Revision: MML
Preparing for Part 1A exams in MML
Most people get home after Lent Term and begin to think about exams. The key thing to remember is that the Easter Holidays are called “holidays” for a reason. DO NOT spend the whole time stressing about next term’s exams! You have five weeks to catch up with friends from home, go on holiday and relax after the angst of Lent, so DO NOT PANIC! Having said that, do not completely set work on the back burner. You’ll only end up pulling all nighters in the library once you get back to Pembroke, so I recommend a steady pace throughout. Do a bit of work for a few hours a day - watch 5mins of the daily news in your language on the internet, read by the pool and learn 10 bits of vocab a day. Whatever you do, don’t let go altogether. And if you find yourself getting bored take a break and then go back to it later in the day.
You should know now how best you revise. If sitting down and reading through notes works, then do it. There are past papers online and in the MML faculty library, but don’t get too worried about writing essays over the holiday. Make sure you have the key facts first.
On the topic of essays, don’t worry about how long it takes for you to write an essay in term-time. We all know it takes extra reading and consolidation, but this should come with your revision. You only have an hour per essay in the exam, but remember that your mind will be more focused and the more concise and structured your essay is the better. So DON’T WORRY about timing! You might even have sudden revelations about Faust in the middle of an exam and this could well be to your benefit! Oh, and plan your essay. It works.
Much of what you do during your revision should JUST be revision. Don’t try and cram too much new stuff in - all you’ll end up doing is taking up brain-space that should be used for the key points that you REALLY need to know. Read through the texts that you enjoy the most and REALLY want to answer a question on. If you hate Lettres Persanes, or can’t stand the Heptameron, then chances are that you will not enjoy writing on them as much and won’t produce the best answers. I recommend reading 4 or 5 of the texts that you most enjoy and form opinions of them for yourself, backed up by suitable bits of the text - lecture notes are good, but everybody goes to the lectures, so examiners will be most impressed with original thought that shows you have a good knowledge of the text.
With regard to orals, listening is just as important as speaking, so even 5mins a day on a news website will improve your listening skills. If you have native speakers as friends, get on the phone or Skype them! You don’t need to talk about the most philosophical or intellectual of topics; a good gossip is enough to get your confidence in the spoken language up.
The exams themselves: some days will be bad, with 3 exams, others you will have just the one. However, the worst days are few and far between, so it means that you have plenty of time between the exams to have a quick look over your notes and refresh your mind. You shouldn’t really be doing any new revision after the beginning of your first written exam - just looking over what you already know.
As linguists, you are lucky - exams finish a long time before most other people do, so feel privileged, but do give a thought to those who are still revising away in their rooms, or in the library. But do enjoy yourself! YOU DESERVE IT!
Remember, it is only the final year that counts for MML. Chris and Sylvia are more than happy with a 2.1 overall, and a low 2.1/ 2.2 in one paper will show you where your strengths and weaknesses lie in preparation for coming years. And if you think that you are going to fail, remember this: it is harder to fail than to get a first.
If you have any worries or concerns, do feel free to email me on jm656@cam.ac.uk, or any other linguists. I, for one, will tell you that if I can survive the first year exams, then anybody can!