Student perspective: Dealing with online, proctored exams for the first time

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Emma, the author of the blog postby Emma Ford, Vet student and Bristol Futures Advocate

But wait, what are proctored exams? 

A proctored exam is a timed exam that is invigilated via software that has access to your camera, microphone, and screen. They aim to prevent cheating during online exams without in person invigilators present.

After doing in person exams my whole academic life, I was really worried about the sudden change to online proctored exams.

I had no idea what a proctored exam was, and the many misconceptions around the time about it just added onto the anxiety. These included “if you look away from the screen for more than twenty seconds you will automatically fail” and “if they can hear any sounds while you’re taking the exam, it’s an automatic failure”, etc. I responded to this by taking every measure possible to ensure that no red flags would be triggered during my exam. I covered everything on my walls, I put signs all around my house saying, “exam in process”, and on our front door, asking my housemates and potential visitors to be quiet. Yet still, despite all these measures, it was only until I got my exam results back that I could finally relax that I had not somehow been mistakenly flagged for cheating. However, now as a proctored exam “survivor”, I can happily say that these proctored exams are really nothing to worry about! As long as you are following the rules, and you take your exams honestly, your exam process should go smoothly.

My current understanding is that any unexpected audio or visuals recorded are flagged by the computer programme, but then they are manually inspected by an actual human being. So, even if your exam gets “flagged”, it does not necessarily mean it will result in a failure, and as long as the “flagged” situation was nothing suspicious, the flag has no detriment to you or to your score.

One of my friend’s flatmates were being loud when she was taking her exam, and she had to get up from her laptop, and yell from her door for her flatmates to be quieter. In one of my exams, I had a postman start knocking vigorously on my window because no one had answered the doorbell to collect their post. I imagine these situations resulted in our exams being flagged but would have very quickly been disregarded as just unfortunate incidents as soon as they were watched by an actual person.

I hope this has eased your mind about proctored exams but if you do have any questions about the rules or technicalities of your exams, I strongly advise you to ask your faculty administration, as it will most likely just ease your mind! Good luck on your exams!

Student Advocate tips for… staying motivated

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Two students running with trees in the background

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.

In this post, Martina and Anaya share their top tips for staying motivated…

Speak positively 

Martina, 2nd year Biochemistry with Medical Biochemistry

My top tips are:
– Doing my best to find the topics I’m studying interesting (even if they aren’t my favourite or I don’t really like them)
– Keeping a positive mindset but most importantly speaking positively (avoid saying something is boring, a drag etc…) this makes it less hard to complete tasks (words have a huge impact on our mood/mind without us even realising!)
– Thinking of the bigger picture and working towards future plans!

Stay organised

Anaya, 2nd year Law student

My top tip is to create a study timetable and daily to-do lists. If you’re anything like me, being organised keeps you motivated and not overwhelmed.

– I usually create a weekly planner and colour code any commitments I have for the upcoming week (lectures, revision, free time etc.) It is essential to be realistic with your time and the amount of work you need to complete. Always allocate time for rest, so you do not become burned out.
– As exams are approaching, my planner outlines what topics I will be reviewing on particular days (and for how long), as well as when my courseworks are due and what days I plan to complete them. Again this is colour coded, which helps me better visualise what I need to do, and makes the process slightly more enjoyable.
– I also create daily to-do lists because I enjoy crossing off a task once completed. Therefore, I am motivated to work on the tasks during the day so that I can look at my completed list with pride at the end of the day.

Creating manageable tasks and taking reasonable breaks throughout the day will help you stay motivated and productive without it all being too overwhelming.

 

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 perspective: Staying motivated after receiving feedback

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Steph, the author of the blog postby Steph Hook, French and Spanish student and Bristol Futures Advocate

We’ve all worked so hard on essay and exam preparation, but what happens afterwards? Receiving feedback can be both rewarding and helpful. However sometimes, it’s tricky not to feel disheartened if you receive feedback that you weren’t expecting. This happens to many of us at one point or another over the course of higher education, but it is important to stay motivated. The main thing from feedback is how we grow as learners.

