Ah, I know the feeling!! We all start with good intentions but it's hard to keep them up! When you read something in a book/journal that makes you stop and think 'this could be useful', mark the page with one of those little Post-It notes, with a word or two summing up the content OR which assignment you think it might be useful for.

I find I have the same problem with the writing. I always think, 'this time I'll start straight away' but it usually overlaps with another assignment that's due in before the one I've just been given. The best thing is to start drafting an assignment asap, I find. Even if it doesn't make a lot of sense to begin with, the more you write then the more detail you can get down. Then it's a matter of editing until you're happy you've got the final draft. Sometimes I know next to nothing about a subject - I'll read maybe three related book chapters and start writing. Sometimes I lift paragraphs directly from books BUT I always MARK THEM with a line like 'directly lifted from such-and-such' so that I know I need to paraphrase it and don't use work that is not my own.

I think, at the end of the day, everyone finds a way that works for them. No matter how much some tutors would like us to all learn and study in the same way, it just doesn't work!! For instance, I find I work best if I work in the middle of the night/early morning and if I write everything up in long-hand first!

The one thing I will say is every time you read a book/journal/web page, make clear notes for your references. There's nothing more annoying than borrowing a book from the library, coming to the end of your essay and realising you haven't got the date it was published! Meantime, another students borrowed it and you then have to trawl the internet to find the details you ommitted!!!! VERY annoying! :-)

Hope this is of some help!! Best of luck!

Felicity x

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Student on the Access to Health Studies course at Somerset College 2008/09!!