’t fitting in with the ‘clever students’, to which he replied that a 17 was a first, so what was I thinking? I left anyway. It amuses me, looking back, that I did not think to look at the grading system or ask for more substantial feedback for that essay. There wasn’t a Study Skills service back then – alas, I would have learned so much!

What advice would you give to your undergraduate self?

Oh so many things! Here are the highlights:

Don’t eat so many marmite sandwiches – yes they are cheap, but you won’t want to look at marmite for another 20 years.

Don’t be afraid to talk to someone about your mental health – it’s so normal to struggle with university life and to feel like you don’t fit in. Ignore negative comments about being a feminist, not eating meat and caring about the environment. You will find your tribe.

Everything is fixable as long as you’re willing to learn. I wouldn’t change a thing about my childhood, but I wish I could tell my 18-year-old self that you can catch up on missed education, and there’s not some kind of secret society that imbues members with world knowledge and super-intelligence!

 

If you’re a staff member or postgraduate student and would like to write own letter to your undergraduate self, please get in touch: study-skills@bristol.ac.uk

 

 

Student perspective: How I engineer my time

Posted on by study.skills

Asda, the author of the blog postby Asda Napawan, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Managing and balancing work-life time as an engineering student is a difficult task due to the nature of the degree. To manage my time effectively, I use all of the following methods:

1. Rough Schedule

Plan a rough schedule for the week or month, only including meetings, classes and solid plans as unforeseen events may arise as time progress.

2. Detailed schedule

Plan a detailed schedule for the next day, including a list of tasks to be completed (e.g., asynchronous content, homework, and coursework)

3. Target setting

Set a target for the day and take as much time as needed to be completed. As engineering work can be time-consuming, and sometimes takes longer than anticipated, setting time for each individual task can be difficult.

4. Time blocking

Schedule specific time slot for each task. Estimate how long it will take for each task and try to do it in one goal.

5. Prioritising

Identify the most important tasks and focus on them first.

6. 5-minutes tasks

Do quick, 5-minutes task straight away to prevent forgetting about them and to clear them from your to-do list.

7. Pomodoro method

Focus for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minutes break. Repeat the process until that work is finished or reached the target set.

8. Tools

Tools such as Google calendar could be used to keep track of tasks, mark them as completed, and monitor the progress. The tool is convenient because it can be accessed on multiple devices and syncs across platforms.

By implementing these time management tools and strategies, I can prioritise tasks, create structure in my day, and make the most of my time to achieve the goals. What time management strategies have you found to be the most effective for your studies or work, and how have they helped you to achieved your goals?

Cover letters written by ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence programmes: the results, dangers, and what to do if you’ve submitted one

Posted on by tim.worth

Please note: this article was been updated in February 2024 to include details for our latest round of advocate recruitment for the 2024/25 academic year.

We’re recruiting! See this blog post for information about becoming a Bristol Futures Student Advocate for 2024/25. Then read on to find out what we’re looking for in a cover letter, a key part of your job application.

We know job applications and cover letters can be difficult to write. Sometimes the pressure and stress leads people to look for shortcuts. In recent months we’ve seen an increase in people using Artificial Intelligence programmes such as ChatGPT to help them write their University assignments. Some may also be tempted to use these programmes to write their applications and cover letters for jobs like the Bristol Futures Advocate roles.

Let’s take a look at some of the potential weaknesses of cover letters written by AI, and think about what you can do to write a successful application yourself instead.

Cover letters written by AI programs can often be:

  • Generic: they use similar phrases and sentences, which we then see repeated across multiple cover letters. This results in cover letters which are…
  • Impersonal: they do not tell us much about you as a candidate and as a person. Why do you really want to apply for this role? What is it about the job that interests you?
  • Unevidenced: they make claims for possessing skills, abilities and experience but don’t give us real examples or show how you gained them.
  • Plagiarised: in some instances AI programs copy sentences word for word from the job advert. This leaves an impression of an uncreative and potentially dishonest candidate.

What we look for in successful cover letters:

  • Good cover letters are personal. They introduce us to you as a candidate and as a person, telling us about what attracted you to this job, and how it aligns with your skills, interests and experience.
  • They are also evidenced, giving us specific examples of where you have gained experience, and actual evidence for the skills that you possess.
  • Finally, they are informed: they engage with the themes and elements of Study Skills and Bristol Futures beyond just the summaries given in the job advert. This shows us that you have researched the role: you’ve looked into what we do as a service and what the role entails. Your decision to apply then demonstrates your confidence that you are well suited for the Advocate position.

