TRAINING YOUR SNAKE: How to plan your essays and exams effectively and not get crushed by time running out!!

TRAINING YOUR SNAKE: How to plan your essays and exams effectively and not get crushed by time running out!!

For those of us who have organisational problems or may have even an official title to your chaos…organisational dyslexia, then being able to order your work, namely planning ahead so you are not left at the last moment to write your essay or report might be the saviour you need to get through the course. To see the bigger picture and see how all these little assignments and exams etc. fit together, is vital in both getting higher marks and of course feeling confident and less anxious. Now this includes all work, be it essays (and their drafts) exam times, presentations, group projects, the number one aim here is to find out as soon as you can - during the first few weeks of the first term preferably - when these due dates are, even if you are not fully aware of titles or exact details of the pieces due.  So if you are a first year (and for other years also), find out when most essays are due in – usually around week 10 (or last week) of the first term and/or week 1 (first week back) or so of the 2^nd term. The same probably applies for the second/third term. Then do the same for your exams - usually during the third term. Again this depends on your discipline; you may have a course that has exams at the beginning of the second term. All these should be in your handbook or on the course website. If you’re confused then ask your department. What does seem to occur in some departments is the lack of understanding of how organising your work is vital, and for those with dyslexia or similar this organisation is crucial. Do remember that you are an authority on how you operate and learn best, even if you are bringing in and developing new study routines. Do be polite, but forceful in asking for these deadlines, as the quicker you have them at the beginning of each term then the quicker you can concentrate upon formulating and writing your essay, and of course not being delayed by the other activities that may dissuade you from researching.

Syd the Snake – Time Line

As we can see with the Syd I’ve used, each term is broken into three ten week session. With roughly 4 weeks over the holiday section (or whatever it is for your own university). This is an unusual concept and over the years has taken the imagination of our students, and one we might as proved fruitful in completion rates. 

The first thing to do is put in when pieces of work are due, and also the exams, if you know these. Rather than writing it, use post-it note as indictors, using different colours for different subjects or types of work - if you can’t find post-it notes the colour you need then just use standard ones and colour one corner according to your designation for that course.  For example, if you have 3 pieces of work due in week ten, then put post-it on that week. Once you have done deadline weeks, the next phase is to start working out when you do drafts for these pieces - so possibly you may do the initial research from weeks 2-4, 1^st draft from 4-6, 2^nd draft 6-8, and then smarten up the piece for final submission for week 10. 

The same applies to exams. If you know the dates, and you have say 3 exams, and you get all your essay work done by week 9 let’s say of the 2^nd term, you may start revising during the Easter (which is roughly 4 weeks) and let’s say 2 or 3 weeks before sitting them in the 3^rd term. You can then put this information on Syd the Snake, which accumulates as having 2 weeks of revising for each exam. Of course if you orchestrate it just right, the last exam you revising will begin the follow week, hence it is fresh in your mind. You will also have all the various mind maps and things on the wall, so you can then go back to them and refresh your memory. 

A student Syd the Snake and Mind Maps for Exams

Syd the Snake is a very useful and flexible tool for all elements of academic study and you’ll be amazed at how versatile it can be. It could be used to plan your dissertation (which we will look at below) and also map out your Master’s degree or even your PhD - if you decide to do one. For the latter, one can see that Syd the Snake could be broken down into 1 year segments, with months rather than weeks being allocated.   In fact the longer the degree in some ways the easier it is, and you can then have a number of snakes which go from the large big picture of your degree down to the more localised week to week deadlines you have set yourself.  Within the large map you want to include a number of key sections that illustrate the lifespan of your post-graduate degree.