Your ultimate guide to preparing for final assessments

The Semester is ticking along and final assessments are well and truly on the horizon. At MyLaTrobe, we’ve put together the ultimate checklist for nailing your final assessments. Have you mastered these eight steps?

1. Create an assessment schedule

The key to reducing stress and nailing those final assessments is planning your time. Did you know La Trobe has an online assessment planner that’ll do all the hard work for you when it comes to planning your workload? Simply enter your subject code and due date into the La Trobe Assessment Planner and it’ll generate a list of tasks and mini-deadlines – the perfect map to getting it done on time!

Use the La Trobe Assessment Planner – MyLaTrobe

La Trobe’s Assessment Planner is completely magic. This online wizard will calculate exactly what you need to do and when you need to have it done by. It’ll break up your assignment into smaller, manageable tasks, remind you when to do them, offer you prompts to get the ball rolling and point you in the […]

2. Understand the goalposts

Will you have two hours, two days or two weeks to complete your assessment? If you have an exam, will it be online or face-to-face? What can you expect when the assessment goes live? All the details for each of your assessment tasks will be available in each subject’s page on the LMS. There you will find specific instructions from your subject coordinator and an indication of how long the task should take to complete. Read the instructions carefully! If you exam is delivered face-to-face, your exam timetable, once live, will list a room number under location. Those delivered online will instead show a dash.

For assignments, read your subject learning guide and get to know the expectations. Check penalties for each day late, and the last date an assessment is accepted for marking. See instructions for each assessment and its assessment criteria and marking grid to get your head around what you need to do. Check minimum word counts and reading or references required.

3. Make use of study tools

Whether you’re in need of a referencing wizard, help with proofing your assignment or an app to help manage your study, there’s a tool out there that’ll meet your needs.

Best online study tools for uni students from our PLAs – MyLaTrobe

Looking for new ways to step up your study game online? These must-have study tools for Uni students all come highly recommended by La Trobe’s very own PLAs! Learning from fellow students is a great way to get up-to-date info that’s relevant to you. Even better, the PLAs (or Peer Learning Advisors) are all top […]

4. Gather resources

Get across the resources you’ll need to nail your assessments. Chat with a librarian to get help tailored to your specific needs or questions.

Do you need an eBook for your open book exam? The Library has got you covered with all of your eBook needs, you just need to get in early. Only a certain amount of people can view an eBook at once, which means you could get locked out of the book you need.

Need an eBook for your online assessment? Let the Library help you – MyLaTrobe

Do you need an eBook for your open book exam? The Library has got you covered with all of your eBook needs, you just need to get in early. Only a certain amount of people can view an eBook at once, which means you could get locked out of the book you need.

5. Polish your assignment

Tempted by those accounts on social media who say they’ll write your essay for a fee? Don’t do it! You will land yourself in hot water as it’s pretty easy to detect.

If you need help on your essay, remember all La Trobe students have access to a free online resource called Studiosity. It’s the envy of a lot of students from other Uni’s. Upload your assignment and get feedback at all hours, and live chat with experts.

That’s what SHE said blog – ‘How Studiosity helped me to get a top grade on my assignment’ – MyLaTrobe

The ‘That’s what SHE said’ blog is written by SHE College student Mel. As an intern for the college of SHE and a Peer Learning Advisor, Mel is passionate about sharing ideas and highlighting the services available to you in order to make Uni life just a little easier.

6. Understand the assessment questions

You may have written an absolutely brilliant piece of work, but if it doesn’t properly address the question, you won’t be rewarded for it. Remember to re-read each question a couple of times before you answer it, underlining important wording so you know exactly what’s being asked of you. Keep coming back to the question as you go to make sure you’re not going off on a tangent.

Different types of assessment questions and how to answer them – MyLaTrobe

Multiple choice, true or false, short answer and essay questions – chances are in your time at Uni you’ll come face-to-face with all of them during final assessments. To help you get across exactly how to tackle each different type of question, we’ve put together a quick step-by-step guide.

7. Plan a procrastination strategy

With the shutdown weighing on everyone’s minds, it seems far easier to get distracted and procrastinate. A few key steps you can take to avoid procrastination are to break down your study into tasks and plan breaks and use them as rewards for completing said tasks. At MyLaTrobe, we’ve put together a few strategies you can put into action to combat the age-old enemy of success: procrastination.

8. Seek help early

You don’t need to wait until you’re struggling to seek support – and there’s plenty of support at your fingertips at La Trobe. Library Learning Services offers expert academic skills and English support for every student, at every level.