Tag: questions

Meet the Advocates in the Health Sciences team

Posted on by study.skills

Emma, the author of the blog postby Emma Ford, Bristol Futures Advocate

I am very excited to introduce you to your new Health Science Bristol Futures Student Advocates! We are a small group of six, very friendly, current University of Bristol students. This year we hope to share our years of experience with you. You can participate by signing up for our workshops, attending our peer support sessions, and reading our blog. So, watch this space!

 

Carys James

  • Year and course: Veterinary Science – 4th year
  • Fun fact: I have a pet African pygmy hedgehog
  • Study tip: Make sure you go back over lectures throughout the whole course of the year instead of leaving it until a few weeks before exams to cover all of the content. This will keep your memory refreshed and improve it long term.

Sina Gilannejad

  • Year and course: Dentistry – 5th year
  • Fun fact: In first year I featured in the dental school’s YouTube video “a day in the life of a Bristol dental student” and now 33,000 have seen my terrible haircut at the time…
  • Study tip: Ask for help and advice from the older years! They’ve been in your position, got the grades to prove it and can give you pointers on how to pass with flying colours!

Molly Jackson

  • Year and course: 2nd year PhD student – translational health sciences
  • Fun fact: I sold a necklace to the comedian Jon Richardson when I had a job at a jewellery shop.
  • Study tip: Split down your revision into 5 steps to help manage your workload: record, reduce, recite, reflect, and review!

Chelsie Bailey

  • Year and course: final year vet.
  • Fun fact: I have a first degree in animal behaviour and welfare from Bristol.
  • Study tip: Study over longer period (e.g., months) instead of cramming lots into a few weeks to allow my very dyslexic brain to have time to process it and understand.

Jess Mounty

  • Year and course: 4th year Veterinary Science
  • Fun fact: Before starting at Bristol, I studied Zoology at UCL
  • Study tip: I have found it helpful to treat University like a full-time job, sticking to 9am-5pm working hours

Emma Ford

  • Year and course: 4th year veterinary science
  • Fun fact: No one can ever guess where I am from because my accent is quite uncharacteristic from growing up in international schools.
  • Study tip: Make your own questions when going over your notes! It helps your brain work, and the better you get at it, the more your questions will start to resemble the ones you could get on your exams! It’s especially helpful if you can get other students involved so you make a database of questions! It’s a great resource to build over the course of the year so when you get to exams you have a lot of questions to practice!

 

You can find current drop-in times & locations for Health Science students on our Peer Support page on Blackboard.

 

 

 

 

Student Advocate tips for… making the most of lectures

Posted on by study.skills

Students in a banked lecture theatre

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 making the most of lectures. Here’s what they said…

Don’t copy everything!

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

 

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.