 

1. Be kind to yourself

‘Be kind’ is something that has, rightly, been seen more over recent years. However, we often don’t offer ourselves the same courtesy of kindness that we would to others. I’m one of those people that reaches for a cup of tea in any situation, so personally I find myself putting the kettle on the moment that a mark has been released. That won’t work for everyone, it’s important to find your own cup of tea- if you can excuse the pun.

2. Look at the feedback comments, what do they mean?

It can be very easy after receiving a mark to close Blackboard and never look at the work again. However, the point of feedback is to help us grow as learners, which is what we are at university to do. Constructive feedback can be really helpful if you know how to use it. By accurately identifying what you need to improve on, you can increase the mark you receive on your next piece of work.

3. Focus on what went well too!

Human nature often means that we home in on the things that require improvement. A key feature of staying motivated is to focus on the positives too! Positive feedback is just as important as constructive comments, as it shows us what we should keep on doing. It’s also an acknowledgment for all the hard work that goes into a degree, which can be used as a boost for tackling future assignments.

4. Plan your next steps

To truly make use of feedback effectively, it’s not enough to simply read the comments. Think about what you’re going to do to give yourself the best chance of improvement in future pieces of work. Think about who you can talk to. Often, tutors will have office hours where you can speak to them. I’ve used this time before to ask specific questions on what I can do differently to gain more marks in the future. Do you have a friend on your course that you would feel comfortable talking to about the work? For more general advice, the Study Skills team have an array of tools which you can use independently to help yourself, from the Stepwise guide to writing essays, to Understanding essay verbs. It’s a resource on Blackboard that’s definitely worth a quick look at.

These are just a few things which help me to stay motivated after receiving feedback. Hopefully at least one of them will help you too.

Student perspective: Beating burnout in the final stages of dissertation writing

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Jasmin in Royal Fort Gardens holding a printed dissertationby Jasmin Rahman, Cellular and Molecular Medicine student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Perhaps you started working on your dissertation months ago, maybe you started a few weeks ago. Regardless one of the most universal experiences whilst writing your dissertation is the frustration when you’re almost done, yet it still doesn’t ever feel truly finished. The last 2 weeks in February before I submitted my dissertation were so difficult as I felt like the 3 years of my degree culminated in a pretty average dissertation (this wasn’t true!).

During that slump of being unhappy with my progress, I figured out some quick fixes to stay motivated during the last stages of dissertation writing:

1. Track your progress

One of the main things me and my coursemates complained about was how we felt like we were working so hard on editing our dissertation everyday, yet we weren’t making any progress and it always looked exactly the same. But logically this was never true!

Tracking your progress, whether it’s downloading a printable progress tracker from the internet or simply saving a copy of your dissertation from a few days ago can be a practical way to beat the feelings of frustration that nothing is changing.

2. Avoid obsessing over details

For me, obsessing over the tiny details like perfecting my sub-headings was a really convenient excuse to avoid editing the harder sections of my dissertation. Although that definitely isn’t the case for everyone, if you find yourself obsessing for hours over a single sentence – it could be an indication to move on or take a break. My editing process sometimes involved cutting down entire paragraphs, critically considering what your sentence actually adds to the dissertation or sub-section as a whole can be useful in helping to take an evaluative approach whilst editing.

3. Take breaks and time to celebrate accomplishments

It’s definitely a cliché, especially whilst surrounded by friends and coursemates in a similar caffeine-driven push to cross the dissertation finish line. However, that state of complete fixation on finally finishing and the relief you’ll feel when it’s all over is definitely not worth compromising your health! Sometimes taking breaks and time to celebrate your accomplishments (however small) can be very useful in allowing you to come back to your dissertation with fresh eyes – especially useful whilst writing your reflections in the discussion section. So no matter if it’s only an hour break, burnout during dissertation writing is both very common and unfortunately very difficult to bounce back from. So taking some time to ensure your mental wellbeing before your hand-in deadline is both better for your dissertation quality and yourself in the long-term.