You can find more guidance on writing good cover letters on this page from the University Careers Service.

What to do if you have submitted an application written by an AI

If you have used an AI program such as ChatGPT to write your cover letter for the Bristol Futures Student Advocate position we strongly urge you to reconsider and potentially resubmit your application. Even if you haven’t used ChatGPT you may find the following steps useful:

  1. First of all review your cover letter and CV and think about the points we’ve listed above. Are you demonstrating to us who you are as a unique individual candidate? Have you provided specific evidence for your skills and experience?
  2. You may then want to revise or rewrite your cover letter to make improvements.
  3. Finally, you are welcome to resubmit your application to us. Please be assured that we will not take this as an admission or indication that you have used AI to write your original application. You will be considered as a candidate on the merit of your latest application alone. We will be accepting applications until 11.59pm on Friday 22 March 2024.

If you have any questions about the Student Advocate role or the application process you can contact us at study-skills@bristol.ac.uk. If you want to further improve your job application skills remember too that the University Careers Service will be very happy to meet with you and provide support.

Now Recruiting: Bristol Futures Student Advocates 2023/24

Posted on by study.skills

Two students wearing Bristol Futures students sitting behind a table. They are talking to a student with their back to us.

Be part of a dynamic team promoting and delivering Bristol Futures in the 2023/24 academic year. 

As a Bristol Futures Student Advocate you’ll be an ambassador for Study Skills and the other elements of Bristol Futures, promoting them to members of the University and public alike. You’ll also support fellow students by running Study Skills drop-ins and workshops, staffing pop-up stands, attending events and having input into online learning resources and more. You’ll develop skills in organisation, teaching, support, public speaking and team working, all of which will be valuable for your future career development. 

We’re looking for applications from any student at Bristol to join our Advocate team for the 2023/24 academic year, whether you’re undergraduate or postgraduate, home or international, as long as you’ll be a registered student in 2023/24. We’ll train you in all the skills you need and work with you throughout the year to ensure you develop and gain the best experience possible from working with us. We are also seeking students with skills in coding to assist at our weekly Coding Clubs. 

Bristol Futures is a university-wide initiative which enhances and enriches education at the University of Bristol, ensuring that students have the skills, knowledge and attributes to succeed in their lives at university and beyond. These skills, knowledge and attributes lie within three themes: Innovation and Enterprise, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Futures. For more information visit https://www.bristol.ac.uk/bristol-futures/ 

Core duties of the Advocate Role:  

  • Act as an ambassador within your faculty to promote Study Skills and Bristol Futures. 
  • Deliver one-to-one peer support sessions to students for Study Skills. These may take the form of drop-in sessions at the Study Skills Hub in Senate House, or peer support in regular study groups.  
  • Lead workshops on Study Skills. Workshops may run face-to-face or online. 
  • Advocates with skills in coding may assist with our weekly Coding Clubs.
  • Attend and assist in organizing promotional activities (such as pop up stands and lecture ‘shout-outs’).
  • Assist in utilizing social media to promote Bristol Futures’ activities and events.  
  • Assist in gathering feedback from students and academics in your faculty to help develop and shape Study Skills and Bristol Futures.  
  • Meet regularly with your Study Skills faculty tutor. 
  • Work collaboratively with Bristol Futures staff to help develop Bristol Futures events and resources.  
  • Co-create marketing materials and help publicize Bristol Futures. 
  • Additional activities will be required as the role continues to develop.  

Benefits of the role:  

  • This is a paid role (see wage details below). 
  • You will be provided with comprehensive training that will equip you with the knowledge and skills to carry out this role. Ongoing training will be provided throughout the duration of your contract as the role develops.  
  • Work experience to enhance your CV i.e. marketing, group-work delivery, time management, leading and influencing. 
  • An opportunity to shape the development of an ambitious, innovative university-wide project. 
  • The source of a reference for future employment / LinkedIn recommendations.  
  • This role can provide evidence that will contribute to the Bristol PLUS Award / Bristol PLUS Outstanding Award. (All team members are encouraged to participate in this award).  

Wage:  

Advocates are paid a wage of £10.49 per hour. This role attracts a holiday increment of 12.07% per hour (so total paid per hour is £11.76). Workshop delivery (expected to start in the autumn after training) is paid at £16.27ph, (£18.23ph with holiday pay). Wages are paid monthly in arrears via the Temporary Staffing Service (TSS).   

Hours / Contract: 

  • Working hours will be discussed at interview, but will range from 0 – 6 hours per week (you will not be expected to work during University holidays or assessment periods)  
  • Training will begin in September 2023 and continue throughout the year. Contracts will begin in September 2023.
  • Please note that to be eligible for this role you must be a registered student at the University of Bristol in the 2023/24 academic year.

