Study Skills – Learning from feedback

It’s only an envelope. But it’s not only an envelope, because inside it is your essay – and grade. Will it be…? Or…? And hopefully not… Ah. Not pleased? Oh wait, there’s some feedback: that’s useful. But you’re not quite ready to read it. Never mind. Put it away for the moment and read it at your next study session. OK? Ready? Time to take a good look. Feedback that tutors give after assignments is usually about: academic things like understanding the concepts, showing evidence and evaluating information; it can be about structure, style and technical things like spelling and grammar. And sometimes there’s some general feedback or a summary at the end. So, what to do with all this feedback? Well the first question is: do you understand it? If not, make a note of what you don’t understand. This is something you can email or call your tutor about. Or you can chat to your online study group. Next question: do you agree with it? If not, again, you can contact your tutor or ask your online study group. Now remember, if you’re a distance learner, your tutor can clarify their feedback by email, video calling or messaging online. Make sure you get everything cleared up. Most importantly: what have you learned from this feedback? Ask yourself: what steps can you take to solve problems and improve? You should choose at least one thing from the feedback that you’ll act on. And keep the feedback safe, so you can refer to it later. Because if you follow the suggestions, there’s a better chance of getting one of these in your next assignment…