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March 28, 2024, 10:52:45 pm

Author Topic: Time management tips?  (Read 5478 times)  Share 

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tigerclouds

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Time management tips?
« on: March 28, 2020, 07:33:23 pm »
+2
Hi guys,
I really enjoy and understand Legal and I’ve become pretty comfortable with the way I structure my responses but my downfall on SACs is ALWAYS my time management. My teacher has also recognised this and she has explicitly stated in a SAC’s feedback that I didn’t answer some questions as well as I could have if I had more time. It’s really frustrating because I know I have the capacity to do really well but something that’s so irrelevant to the content is stopping me from doing so. I think my problem is that I spent too long on questions at the start of the SAC period and have to end up rushing the rest and that’s because I’m a perfectionist and really want to showcase the extent of my knowledge to get full marks but that doesn’t always help me :( So does anyone have any tips on how I can manage my time better when responding to Legal questions under SAC conditions?
My current strategy is to start with the longer questions (like the 6 markers) first and that’s actually been helpful but I find that it makes me underestimate the amount of time I need for the shorter questions.
Any advice from anyone is more than welcome!!!
Thank you!

Snow Leopard

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2020, 08:08:51 pm »
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Hey tigerclouds, I struggle with the same problem!!!

Some tips that you could perhaps implement would be:
- to bring a normal watch (not a smartwatch like a fitbit or apple watch) into the sac and know what time your teacher will tell you "time's up"

- allocate a specific time in the period to have completed a specific sections of the SAC. For example, if your SAC starts at 1:00pm and ends at 2:00pm, write on the paper, ' finish short answer questions at 1:25pm and finish extended response questions at 1:50pm' or something like that. (I'm not really sure of the structure of legal sacs)

- Set a timer for like 1 hour (or the length of the SAC) and complete a Practice SAC in that time (don't give yourself any extra time!)

- Try to complete your legal homework under time limits. I don't know about you but sometimes I tend to drag on my homework which leads to me struggling to answer questions to time during SACs

- If you can't think of the answer to a question, don't panic! Leave a star or something next to it and do another question which you can answer. But make sure that you leave yourself enough time at the end to answer that question towards the end of the SAC once your brain has warmed up to the content hopefully

tigerclouds

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2020, 11:13:32 am »
+1
Hey tigerclouds, I struggle with the same problem!!!

Some tips that you could perhaps implement would be:
- to bring a normal watch (not a smartwatch like a fitbit or apple watch) into the sac and know what time your teacher will tell you "time's up"

- allocate a specific time in the period to have completed a specific sections of the SAC. For example, if your SAC starts at 1:00pm and ends at 2:00pm, write on the paper, ' finish short answer questions at 1:25pm and finish extended response questions at 1:50pm' or something like that. (I'm not really sure of the structure of legal sacs)

- Set a timer for like 1 hour (or the length of the SAC) and complete a Practice SAC in that time (don't give yourself any extra time!)

- Try to complete your legal homework under time limits. I don't know about you but sometimes I tend to drag on my homework which leads to me struggling to answer questions to time during SACs

- If you can't think of the answer to a question, don't panic! Leave a star or something next to it and do another question which you can answer. But make sure that you leave yourself enough time at the end to answer that question towards the end of the SAC once your brain has warmed up to the content hopefully
Hi Snow Leopard, these are great tips! I might try bringing a watch to the SAC rather than relying on the clock. The thing is though, I’ve already tried the other tips like with allocating time to complete a specific section of a SAC but the problem with that is if I don’t finish within that time, I just can’t move on because I’d feel really unsatisfied and distracted for the rest of the questions. And with my practice questions, I try to set time limits too but since I get them marked by my teacher, I want to make sure that I’m showing her my best work so I know the standard I need to be at, excluding the time factor, if that makes sense? Sorry to be a pain in the neck, I really appreciate your help!

pahm

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2020, 07:46:29 pm »
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in my experience I found that starting with the really short questions might actually work better, bc they're much easier so you'll be able to speed through them at the start and it'll get you in the zone to tackle the longer questions.

also if you're running out of time for the longer questions you can actually write your answer in dotpoints - it won't get you full marks but it shows you understand the question and you'll still get partial marks.

maybe try sticking by the time limit per question, and if you don't finish, just jot down your ideas (ensuring partial credit), move on, then come back when you have time.
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Snow Leopard

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2020, 07:52:26 pm »
+2
the problem with that is if I don’t finish within that time, I just can’t move on because I’d feel really unsatisfied and distracted for the rest of the questions.
All good, I understand!
For this, I mean I think it's important to remember that your answer probably is sufficien and at the end of the day you'd probably want to give yourself enough time to answer all of the questions, rather than only be able to answer 3/4 of the questions perfectly and not have had enough time to answer that last 1/4 of questions. Getting it done is probably gonna be better than getting 3/4 of it perfect.