How to apply: 

Please apply with a CV and covering letter outlining your suitability for the role. You can find our advice on writing a cover letter here.

Submit your application to Dr Tim Worth (Study Skills Coordinator) at tim.worth@bristol.ac.uk by 11.59pm on Friday 24 March. 

Further information: 

If you require clarification of the above information or have further questions about the role, please contact study-skills@bristol.ac.uk 

Closing date: 11:59pm Friday 24 March 2023 

Provisional interview dates: Monday 17 – Friday 28 April 2023 

Student Advocate tips for… getting started with essays

Posted on by study.skills
Blank notebook surrounded by screwed up pages
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Our Bristol Futures Student Advocates come from every faculty in the university, and are here to support you to grow your skills and become an even better student.

We asked them to share their top tips for getting going with essay writing. Here’s what they said…

Get your ideas down

Writing down your ideas onto a page and creating a mindmap/ list of things you need to include (make sure you have a look at your mark scheme to give you pointers if this has been given!) is a great way to group topics together and visually looking at the structure of your essay before diving in. For me, it’s been really helpful in making my writing more concise, and stops me repeating the same ideas! Shraddha, 2nd year Medicine 

Do a little every day

Start ASAP! You can start planning the timeline for what you want to do: e.g. research, intro, main body, conclusion, diagram, editing. Then start soon so that you can do a little everyday rather than rushing at the last minute. Anon. 

Create subheadings

After gathering ideas for your essay, try to start by considering subheadings for different parts of your essay. The subheadings will help to create a brief summary on what to include in the section. Therefore, it may be easier for you to complete the essay quickly. Emma, 3rd year Veterinary Science

Just start writing

Dissect your essay title and literally just start writing: Write down any sentences or even little pieces that you think are relevant, it doesn’t need to be neat or tidy — we’ll worry about that later. Writing becomes so much easier when you don’t need to worry about so many things at once. It might take a couple of rounds of editing, but it is so much easier to make a start. Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

How do you deal with the blank page? What are your own strategies for getting starting with writing? Let us know in the comments below. 

Bristol Futures Student Advocates run peer support sessions for students in their faculty. Check out the Study Skills Blackboard page to see what’s coming up.

 

 

Student Advocate tips for… tools for time management

Posted on by study.skills

To do list: Wake up, make coffee, drink coffee, make more coffee

Our Bristol Futures Student Advocates come from every faculty in the university, and are here to support you to grow your skills and become an even better student.

We asked them to share their top tools for time management. Here’s what they said…

Make the most out of online calendars

When you’re planning your time around the university timetable, calendar block the time using the designated task on your calendar. There will be things that takes a large chunk of continuous time to get done, and if you don’t calendar block it, you’ll never find the time to do it because other small things always get in the way! It also works the other way round, with the annoying one-hour-gap between two lectures: calendar block out half an hour in the middle and plan some doable short tasks beforehand — trying do decide what to do on the spot usually ends up with you hovering around somewhere or fiddling on a piece of work without making good use of that time. Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

I schedule societies’ activities, the time I spend with friends, work out, etc I still have a lot of online lectures so what I find useful is listing down all the ones I need to do for the week and also writing down how long they will take me (it’s even more useful if your professors give you a rough indication of how long they think it’s going to take). I then schedule it on my calendar (I like using Google Calendar because it syncs across devices really quickly) and try to stick to the plan. For example, for the readings, if my professor suggested it should take 10 minutes I try to stick to that because it probably means I don’t need to be spending more time than that on it. This way I know I don’t need to be studying it in a lot of details but just read through it to get an overall idea.
When planning I like to leave some extra time, so I either schedule online lectures as longer than planned or actually schedule in a two/three-hour slot on a Friday afternoon that I’m leaving free, this way if I fall behind I know I have some extra time without having to work on weekends and if I don’t fall behind it just means I have more free time! Martina, 2nd year Medical Biochemistry 

 

To do lists for asynchronous material

In addition to the use of outlook calendar, creating a to do list every week or even every morning will be helpful. A to do list is particularly helpful for asynchronous materials. Since asynchronous materials are not timetabled on the calendar, a to do list can help you to organise your study. There are multiple apps or websites that students may want to use for creating a to do list. Personally, I found Notion the easiest to use. I would recommend students who struggle to keep up with online content using Notion or similar application to better organise the non-timetabled work. Emma, 3rd year Veterinary Science

Writing all the tasks you need to do on one page can be useful and they can be categorised e.g. module 1, module 2, course rep work, home admin, etc. From there they can be assigned a day Mon-Sun and this method can be repeated weekly.

