I am lady procrastinate. Every year I tell myself I will work harder and by the time exam time rolls round I'm freaking out. This year was the hardest year though. I'm doing exams towards my degree and they are piling the work on. I really couldn't cope and made myself ill with stress. I work really well until the last week from term and realise i have 2 essays due in, 2 orals to prepare, a viva the day after which involves knowing 6 spanish poems off by heart and then wonder where I'll find the time to do it all because written exams are in the same space of 8 days.
The only way I could do work was force myself to go to the library and just stay there. Don't worry about how late you've left it. It's never too late. Just focus on what you can do. I don't know what subjects you do but back when I was doing my A-levels (the final public exams you do before going to uni in school) I studied English and 2 foreign languages. For the literature aspect I would re-read books. Make notes. Make spider diagrams about important things.
Three years later and I follow much the same technique. As I read a lot of books I will read over important chapters we have talked about in class. I'll re-read notes and shrink them down and get all the important stuff on one page. I'll also make my spider diagrams with quotes, critics quotes etc. Then, before bed every night I will relax and read over what I've done that day. It really is the best way to let everything sink in.
I have friends who have to copy out their notes again and again before it sinks in. Other friends prefer to go to the library at 3am and study then when it's quiet. Everyone is different and you just have to find a method that suits you.
A lot of my course is based on translation, written skills and oral work i.e. you can never learn everything and you can't learn it all in one week. I have to constantly be up-to-date and read foreign newspapers and know what is happening in France and Spain. I always have a literature subject and 2 mini-modules that require a lot of reading books and reading books/ articles from the library. University life is a lot different from school life, you really will have to push yourself to work yourself because nobody, unless you ask for advice, will be telling you what you need to do. An hour a week isn't going to be enough time for you to learn everything you need to and the onus will be on you to spend the rest of your time building up on what you've studied in class. That pretty goes for much subjects I suspect. My friends who study pharmacy are always in the library reading up and studying too.
I spend 9 hours in classes a week and everyday I am in uni I spend the rest of my time in the library doing work. My adivice would be if you get into a good routine of doing this, you will be well prepared to revise for your exams. I wish someone had told me this before I went to uni, I also wish I could follow my own advice and work as hard all year round as I do in the first half of the semester.
Good luck, I am sure you will do fine. I alays end up getting well above the year average, I think we tend to be harder on ourselves than we need to be sometimes.