I hope this post was helpful and good luck to everyone still writing and congratulations once you hand in – you should all be very proud as it’s such a big achievement!

Letter to my undergraduate self: Genevieve Beech – ‘If something doesn’t feel right make sure you get advice and address it’

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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.

This month we’re hearing from one of our Library colleagues: Genevieve Beech, the early early morning Library Support Assistant at the Arts & Social Sciences Library.

Genevieve Beech, the author of the blog post

What and where did you study? 
Creative Writing with Media Studies (BA) at De Montfort University in Leicester and English and American Studies (MA) at Paderborn University in Germany. Both times I headed alone to a new city and I found that the most daunting part.
Did you experience culture shock when you started university? 
With my BA, it was definitely a shock to go from living at home to living independently, including managing my finances and cooking all my meals, in a new city with new friends. There was much more of a culture shock involved in studying abroad for my MA though. I’d been living in Germany for a couple of years before I began the course, so I hadn’t moved directly from England to study there, and that helped lessen the shock.
What was your biggest failure and what did you learn from it? 
Due to a couple of lifechanging events that happened during my first year of my BA Leicester I struggled to attend all of my classes and if I’d known about any kind of wellbeing services I would have loved to have made use of them. As that was 15 years ago, I don’t feel these services were emphasised enough. I don’t class it as a failure but I regret not seeking help when I needed it. I’m proud that I finished the course and did well throughout it, despite dealing with these big changes.
What are you most proud of about your time at university?
In my final semester in Germany I decided to take 11 classes so that I could head back to England that summer and write my thesis from there. I didn’t want to stay for another semester as I’d already been in Germany for five years. It was an intense time – and I worked part-time too – so I’m really proud I completed all the classes, including the weekly readings, quizzes, essays and end of term papers. I was definitely a lot more dedicated during my MA than my BA and really enjoyed studying even though navigating the German university system wasn’t so straightforward.
What advice would you give to your undergraduate self?
If you’re unsure, I’d recommend taking a year or two out and heading to uni when you feel more certain of the path you’d like to take, rather than feeling like you have to go straight to uni after sixth form/college. I also think that if something doesn’t feel right make sure you get advice and address it. I originally auditioned and was accepted to study Dance at De Montfort University but I switched to Creative Writing very early on, as I realised the theoretical side of the Dance degree was not something I enjoyed, and I don’t regret switching at all.

Student perspective: The art of embracing dispiriting feedback

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Photo of Tala, the author of the blog postby Tala Youhana, Law student and Bristol Futures Advocate

You’ve put in the substantial cycles of work, you’re certainly no stranger to long hours and late nights at your designated study spot, and you’ve exhausted all the caffeine in your system in hopes of finally receiving spotless reassuring feedback from your tutors. Nonetheless, the threshold you’ve been working tirelessly to meet, still feels out of reach. If this is you, then here are some healthy reminders to help you cope with and defeat the initial discouragement.

1. Accepting the mark is the first checkpoint

Oftentimes, we attempt to rapidly locate the mark before anything else in the feedback form, because it feels like glowing comments are distorted without a glowing mark. In my first year, I had professors disclose their own experiences with disappointing marks and remind us that such marks are not the be all and end all. Marks only go as far as a submission goes, so don’t let that dissuade you from the fact that you’re at university, because you worked hard to be here. Therefore, accepting the mark as a fair reflection of that particular submission would be a promising first step to moving forward. Ultimately, the larger the improvement, the more to be proud of when you’re done!

2. Interrogating the comments objectively involves personal initiative

Now that you’ve accepted your mark as a fair and accurate reflection of your work, you will be well-equipped to objectively evaluate the feedback. If you identify any issues, you will be able to investigate them further by preparing some questions. After this, you can make use of the many helpful resources available to you such as booking office hours with your tutors, revisiting feedback lectures, and perhaps even swapping papers with a peer to identify key feedback patterns, and ultimately gain a holistic understanding of the feedback given. Asking for help where needed reflects strong personal initiative and is actively encouraged.

