how to approach the mid year

[pip]

hey,
i have never done a mid year before (i am sure i am not alone here) so i was wondering what my approach should be?
should i start doing practice exams? is it too soon? what should i start revising? we have only just started states of conciousness and i want to do well on that sac..and how do i not let my other 4 subjects slip away?
anyway i need some wisdom - eriny and jessieO that means you!
thanks !!

[ReVeL]

Definately not too soon to be doing practice exams, infact alot of people would have already started.

[madi1234]

Yeah I want to know too..... I've finished states of consciousness though. Sac next week on thursday... And then we have like 6 weeks to revise .

And whats the best way to revise for Psychology.. ? Just doing past exams again and again ?

[kat148]

Have you looked at Eriny's thread on 'How to win at Psychology/life'?
There are some real useful tips there

[Glockmeister]

Another tip is this

Don't correct exams yourself.

1. You will be too lenient to yourself.
2. When you read back your answers, you tend to have this unconscious understanding of what you are saying. Because Psychology is not yet at the point were we can read minds reliably, the psych examiners correcting your mid-years will not have this unconscious understanding. They only have what you write to go on.

Ideally, you would get your teacher to correct it, but if you can't, you can get some of your fellow students to correct it for you. (Kinda like tic-for-tat, you correct theirs and they correct yours).

By the way, this is useful for many of your other subject, particular those that have a major writing component (which is basically everything except maths, and perhaps some sections of physics).

[Eriny]

Yeah, start practicing now, there is no such thing as 'too early' (although my strategy was to make sure I know the whole course before starting trial exams, mostly because I wouldn't have had enough trial exams otherwise).

Also, if you think you might run out of time, do the multiple choice last so you can guess answers if you absolutely need to. Otherwise, do it first because it gets your brain working.

Explain concepts to your family. Psych is interesting enough and you can easily see what you understand well and what you need more work on.

[pip]

i think there is such thing as 'too early'..
i guess it depends on how much you trust your own ability and memory, but just from my 3/4 exam last year i started studying hard 8 weeks prior to the exam, and it got stale, my answers lost force, focus and sophistication. I replaced that ideal level of spontaneity  with repeated, bored, tired old answers, and i couldn't apply my knowledge as fluidly and with the flexibility  that differentiates the good answer from the excellent. Because i had done so many practice exams i started to look at answers in a limited and narrow way. I was at my peak around 5 weeks from the exam and then i sought of just  plattoed. Perhaps you can 'peak to soon'?

[UprightMan]

My tip is to pace yourself with revision; you can never start too early but you can definitely overdo it...build yourself up to it.  Do checkpoints, a few exam questions a couple of nights if you can but leave a few full exams so you can get a few diagnostics of your exam technique.  Elaborate rehearsal gradually over time helps a lot (although I was a bit complacent doing psych 3&4 =/). I don't know if this'll suit your style of studying but aim at concepts and their details; focussing on specific questions and their forms gives me an inclination towards regurgitation of preconceived answers.

[sarahss_]

I'm going to start next week I want go get this week's 5 sacs out of the way =/ I still have to do my ERA for visual preception so that will be alot of work.