Tbh, I struggle with the exact same thing and one of my teachers just told me: you shouldn't spend so long trying to get your homework perfect cos the same thing happens with SACs, you spend way more time than you should trying to get the first couple of pages perfect and in doing so you're not even giving yourself enough time/ a chance to answer the rest of SAC. Done is better than perfect. And once you've finished answering ALL of the SAC, you can come back to specific q's and adjust them as needed.

Also, do you tend to write more than needed (like going over the lines etc)? Cos I tend to do that as well. If you do then it's eating up your time in the SAC and it's not earning you any marks.

In terms of being distracted by the question you think you've answered insufficiently think of it this way:
- imagine the first question in the SAC is worth 3 marks, and you think that your answer will only get you about 2 marks right. Wouldn't it be better to leave it for now and attempt another question worth 3 marks, which say you have revised perfectly and you know you'll get 3 marks for. Following this method you'd get a total of 5/6 marks whereas trying to get your first answer perfect and running out of time (meaning you couldn't answer that question that you knew perfectly) would result in only 3/6 marks.

Quote
And with my practice questions, I try to set time limits too but since I get them marked by my teacher, I want to make sure that I’m showing her my best work so I know the standard I need to be at, excluding the time factor, if that makes sense?
Maybe ask for another practice SAC that you could mark yourself or that you could get a friend to mark and do that under timed conditions?

I hope this helped!

tigerclouds

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2020, 02:17:03 pm »
0
in my experience I found that starting with the really short questions might actually work better, bc they're much easier so you'll be able to speed through them at the start and it'll get you in the zone to tackle the longer questions.

also if you're running out of time for the longer questions you can actually write your answer in dotpoints - it won't get you full marks but it shows you understand the question and you'll still get partial marks.

maybe try sticking by the time limit per question, and if you don't finish, just jot down your ideas (ensuring partial credit), move on, then come back when you have time.
Yeah I think it’s a matter of trial and error to see which way is most efficient, starting the longer or shorter questions, I can see why both would work. I tend to leave dot points as the very last resort because like you said, it grants partial marks but they’re still very hard to get.

Tbh, I struggle with the exact same thing and one of my teachers just told me: you shouldn't spend so long trying to get your homework perfect cos the same thing happens with SACs, you spend way more time than you should trying to get the first couple of pages perfect and in doing so you're not even giving yourself enough time/ a chance to answer the rest of SAC. Done is better than perfect. And once you've finished answering ALL of the SAC, you can come back to specific q's and adjust them as needed.
Yeah I need to keep this in mind when completing the questions because I tend to add extra info to perfect my answer when I should be ensuring that my other answers have sufficient information in the first place. Maybe I’ll start writing just what’s required of me and finish the rest of the SAC and then come back later if I have time to add in more points.

Quote
Also, do you tend to write more than needed (like going over the lines etc)? Cos I tend to do that as well. If you do then it's eating up your time in the SAC and it's not earning you any marks.
Only sometimes, and that’s usually for the longer answers but I find the lines to be so misleading because at times I can use up only half the space provided and still get full marks but I get what you’re saying.

Quote
In terms of being distracted by the question you think you've answered insufficiently think of it this way:
- imagine the first question in the SAC is worth 3 marks, and you think that your answer will only get you about 2 marks right. Wouldn't it be better to leave it for now and attempt another question worth 3 marks, which say you have revised perfectly and you know you'll get 3 marks for. Following this method you'd get a total of 5/6 marks whereas trying to get your first answer perfect and running out of time (meaning you couldn't answer that question that you knew perfectly) would result in only 3/6 marks.
That actually makes perfect sense, I’m gonna remind myself of this in the SAC so I don’t fall into the trap of writing too much to make sure I’m not penalised for anything. Cause you’re right, I’d be pretty frustrated if I don’t get the opportunity to answer a question I know I can respond well to because I spent too long rambling on another question I’m uncertain about to try to get the marks.

Quote
Maybe ask for another practice SAC that you could mark yourself or that you could get a friend to mark and do that under timed conditions?
Haha I do that already but I sometimes don’t get the chance to do it properly, but yeah this strategy definitely helps a lot.

Thank you so much for this Snow Leopard! It really has helped! I think it’s all about our mindset towards answering the questions and having the foresight to realise that perfecting an answer is probably gonna cost us more marks than moving on and showcasing more of our knowledge.