3. There’s always room for improvement

No matter how you previously performed, it is advisable to keep your targets at least as high as they were prior to the feedback, if not higher! After all, feedback is far from failure, it is as the playful saying goes, “the breakfast of champions”. By visualising your targets clearly, you are then able to create a solid and detailed plan to improve on any skill gaps which you have encountered. The key point to stress here is that asking for help where you feel any doubts, either by consulting with your tutors or by making use of Study Skills and University resources, is a very important step forward, and one which you should be proud of.

To conclude, kindly note that this method is merely a guide and certainly not the only way of embracing feedback effectively- it is just what has worked for me when I had been hesitant with feedback in the past. The silver lining here is that feedback is meant to be critical, but when used wisely, it’s a chance to start over and progress!

How I make notes: From a textbook

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Jasmin, the author of the blog post by Jasmin Rahman, Cellular and Molecular Medicine student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Textbooks can contain so much more content than the lecturer could ever cover in class, but the process of actually writing notes from textbooks can be mind-numbingly boring. In first and second year I often picked up these massive intimidating textbooks that my lecturers recommend, read pages of text for ages and then realised I didn’t understand any of it.

However textbooks are an invaluable resource and can be so helpful in aiding understanding of topics. To effectively learn from them means making your reading a fairly active process, hopefully these tips that have improved my experience can also be helpful for you in improving your textbook notes and making the most effective use of your time

1. Give yourself time

My main takeaway message is: There’s no ‘perfect’ amount of time or secret formula to work out how much time to spend reading textbooks and each textbook has different requirements.

However I’ve always struggled with either rushing through the recommended readings or spending hours reading just a few pages and realising none of it is particularly helpful.

Which leads me to my first tip of: Learn to skim read before starting any notes.

It’s so tempting to just dive in and start highlighting everything, but writing and highlighting the first time you read a passage isn’t effective as it’s difficult to predict whether the sentence is actually important. Main things to look out for whilst skim reading are key words (usually bolded), diagrams and sub-headings.

Finding the balance between skim reading and actual reading can be difficult at first, what worked well for me at the beginning was setting a timer for around 30 seconds a page that way I wasn’t getting caught up in details and could actively prepare for what was coming up next.

Page indexes are also so helpful in contextualising topics and quickly finding which pages to read. But one of the biggest drawbacks is that sometimes indexes can lead to massive chunks of text where the key topic you’re looking for is a tiny sentence, so I’d really recommend skim reading when doing index searches as it’s definitely saved me so much time!

2. Actively read the textbook

When faced with a big chunk of text, it’s really tempting to ‘log off’ and read passively without really digesting anything. For me, creating a highlighter ‘colour code’ was really useful (see picture) and helped to me engage with notes as you’re forced to actively ‘characterise’ each sentence as you read along.

Reading can also be so monotonous, so having questions in the back of your mind like ‘How does this fit into my lecture/across the course?’ or ‘Could this be an interesting point to include in an essay?’ can be very helpful by keeping the reading focused on the direct benefits.

Writing questions in the margins is one of the cornerstones of active reading, but I’d recommend answering any questions after you’ve finished reading rather than as soon as they pop up. For me it’s so easy going into a googling ‘rabbit-hole’ of questions and it always ends up in procrastination and having only digested about 2 sentences of the reading.

Note: I usually highlight on a tablet, however when using library books I stick a post-it note to the side of the page to note down questions and use index tabs as replacement for highlighting.

On the left hand side, a page from a textbook with sentences highlighted in different colours and questions handwritten in the margins. On the right hand side, a typed page of notes summarising the textbook page.

