1. Introduction

Read this book before you get to university! Be prepared for the differences between teaching and learning at university and at school. You don’t have to be a genius to get a first in your university degree. You do need to understand the tasks, acquire the right skills and spend plenty of time practising them. If you can learn to read actively and selectively, think clearly and creatively, and to speak and write in plain English, you will be able to excel at university.

2. Taking Aim: The Task and the Resources

If you want to hit the target, you need to know where it is. Make sure you understand the basic structure of your course. Look at old exam papers and course documentation in order to establish how each course you are taking is examined and how your work will be evaluated. Work out what the key questions are for each course and what the range of possible answers are. Identify the resources available to help you hit the target. Your two most valuable resources are your own time and your teachers. Manage your time. Manage your teachers.

3. Lectures, Classes and Seminars

Lectures are an efficient use of your time. They give you access to one of the most useful resources at your disposal at university – your lecturers. To make the most of them you need to learn how to take notes in lectures effectively and selectively. The point of lectures is to raise important questions and guide your reading, not to provide you with definitive answers. Classes and seminars give you an opportunity to discuss material in more depth, experiment with your own ideas, and make a good impression on your lecturers.

4. Libraries and Reading Lists

Before you get to the library, work out how much time you have available for each part of the task. Get hold of the required reading material and do an initial survey of it. Be prepared to go beyond your reading list. Use the contents and index of each book to identify the chapter, section, page or paragraph that you need to read. Skim read to determine which sections will be the most useful.

5. Reading and Taking Notes

Read actively and selectively, not passively and indiscriminately. Avoid the mistake of copying out whole chunks of a book instead of making brief notes. Work out your own optimum note-taking strategy. Be on the look-out for particularly good quotations to use in your essay or presentation. If you have not understood or absorbed something, read it again. But learn when to cut your losses and move on if it really will not sink in.

6. Using the Internet

Be selective and discriminating. Only rely on sites run by competent and reputable individuals and organisations. Often these sites will be run by academic departments. But sometimes magazines, newspapers, broadcasters, museums and others produce the most authoritative and useful online information. Start from recognised ‘hubs’. Make use of online texts. Ask lecturers and librarians for guidance.

7. Planning an Essay, Presentation or Dissertation

After you have finished reading and researching and before you start writing there is a crucial intervening step – thinking. This is the most important stage of all: the stage that determines whether your essay, presentation or dissertation will be likely to get a first-class mark. Think about your title. What are the key words? What are the hidden assumptions? Why is this topic controversial? Why is it interesting? What is your answer to the question? Talk your thoughts over with a friend. Then write a brief plan. Different people find different ways of planning better. But not having any plan is worst of all. This thinking and planning stage is the key to producing a really good essay or presentation rather than a merely competent one.

8. Giving a Presentation

It is very likely that in the course of your degree you will be required to give at least one presentation, which may or may not be formally assessed. Some people find this a particularly daunting prospect. It need not be. The same reading, thinking and planning skills that can be used when writing an essay can also be used when preparing a presentation, but with some important differences. Think about how to keep your audience engaged by using pictures, props, videos, PowerPoint presentations. Have a clear “take-home message”. Produce a handout. Engage your audience. Giving a presentation is not the same as reading an essay aloud.

9 . Writing Essays and Dissertations I: The Basics

One thing which is guaranteed to annoy your lecturers and to cost you marks in assessed work and exams is a tendency to make basic errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Try to eliminate such errors from your writing. This chapter includes a list of particularly common mistakes made in student essays, which should be avoided at all costs. It also explains the basics of referencing and bibliography. Always read your work through before you hand it in!

10 . Writing Essays and Dissertations II: Arguing with Style

Writing well is at the heart of academic success. Writing a good essay involves paying close attention to the title while explaining the thrust of your argument. Never start writing an essay if you cannot answer the simple question “What is your point in this essay?” There are several dimensions to essay-writing where you need to strike a balance: especially between other people’s ideas and your own ideas, between painting the big picture and showing knowledge of details, and between giving a balanced overview and arguing for a particular point of view. Being clear, in terms both of language and of structure, is essential. Do not write in awkward over-academic prose (“essayese”); write in plain English. Your essay should include a map and signposts to direct your reader through the argument and towards the conclusion.

11. Revision and Exams

Everyone has their own favoured way of revising. But there are several techniques that most people will find effective, such as making a revision timetable, looking at past papers, and writing practice answers. It is also a good idea to read new material. Think about what you can commit to memory before going into an exam. In the exam, make sure you have read the instructions properly and that you have looked at both sides of every sheet of the question paper. Be clear in your mind how much time you have for each question, and stick to it. The two most important things: answer the question and don’t be boring!

12. How to Get a First

There is no set formula for getting a first. But if you make efficient use of your time, and understand the rules of the game – in other words, if you follow the advice in this book – you will increase your chances significantly. What you need to do to get a first can be summarised under two headings: executional excellence and innovation.