Are you fed up with getting feedback on your essays that says, “your writing is too descriptive” or “not enough critical writing and analysis” or “you wasted too many words on describing”? Critical writing and thinking can be confusing, and writing in this style can feel completely alien. But staying safe with descriptive writing is

Are you guilty of taking study notes and then not using them again? Of spending hours each week completing your reading and notes but finding they’re not helpful when it comes to writing your essays or preparing for your exams? Well, it’s time to stop taking pointless study notes. There are some common mistakes I

Do you wish essay writing was easier? Do you find yourself procrastinating and putting off starting and then having to complete your essay in a mad rush and submit at the last minute? You’re not alone. Essay writing is a daunting process that feels complicated and mysterious and kinda awful at times. It can feel

Essay writing is HARD, right? So many rules, such a long, drawn-out process. Over the last four years I’ve worked one-on-one with hundreds of students to help them improve their essay writing skills. And now I want to share with you the most common essay writing mistakes I see so you can identify areas for

There’s A LOT of bad note taking advice out there. Some of it’s well-meaning. Some of it is half-true but important parts have been lost. Others are just bits of advice that get parroted around the Internet until no one knows where they came from. Well today my study buddies, I’m going to debunk these myths

The most common note taking advice from tutors is to ‘write notes in your own words.’ But, we’re never really taught why we should do this and how to actually do this. In this blog post I’m going to share the reasons why you might write verbatim (word-for-word) notes, reasons why you should write notes in

Before I tell you how to prepare for university lectures and tutorials, let me explain what these terms mean because there’s a lot of different ones knocking about e.g. tutorial, lecture, seminar, workshop…etc. A lecture tends to be a one-sided class where you and your fellow students will sit and take notes while a lecturer talks

“Should I handwrite my study notes or type them?” People ask me this question often and I think there’s not enough advice out there to help YOU decide what’s best for YOUR situation and YOUR learning. Last week I explained four different note taking methods in detail. Check out that post here – How to Choose the Best

My last blog post explained the value of note taking and summed up 13 common mistakes successful students don’t make. Note taking is necessary to deepen your understanding, improve your recall, write better essays and speed up your revision. But there are so many note taking methods to choose from that you can become stuck and not