3. Make personalised notes

A huge part of learning when first trying to understand a topic is being able to recall information. So when it comes to writing notes from a textbook, be cautious that you’re not taking notes after every line by closing the textbook or by moving your eyes away and writing everything you can remember. This enables you to write notes in your own words, with the added benefit that it prevents accidental plagiarism when you’re using notes in open-book exams. For me, being selective in what I wrote has stopped me creating lots of notes directly copied from the textbook that I never actually ended up reading.

The whole purpose of notes is that they’re for you, so write them in a way that makes sense to you and is effective for your learning. As a life sciences student I find the outline method helpful, but there are so many others and if you’re unsure I’d recommend checking out the Study Skills tab on Blackboard to learn more about note-taking methods here.

These are just a few tips that have worked well for me personally and changed the way I make notes, I’d definitely recommend trying out anything that stands out to you. And good luck!

How I make notes: From recorded lectures

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Photo of Gloria, the author of this blog postby Gloria Bosi, Mechanical Engineering student and Bristol Futures Advocate

While a lot of us were lucky to make a long-awaited return to campus this year, hybrid learning means that pre-recorded lectures are still a core part of our academic lives. With new videos coming every week, efficient notetaking is an essential skill to have. It’s not always as easy as it seems! You want to write just enough that you can understand your notes when you look back at them, but not so much that you are just copying the slides. You may also want to pause the video occasionally, but without tripling the time it takes for you to watch it. It’s a delicate balance that needs to be mastered. Lucky for you, I am here to help.

I’m Gloria, a third-year Mechanical Engineering student and Bristol Futures Advocate. With almost 2 years of online university under my belt, I want to share my top tips for taking notes from recorded lectures. I recommend trying the following things:

1. Doing the prep work

Skimming through the lecture slides before watching a recording helps me retain information better. I don’t own a tablet or printer, so there’s no easy way for me to take notes directly on the slides. Peeking in advance allows me to get a better look at any complicated diagrams or words that I need to write down. Once I know what to expect from the slides, I can focus better on what the lecturer is saying in the recording. Most importantly, skimming through the slides helps me build a mental picture of how I want to take notes for the topic.

2. Pausing with caution

Continuously pausing a lecture recording is dangerous business. It can easily double or triple the time it takes to finish watching. If this sounds familiar, try to be pickier about when you choose to pause the video. Ask yourself: did you really miss something that will stop you from understanding the topic as a whole? Another way to save time and avoid pauses is to come up with your own shorthand notations. Remember that your notes are not a textbook, and they don’t need to be written in full sentences. You’re the only one who needs to be able to understand them! If something confuses you or you happen to get stuck, don’t let that stop you from finishing the video. Write a post-it note or mark the sentence that confused you and keep watching. When you finish the lecture recording, you can ask about this on Blackboard discussion forums and return to it when you get a response.

3. Don’t be afraid to use colour!

Try using different coloured pens to distinguish between notes taken directly from the slides and those based off what the lecturer is saying. If you’re a visual learner like me, this can really help with information retention and memory.

4. Writing summaries

After a long note-taking session, don’t forget to write a brief summary of what you learnt. If possible, check this against the intended learning outcomes of the lecture to ensure you didn’t miss anything.

5. Finding what works for you

Don’t be afraid to try new methods. Remember that there’s no single right way of taking notes! In fact, the same method might not work across different modules if the content delivery varies. In this new hybrid learning environment, it’s especially important to diversify your note-taking approaches and find what works for you. Finally, if you’re not sure how to structure your notes by yourself, you can try an existing method, such as Cornell notes. You can read more about this here.

Hope you enjoyed the post, and leave a comment to let us know your best note-taking tips!

How I make notes: A law student’s guide to making revision notes

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Photo of Tala, the author of the blog postby Tala Youhana, Law student and Bristol Futures Advocate

If you’re a law student, you’re probably familiar with the ‘IRAC’ method, which is traditionally used to solve legal problem questions, so you’re probably wondering why I’m mentioning it in a post about making revision notes. Surprisingly, IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) can provide a very effective guide beyond the remits we’re familiar with, and this post will seek to walk you through the process of using IRAC to make your revision notes.

