Saving time at the Beginning of Assignments

A student asked me how he could save time in doing his assignments. This the advice I gave for the first stages of work on an assignment topic.

"The first thing most students don't understand is the first stage in doing an assignment isn't information gathering. In the first stage of an assignment, you reflect on what you are being asked to do and the materials you already have at hand to do the assignment. Consider this:

1. The tutor will expect that you have read the information in the module text on the assigned topic. It will also help you later if you go over the module text. Good marks on your final exams is a result of going over study information several times. (SQ3R)
2. You should understand all the terminology the tutor uses any given assignment. You should look up terms you don't understand in your module text. The module text was chosen for a reason. The focus and definitions in a text usually fit with the way the tutor also defines any terminology in a given assignment.
3. Read your module text can help you to understand the question, first. Do not go online and read a lot of information on the internet that may or may not be correct.
4. If you spend your time wisely at the beginning of an assignment, defining the perimeters of the question you can save time later by not going off topic later.
5. Discussion on Blackboard is also important here.

Okay, so before writing a word, understand what is really required of you. To do this, you can use a variety of tools:
1. Your mind and your imagination.
2. Your module text.
3. Map minds or other mapping tools.
4. Blackboard (bb)

You need to look at the subject of an assignment clearly and understand what it means.

KB