 

What are your own top tips for time management? Do you use digital tools or pen & paper to stay organised? Let us know in the comments below. 

Bristol Futures Student Advocates run peer support sessions for students in their faculty. Check out the Study Skills Blackboard page to see what’s coming up.

 

 

Student Advocate tips for… in-person and recorded lectures

Posted on by study.skills

Seminar room in the Fry Building

Our Bristol Futures Student Advocates come from every faculty in the university, and are here to support you to grow your skills and become an even better student.

We asked them to share their top tips for lectures and seminars, whether online or in-person. Here’s what they said…

Turn up to in-person sessions!

It sounds stupidly obvious, but you really need to turn up. Past online lectures are digestible when watching online because they were designed to be delivered that way. In person lectures are designed to work the best when you turn up and sit through it — the recording isn’t the same! Also try not to miss any lectures, when you miss one it’s so likely for you to carry on the lazy habit and not show up to lectures ever again… Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

Firstly, go to your seminar even if you have not fully done the reading. Secondly, contribute to the discussions. It does not matter if your answer is wrong. And it is better to make the mistakes now and not later in the timed assessments. Finally, don’t stress about it! You will be just fine. Allison, 2nd year Law

 

Be (a little) prepared

Arrive at the lecture theatre early and use that waiting time to flick through the PowerPoint or whatever lecture material you got given. It usually takes less than 10 minutes, but it gives you a rough idea of the structure, where to pay more attention, and saves you from scribbling down notes when it will turn up on the next slide. Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

Try to list down all the relevant ILOs (Intended Learning Outcomes) and think of relevant subheadings for your notes prior to the lecture/seminar. This will help you to be more prepared in the in-person lecture/seminar. Very often, in-person lecture is more fast-paced than a recorded lecture. We as a student have to be more prepared so that we will not miss any key content during the lecture. Thinking about the ILOs beforehand can help you to take notes more effectively by screening out the irrelevant materials taught in the lecture. In such a way, we do not need to revisit the recording after the lecture. As a result, we can maximise the efficiency of our study. Emma, 3rd year Veterinary Science

 

Don’t copy everything

Most times lecturers provide the downloadable PowerPoint for each lecture. Use this to write any additional points that were said by the lecturer in the recording but not written on the slides. By doing this, you will save time and you reduce repetition. Anaya, 3rd year Law

If you just copy what the lecturer wrote down, you are not going to absorb and digest what the lecturer’s main point is. Even worse, you wouldn’t know if the lecturer makes a mistake. Instead, pay full attention to listening to what the lecturer is saying first. After a few sentences, think about what is the main point conveyed in what is written down on the board (or presented on the slide). And then, use your own words to jot down any key points. If you can’t catch them, need not to worry! Simply watch the recorded lecture later and pause as you go. If the lecture is not recorded, it would be nice if you can email the lecturer asking for clarification on such topics. They would be happy to help!

You will be panicked by the fact that while everyone in the hall is ferociously writing, while you are sitting there, only listening. But remember, you are also paying your full attention to the lecture, and you have done nothing less than your classmates did! Ryan, 2nd year Mathematics

 

Use questions for learning

As you watch the lecture clearly flag any concepts/areas that you don’t fully understand and formulate (and write down) specific questions that you think could get you the answers you need. This habit helps provide structure and direction to your reflection/revision process after the lecture, as you know exactly what you need to follow up on talking to the lecturer or extra research/reading. I have found this makes my learning more efficient (by saving you from repeatedly covering content you know/understand in order to locate what you are less clear on) and more effective (as your learning becomes targeted to any weak points).  Emily, 3rd year Biomedical Sciences

 

Watching a recorded lecture? Pretend it’s in-person

It’s very tempting to stop every 10s to make detailed notes just because you can do that — but that’s not most effective way: it takes forever to finish watching one recording and you are not really processing the information before writing it down (you’re more like… manually typing up the captions).

Pretend it’s an in person lecture and don’t give yourself the option to stop, at least not that often. That way, it forces you to do some preparation work and to think about the material before deciding if it’s worth writing down. The recordings are always going to be there so it’s not the end of the world if your notes is missing some fine details — you can always go back and have a look as long as you know where to look! Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

What are your own top tips for making the most of lectures? Do you prefer being there in person or watching a recording? Let us know in the comments below. 

Bristol Futures Student Advocates run peer support sessions for students in their faculty. Check out the Study Skills Blackboard page to see what’s coming up.