1. Don’t be a sponge

The top tip from lecturers is not to be a sponge, but to be active.  Sitting there trying to soak up information at 3am in the morning won’t work. It won’t sink in.  And although reading through your notes is an obvious starting-point, 'passive' revision will only take you so far. Once, you've familiarised yourself with the topics that make up the unit, you need to move on.

Write essays, set problems or produce summaries of what you’ve learnt. Engage with the content. Yes, you need to understand the key principles that help to 'shape' the unit, but you also need to have enough solid material at your fingertips. Some degree of rote learning, of case names and the propositions that each case stands for, for example, is also useful.

2. Go over old ground

All agreed that the best 'active' form of revision is attempting questions from old exam papers - ideally, in timed conditions. They are available for you on Blackboard*, so make use of them.  The purpose of doing old exam questions is not to enable you to predict what will be on the paper or to 'question-spot'. Its purpose is to help you to digest and internalise the material that you've been studying - and to understand how different topics within the unit relate to each other.

If you acquire a sophisticated understanding of the unit,  rather than simply a knowledge of certain topics covered by the unit, you will be able to make a decent attempt at questions which you have not seen before - and which may require you to make use of material from different parts of the unit.

For further information read our practical guide on how to use past exam papers.

3. Mimic your lecturers

Whether it’s a deep love of lecturing or a secret desire to be on the stage, a number of tutors indicated that 'lecturing' their own lecture notes back to an imaginary audience was a big part of their revision routine as students. Others made audio recordings. Either way, the general consensus was that the process of preparing and executing helped them explain and vocalise the material, making sense of it and fixing it in their minds.

Revision can be a lonely process, but it needn’t be.  Test out your ‘lectures’ on each other and don’t compete. It doesn’t matter who’s revised hardest and longest (claims of ‘I’ve revised for 10 hours’, are usually untrue anyway). Instead, work together, provide constructive feedback and learn from those who excel in the lecturing back process. They’re not just skills for exams. In law, they’re skills for employability too.

4. Do well at wellbeing

Lecturers were unanimous in their advice that a healthy balance of work, rest and play is essential if you are to benefit from your revision and be mentally prepared for your exams. Many of them are common sense tips that you all probably know. But at times of stress it is useful to remind yourself of them. So here they are:

Plan breaks in your revision schedule

• Keep and evening free for cinema, or spending time with friends.
• Keep a weekend day totally free, you can’t work all the time.
• Two hours of efficient revision is better than four hours 'revising' with the radio on, playing with your mobile phone, drinking too much coffee or popping Pro Plus type caffeine tablets.

Be easy on yourself

• Don’t feel guilty when you’re taking time off. You can get back to the plan with renewed vigour after an evening or day of relaxation.
• Concede that at times you will not be able to stick to your schedule rigidly and just get back to it as soon as you can after your 'lapse.

Be good at wellbeing housekeeping

• Get into the habit of going to bed reasonably early in the week or so before the exams start.
• Don’t give up exercising using revision as an excuse. Exercise is great for stress relief. And if you don’t usually exercise, make sure you take a good long walk if you’re feeling swamped.
• Eat sensibly. Don’t drink alcohol. And have a good breakfast on the morning of an exam.

5. Calm the butterflies

Finally, everyone experiences nerves. Even our Head of School.  Professor Conaghan’s advice when you get that butterflies-in-your tummy feeling and the words start to jumble up or float across the page is to stop and take five long slow deep breathes, in and out. It really does work.  All that oxygen in your blood stream triggers a physiological response which helps to calm you and allow your body to deal with stress and anxiety hormones. Practice now whenever you feel stressed and you'll be a dab hand by the time exams come round.

Good luck.