How to win as a final-year student - Philip Race

Final year undergraduates face a particular set of challenges. What they do in their final year is critical to their futures. They must cope with revision for final exams as well as completing coursework and sometimes working on extended dissertations or projects. At the same time they need to be taking strategic decisions about their future careers. Many will be handling job applications and interviews. Others will be going through selection processes for entry into higher degrees.

With greater numbers of students entering higher education, representing a broader cross-section of the population than ever before, the challenges of the final year cause most students some measure of stress, and prove unmanageable for a significant number. Because of larger class sizes in most institutions, the amount of real help and support from academic staff to final year students is diminishing.

Many final year students will have read one of the many useful general study-skills texts which are available. However these books do not provide the depth of assistance, or the range of coverage which final year students need. How to Win as a Final-Year Student is the first book to deal with the specific challenges faced by final year students. It is strongly recommended that students be advised to read it at the beginning of their final year.

Topics covered by this book include:

* How to think strategically about what you're doing
* How to plan your time in order to work successfully on several things at once
* Tackling big dissertations and projects
* Revision - learning from past mistakes
* Managing stress
* Exam techniques for final exams, including preparing for a viva
* Thinking about research and higher degrees
* Writing a CV
* Making job applications
* Preparing for interviews and tests