Firstly, it’s important to emphasize the individualised nature of making notes, whereby there is no single right or wrong approach, so this post should only be used as a guide to help you find a unique approach which works well for you.

 I- Identify the issues

This is where you ask yourself what has worked well for you in the past and what hasn’t. In this stage, keeping an open mind is essential, and can be your most powerful tool. For instance, do you have a preference between digital and hand-written notes? If so, have you tested out both before coming to your conclusion? You may ask yourself questions like, which is easier to refer to when writing essays, which is easier to store, how easy is it to find what you’re looking for, would a hybrid approach be more effective, etc. Seek to identify obstacles you experienced in previous revision sessions and intervene with an effective solution. For me, I used to have difficulty with revisiting incomplete work, so I created a checklist before each lesson in my notes detailing all the work that I need to get done, so that when I was revising, I could immediately find incomplete work which needed revisiting.

R- Make the rules

Law students are expected to navigate numerous types of sources including cases, statutes, lectures, textbooks and articles, so finding a consistent technique that simplifies this is important. For instance, I generally colour code my notes following the same rules in every module: making case names purple, statutes pink, and articles emboldened, to distinguish them. For digital notes, also aim to familiarise yourself with keyboard functions such as “ctrl + f” to help you locate keywords when browsing a long document. Furthermore, incorporating a system of subheadings can be really effective for revision.

Handwritten notes using colour coding and a checklist of outcomes
Some of the rules in action – Notes on law, equity and trusts of land

A- Apply the rules

Once you have found the technique which works for you, your next hurdle would be to stay consistent in applying it, as this will remove the burden of you having to remember each modification you made over time, unless you feel that your previous approach is no longer working for you.

 C- Conclude

Finally, if you have spare time, formulate summaries for each section of your work or leave some room for this, to make it easier for your future self to remember the key elements in each section.

This was a whistle-stop tour to making revision notes for law, and now the rest is over to you to find what works best for you. Good luck!

Student Advocate tips for… time management

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Statue of Gromit (from Wallace and Gromit) decorated with clocks

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 time management. Here’s what they said…

Pretend that you’re working a 9 to 5 Job

My top tip on how to manage time is to  always work from 9-5 on your studies (if you don’t already have a 9-5 job!). How this works is that from Monday to Friday, you should do your uni work, attend classes, make notes, or revise between 9am and 5pm. This is a great tactic as if you find that you’re only in uni in the morning, then you can come home and work till 5pm and still enjoy the rest of your day! On the contrast, if you’ve been in uni straight from 9am till 5pm, then odds are that it was a pretty long and tiresome day and so you can rest assured that you’ve worked your 9-5 already and deserve to rest for the remainder of your day and recharge! I used this studying tactic for 5 years in dental school and it’s meant that all of my evenings are free, I don’t have to cram to catch-up on revision and I can spend my weekends however I like 🥳. Sina, 5th year Dental student

I agree with Sina, I started trying to pretend it’s a 9 to 5 job recently and it’s really been helping me. I still often go over time because there’s just so much to do but I still try and it’s really helpful. At least to try and work a “normal” amount of hours and not cut back on sleep. Martina, 2nd year Medical Biochemistry 

Schedule everything

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 

Make sure you are aware of all your deadlines and what to do for each one. Then make a plan based on that. Try to finish your task a few days before the hard deadline just to give yourself some extra time for any unexpected situations. Manshika, 3rd year Economics and Finance 

Take advantage of all the moments in your day

There are many brief periods over the course of your day where you are waiting around e.g. on a commute, for an event to begin, for meeting up with a friend, etc.. By adding all these up, it can result in a substantial amount of time. You can turn all these periods where you are usually just waiting around into a useful source of time if you make your work mobile and accessible at all times. I personally always have some work available offline on my phone to read, or quiz myself on, so I make the most of my time. Emma, 4th year Veterinary Science

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.