This is for those students that have tried everything, who’ve done the revision memory tricks, eaten right, shut themselves in their rooms but can’t quite get into it. I know it’s hard, so here is what helped me.


Writing all your notes into Microsoft Word

I know it sounds silly, but as a third year student all those papers just accumulate really quickly. Sometimes you need information from first or second year, or you found a piece of work that really helped you out but you can’t seem to find it anymore. Rewriting all of my lecture, seminar and personal notes into Word meant that I could easily return to anything I needed, and could throw out the handouts and printed pages that filled up my room ever so quickly. The best bit about this is that you can colour code and hyperlink to make finding sections super easily.

Stay focused / Self control

We all know that feeling where you’re trying extra hard to study; you’ve thrown your phone on your bed, cleaned your room, made a cup of tea, but you can’t get into it without checking twitter, or browsing your Facebook feed. You might give yourself a 5 minute break that quickly becomes 45 before you know it – these apps will help you through those trying times.

Stay focused and self control are applications for your computer that allow you to temporarily ban sites as you study, as well as give yourself limited time breaks before those sites automatically ban again. I know you’re probably thinking, how do I un-ban them? Easily, but not without being bombarded with messages like “shouldn’t you be studying right now?” “are you sure you want to do this?” “think of the children!”. These apps helped me through many exam periods, but there were times when they weren’t quite enough..

Tutor hunt

Really struggling to understand the work you’ve been given? Understand the work a bit too much and want to get paid for it? This website is great for students of both ends of the spectrum who need a little extra. Tutor hunt is an online social media-esque website that allows users to seek tutors for all courses and stages of education, or for students to become the teachers – by tutoring those of the same level of education or below. The interface is really easy, all tutors need: a picture, a copy of their qualifications/grades, and an hourly rate. Upon finding somebody you like, you can then start chatting to them about what you want, and the rest is history! Or art! or..science..? Personally, I think this website’s great for if you really need an essay reviewed or a weekly study structure. Alternatively,  very handy if you need some spare change and a bit of teaching experience.

Off remote / Free desk top timer / Phone schedule

If you find that discipline is the hardest thing for you to maintain, these applications are like calender’s but a step further. Installing these to your computer and phone means that you can time scheduled events for when you want to study, with the capability to even schedule shutdown times so you won’t retroactively check your phone or computer. These are especially great for if you want to check your phone without losing time, or need to hit the library but can’t leave your computer.

Written by : Chris Chikodzore