The CII exams are only 5 weeks away. Now is the time to start planning your revision to maximise your chance for success.
Here are my ‘5’ top tips to help you find time you didn't think you had and maximising the effectiveness of that time!
Make a plan - Identify, realistically how much time you have available. I'm sure that many of you are juggling work, family and social lives in addition to these exams. You may feel overwhelmed by the amount of revision required and the lack of time, here are some tips for finding a few extra hours per week, without too much effort:
- Utilise your commute to and from work by reading or listening to study notes
- Arrive at work 15 minutes early
- Use 15 minutes from your lunch break
- Stay at work an extra 15 minutes
Hey presto - you have found over an hour per day - 5 hours per week!
When planning your revision, try and allocate time which suits your natural body clock, for instance, do you find it easier to focus in the mornings, or evenings?
Analyse past exam papers - Obtain some past exam papers, these can be found on the CII revisionmate website
Analyse the questions and identify the key areas of the study materials which are most important to the examiner. Whilst I would never advocate ignoring sections of the syllabus, this exercise will allow you to identify any topics which feature regularly in the exams and, therefore, you should ensure you have good knowledge of these topics.
Prioritise your time and energies Review your current level of understanding of the study text, in which areas is your knowledge:
- Strong and confident
- Average
- Minimal
Take this information and add it to the information gleamed from the previous exercise and use it to inform where you need to focus your time and energy.
Revise in bite-size chunks - It is far easier to achieve your goals if you set small manageable milestones on route. Your memory retention will also be improved if you absorb the knowledge in small and regular intervals. Identify topics which can be revised in the bite-size chunks of time allocated.
Vary your techniques - Have you ever had the experience, of reading a page or even a paragraph of your study book, and then realising you can't remember anything of what you have just read? To help overcome this, consider different ways of engaging with the material, which could include:
- Revising with colleagues and discuss key cases or topics
- Ask friends or family to test you
- Make a voice recording of your revision notes and listen to it when commuting
- Use mind maps
- Post it notes in key places of your home or work
- Use colour, drawings or images - a picture paints a thousand words
One final and very important tip - Implement your plan! A plan can only be effective if it implemented.
Good luck
I hope you have found this blog useful, if you would like to share your tips for revision then please do so ............
In my next blog I will share with you tips for success in the exam.
Beverley Lyn MBA FCII
www.lynconsulting.co.uk
email:beverley@lynconsulting.co.uk
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