Gearing up for second year

It's been almost three months since I finished my summer exams, which on the whole went better than those in January! My main goal for the summer series was to improve on my Biochemistry result from January (66%), which I managed to do, ending up with 73% for the whole year! For this exam I adopted a new revision method, which involved rewriting my notes for each topic in a word document. Although I didn't receive a breakdown of the marks, I think getting used to summarising and explaining key concepts was particularly helpful for the essays, which were worth 40% of the exam marks. My enjoyment of the cell biology topics led to me choosing a Biochemistry unit for second year.

The Pharmacology exam was worth 70% of my Pharmacology 1B unit mark, so it was important to do well so that I could maintain my first class performance from January. However, struggling to revise the content in time and neglecting to do either of the past papers didn't put me in the best stead. The exam was fairly good, aside from the data handling section, which was largely based on practicals we completed during the first half of the year. This was completely unexpected, especially as some students had taken Pharmacology 1B without having done Pharmacology 1A, but attempting the past papers might have made me aware that other topics would be worth revising. Overall, revision of practicals is something I ought to do more of next year, for data handling questions and to integrate knowledge from lectures. Anyway, I ended up getting 70% on the exam, which contributed to a solid unit total of 74%.

Physiology was my last exam, and I had almost two weeks after the other exams had finished to revise for it. I left three of the four topics until this period, and completed past paper questions to support my revision. Computer issues meant I had to handwrite my revision for the final topic, but I found it just as effective as creating word documents. I think a combination of the two methods would be ideal: using word processing to create a detailed revision guide and condensing the information using handwritten notes. My unit grade was 86%, with a score of exactly 90% in the exam!

Now I have just under four weeks until the start of my second year! I want to be better organised this year, so as well as writing up notes as I go along, I'll make sure to get a good planner and use it consistently. Hopefully I can maintain a high academic standard!