J_Rho

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2020, 02:54:05 pm »
0
Hi guys,
I really enjoy and understand Legal and I’ve become pretty comfortable with the way I structure my responses but my downfall on SACs is ALWAYS my time management. My teacher has also recognised this and she has explicitly stated in a SAC’s feedback that I didn’t answer some questions as well as I could have if I had more time. It’s really frustrating because I know I have the capacity to do really well but something that’s so irrelevant to the content is stopping me from doing so. I think my problem is that I spent too long on questions at the start of the SAC period and have to end up rushing the rest and that’s because I’m a perfectionist and really want to showcase the extent of my knowledge to get full marks but that doesn’t always help me :( So does anyone have any tips on how I can manage my time better when responding to Legal questions under SAC conditions?
My current strategy is to start with the longer questions (like the 6 markers) first and that’s actually been helpful but I find that it makes me underestimate the amount of time I need for the shorter questions.
Any advice from anyone is more than welcome!!!
Thank you!

Hey Tigerclouds! I don't really struggle with this but I put it down to the way I do my SACs, I have found that If I complete the SAC backwards I answer the longer (6 - 10 mark) questions first this allows me to answer them in more depth required to get full marks, but I would also recommend answering the "easiest" question/s first to get you into the swing of things. All in all, I think it is ultimately trial and error - also please please please never write in dot points,  examiners won't give you marks even if your answer is correct if its in dot point form. But if it helps you can write 'Firstly, blah blah blah. Secondly, blah blah blah' to give the really succinct structure that you get with dot points :)
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tigerclouds

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2020, 11:10:06 pm »
0
Hey Tigerclouds! I don't really struggle with this but I put it down to the way I do my SACs, I have found that If I complete the SAC backwards I answer the longer (6 - 10 mark) questions first this allows me to answer them in more depth required to get full marks, but I would also recommend answering the "easiest" question/s first to get you into the swing of things. All in all, I think it is ultimately trial and error - also please please please never write in dot points,  examiners won't give you marks even if your answer is correct if its in dot point form. But if it helps you can write 'Firstly, blah blah blah. Secondly, blah blah blah' to give the really succinct structure that you get with dot points :)
Thank you for your reply J_Rho! So would you recommend starting off with one or two of the shorter questions to ease into the right mind frame and then move on to the long questions, getting them out of the way so you can finish off the rest of the shorter questions? Also, are you sure about examiners granting no marks for dot points? I'm also against them but I may need to resort to them if I'm really crunched on time and it would suck to get no marks at all if you've covered the main points.

J_Rho

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2020, 08:23:39 am »
+1
Thank you for your reply J_Rho! So would you recommend starting off with one or two of the shorter questions to ease into the right mind frame and then move on to the long questions, getting them out of the way so you can finish off the rest of the shorter questions? Also, are you sure about examiners granting no marks for dot points? I'm also against them but I may need to resort to them if I'm really crunched on time and it would suck to get no marks at all if you've covered the main points.

My teacher told us that examiners don't give marks for dot point answers, I'm not sure if he was exaggerating and meant you won't ever get full marks or if its a legit thing 🤷
Maybe someone else can shed some light on this?
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pahm

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2020, 02:12:07 pm »
+1
My teacher told us that examiners don't give marks for dot point answers, I'm not sure if he was exaggerating and meant you won't ever get full marks or if its a legit thing 🤷

what my teacher said was:

say it's a 4-mark question, if you don't have time and leave it blank you're guaranteed to get 0/4.
if you write your response in dotpoints (but mention all relevant points) you may get max 2-3/4
if you tried to write in full sentences but didn't finish (leaving out a couple of points) you may get max 2/4

obviously avoid dotpoints for 8-10 mark responses though.
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idrk

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2020, 09:27:45 pm »
+3
Hey I had the same problem where I'd lose marks at the end of sacs due to running low on time and being a slow writer.
What helped me was reviewing my sac answers and thinking of the stuff I didn't need which I wrote. I'd also look at extended response )4+ marks)questions with the aim of identifying the core concepts to discuss in as basic terms as possible. That way I knew clearly what points I had to mention and even when pressed with time my focus would just be coherently mentioning the points even if I reduce my level of detail a litttle. This ensures at you'll only lose a mark or two due to lack of detail at most on questions when pressed for time, and even in some circumstances if you include some detail you may get full marks and discover the perfect mix of detail.
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tigerclouds

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Re: Time management tips?
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2020, 01:46:03 pm »
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Hey I had the same problem where I'd lose marks at the end of sacs due to running low on time and being a slow writer.
What helped me was reviewing my sac answers and thinking of the stuff I didn't need which I wrote. I'd also look at extended response )4+ marks)questions with the aim of identifying the core concepts to discuss in as basic terms as possible. That way I knew clearly what points I had to mention and even when pressed with time my focus would just be coherently mentioning the points even if I reduce my level of detail a litttle. This ensures at you'll only lose a mark or two due to lack of detail at most on questions when pressed for time, and even in some circumstances if you include some detail you may get full marks and discover the perfect mix of detail.
So be concise. Got it. Thank you!