I have difficulty finishing an assignment on time (A5, A10, B8-B12).
2. Plan your time in steps
Take the whole period into consideration. List the months in the semester (probably five) and start planning backwards from the deadlines that will appear. There are a number of different deadlines which have different consequences for your planning: related to exams, papers and extra-curricular activities.
2.1 The consequences of exam deadlines are easiest to take into account:
• As a rule: one week before the exam period you should have studied all of the required literature for an exam and repeated the material at least once. Remember that if exams are all together in one period (mostly in the last weeks of the semester), it is almost impossible to study new material. Reserve the exam period for short repetition, in order to keep fit during the exam period and use your memory in the correct manner (B6).
• Acquire all the required literature as soon as possible at the start of the semester. Assess the literature for all of the courses: the nature of the books and other literature (heavy, easy to read, link to what you already know) (C*). If the course has not changed much, ask other students who have already attended the course for their experience, in particular on courses that are considered hard to pass. Test your reading speed with regards to the literature used: take a section of the book at random and check the time it takes you to read and understand the argumentation. Calculate, approximately, the total amount of hours you personally (not anyone else) will need to read, understand and repeat the literature. Do not take the official calculations for granted, because they are aimed at an ’average’ student, and you are not ‘average’!
2.2 The consequences of deadlines for papers and essays are more difficult to assess, because writing a paper always requires several skills at the same time, often including mastering group dynamics, which can easily lead to general time management problems (B8, B9).
• As a rule: try to have your paper finished a couple of days before the official hand-in date. The last few days are vital for editing, rewriting (A*), and coping with ‘unhealthy’ group dynamics (G*).
• Make a general calculation of the amount of time that you will have to spend finishing the paper or essay. Plan deadlines for intermediate versions of your papers which you would like to generate feedback on and specify whether you would like that from other group members or a tutor.
2.3 The consequences of deadlines for self-study groups and extra-curricular activities are the most difficult to assess. The result then often becomes that these activities are squeezed and are not organised at all. For that reason you should also set clear intermediate deadlines for them. Plan deadlines when you want to generate feedback. Self-study groups - if they run parallel to a course - are easier to plan (see point 2.1).
If you have carried out the instructions included in points 2.1-2.3, you can try to spread the hours required for each activity over the whole semester. Plan to work on many parallel activities each week (but with varying intensities, and never at the same time). Do not plan to spend a whole week on one course.
