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This is a useful tool to micro-plan students’ time in the weeks around assessments. Students need to study, practise and revise as well as keeping up with all their usual responsibilities. Helping students to write down and commit to a plan can help keep them on track and reduce their stress and anxiety levels. There is a template timetable for students to use (you can print it double-sided with the Musostudy mindfulness colouring sheet to aid relaxation on the other side).
Have students list all the work and gigs they have to do plus any assessments and other obligations they have. Plan out a week into 2-hour chunks and ask students to plot on their responsibilities, e.g. part-time work. With the slots left plan when they will study and what they need to revise/practise/write etc. Ensure they consider where rest time will go.
Ask students to also consider:
• Where will you work? Where is your most productive place?
• How will you reduce distractions?
• Who can support you through this?
If students have already planned in another session ask them to spend 5 minutes reviewing it in pairs. They can update their plan and check what still needs doing.
With large groups, you can either run this as a solo activity and then put students into groups to discuss/ adjust their decisions or you could have small groups planning which contribute to a whole-group activity of what the process was like and any major concerns that arose.
Put the xls version of the timetable on the VLE for students to use. On Zoom you can screen share the colouring and allowing students to colour in using Annotate.
Students will have a clear plan on how to proceed during the assessment period.
This website and all the @musostudy accounts are part of my PhD research looking at how to improve study skills in Popular Music Education students in Higher Education. Any comments left on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using @musostudy or #musostudy may be anonymised and used in my research. For more information please do email me. Thank you.
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