Preparing for the Masters

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I’m lucky in that I knew roughly what modules and some of the novels and other literature I would be studying well before I went to do my Masters degree. Obviously that isn’t the case for everyone and also sometimes the courses change before you get there but this is a small guide on how I prepared for the masters and some useful things to do. These can also be applied to preparing for each year of your uni course or even going back to school.

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First steps first. And the first thing to do when you’re going into any of these situations is to

Get Organised!

1. I’d recommend starting a Bullet Journal to keep track of everything that’s going to be thrown at you over the year. Deadlines, homework (or the stuff you should really look up!), appointments and more. All of that can be managed using this. Check out my post about exactly how to set up and use the BuJo but for now make a weekly ‘spread’ or a page to note down what you have going on during each day of the week, a section for general tasks (with no specific deadlines) and anything else you need for the week. I use an A5 book so take one page for the weekly and one page for having a habit tracker, section for work, section for projects, a notes section and something to write down details for hobbies.

2. I take a lot more notes using my laptop or Rocketbook Everlast than I do on paper I can put into a file but I still set one up. Every so often I’ll print out notes and put them in there to keep track and have notes I can highlight and mark up if needed. At the start of a year / a semester grab a big lever arch file and some file dividers. I have sections for each class, a section for extra curricular work I’ll be doing and a section for things like timetables, relevant information to the uni year and so on.

Now that you’re organised the next step is to

Plan and Study

Start off by looking at what classes you’re going to be taking over the year. If you already know which ones are first semester then focus on those first. Start out by having a couple of relaxed study sessions planned; these are the times you’re going to use to find out what the rest of your prep work should focus on. If your class is ‘Poetry through the Ages’ for example, a great way to prepare would be looking at timelines of poetry and literary movements.

Background knowledge rarely goes amiss.

I usually have a section in my file for the semester dedicated to notes I took in preparation for each class. It’s a good way to look back at what you knew before the class started and keep track of how much you’re learning and anything that differs between what you first read and what you know after the class.

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When I get my syllabus for each class I’ll come back to these plans that I made and I’ll make a note of which things I have prep work for and which I need to do more research for too. I’ll also make a syllabus which includes all of the courses, what we’ll be studying each week/ day, and what dates things need to be done by. Over the year this pretty much becomes my god. All the literature I need to read is clearly displayed, as are deadlines and classes so I know if I miss a class exactly what I need to catch up on.

So … how do you make notes on literature for a class you haven’t taken?

You first have to read the novel or poem or play or whatever it is. I’d suggest making notes as you go; what hits you when you first read it, but not making these notes in the book or on your paper, I’d use a notebook or word document. After this the harder parts come so take the time to enjoy this, enjoy getting to the end of the novel and reading over your notes asking yourself how you didn’t realise the killer was X sooner.

Then you:

• make chapter summaries

• make a character list

• write down key information about the novel

• format your initial reactions into some analysis for each chapter.

I usually make a ‘cover page’ with the character list, general summary and key information on it and then the following pages are chapter summaries and analysis. Doing this before you go to class really cuts down on the time you spend reading and gives you a good start to forming arguments and being able to discuss the novel. Before class you read over your notes and head in feeling more prepared than if you had scrambled to finish the novel on the bus ride in and only managed three chapters.

And that’s it!

I made sure I was organised, had a Bullet Journal and file set up for the year, planned out study sessions and started the reading I had early. I got all of the boring, time consuming work done like making that syllabus so that once I actually got back to university I could devote my time to actually studying and doing work.

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