Top Tips from Our Talented Top Students

Are you just about to start Part 3? Wondering what modules to choose and when to start working seriously on your dissertation? Having just received their results, some of our best finalists offer their top tips:

1. Start your dissertation early. Coralie Frost says “Start your dissertation in the summer and aim to come back to University with at least a thousand words.  It will be easier to pick up and start again amid all the other work in 3rd year! Your dissertation is the biggest part of the final year so if you start it early you can make contacts to interview from the topic and have a greater insight and unique research.”
2. Listen to your dissertation supervisor. Conor Monk stresses the importance of “staying in contact with your dissertation tutor and heeding their advice. This is made a lot easier by starting your dissertation early enough to be able to submit a draft chapter.”
3. Pick modules carefully. Yanos Soubieski says “It is important that you take the time out before choosing your final year modules to consider what aspects of politics interest you most, and choose the modules which cater to those interests. Providing you are disciplined in your writing and research, doing essays you genuinely have an interest in can prove to be a good way to achieving high marks in specific modules.”
4. Become an expert. Yanos adds “once you have chosen your modules, a good practice would be to choose 4 or 5 topics within that module which you will dedicate your time to understanding thoroughly. This should place you in good stead for the essays and examinations when the time comes. Indeed it ought to be noted that examinations will demand that you are comfortable to discuss more topics than those covered by your essays alone.”
5. Plan ahead. Sam Flint says “Give yourself plenty of time when doing essays as you’ll often remember other things to add after you may have thought you were already finished. A refreshed perspective really helped me improve my work.”
6. Proof read essays. Conor suggests “Make sure there is time to proof-read, for essays and most importantly the dissertation. The number of mistakes I was able to catch by taking the time to proof-read, especially with my dissertation, was amazing. You can get such a big pay off, for a little extra time.”
7. Edit. Sam says “Ensure you know how to check your word count accurately!” Don’t throw away marks unnecessarily.
8. Use your time wisely. Sam says “You don’t need to read every word of a text. Skim reading and finding the key sections you need saves valuable time… Use bibliographies from other authors to search out new material and improve your own research beyond given readings lists.”
9. Act on feedback. Lloyd Barthropp adds “Use disappointing marks as an opportunity to critically analyse and improve your essay-writing technique, in so doing hopefully raising your grades. Stay positive under pressure.”
10. Explore. Yanos says “Books and articles are essential to any good essay or revision notes. There are, however, useful sources in media outlets like iTunes and YouTube, which in my experience can prove to be incredibly helpful. An example of this is to listen to (or watch) lectures by the very people who wrote the chapters on your reading list. That is not to say these alternative sources can substitute doing the reading; instead these can be used as additional sources on top of the reading, or indeed as succinct introductions to the material you will have to cover.”
11. Focus. Sam says “I found working in the library was best as there were fewer distractions, resources were to hand and it separated my work from my home life ensuring I was more relaxed at my uni house. Find a quiet place that works for you.
12. Revise effectively. Coralie suggests, “Make a HUGE diagram of everything you know for a topic then look away and write down everything you remember.  It can build your confidence and show gaps in your knowledge… In my final year I also started using the ‘loci method’ and other mnemonic devices to remember names for essays.  You put names in relation to each other in a kind of story (normally 5 lines with 10 different names).  For example, a section of a story I used for remembering theorists for Modern International Relations which I still remember today is ‘When waltzing down the lane they were hunted’ – WALTZ, LAYNE, HUNTINGDON.  Don’t knock it until you have tried it!”
13. Revise with a friend! Josh Wells says “find a study buddy who does the same modules as you but has different interest areas. For example, in UKP, Yanos and I revised together, but we did our essays on different subject areas, so we revised by teaching our areas of knowledge to each other. This helps utilize time in a cramped revision schedule. Without that I am sure that I wouldn’t have done as well.”
14. …and relax! Josh says “make sure you have a bit of a break over Christmas or you will be in danger of burning out before your exams. The period of time from January to May was the most intense of my life. It’s important to save some mental energy for that period of time.”