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29 October 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
Exam read more
Once you have done all your exam preparation, it is imperative to make sure that you curb your stress levels as much as possible on the day that you have to write. The calmer you are, the better the outcome!
Final exam season has arrived at the University of the Free State (UFS), and we would like to share a few quick and easy tips you can follow to ensure that you make it through successfully!
Here’s how you can beat exams: 

Step 1: Make sure that you prepare well beforehand to give yourself enough time to study. Prepare a study schedule that fits your way of studying, and do not leave anything for the last minute. It is probably easier to thrive on last-minute studying, but often this way of partial study is not the best approach for exam prep. Prioritise your studying based on how many exams you have, how many pages you have to learn, and the days you have left to study. 

Step 2: Study and practise your work using previous exam papers. This will help you see and understand the format and formulation of possible questions, and can aid you in knowing what to expect, and help you practise and estimate how much time you should spend on answering each question.

Step 3: Eat healthy and use your study/friend groups as a stimulant. Make sure to stock up and energise yourself with a lot of water and nutritional study snacks to extend your concentration and commitment to studying. Avoid overeating and consuming rich, fatty foods that will make you feel tired and sleepy. Likewise, studying in groups can also help you get the answers you need and finish tasks faster. You may have questions that your friends have the answers to, as long as you effectively plan how much time you spend deliberating on a question.

Last but not least, make sure that you give yourself regulated study breaks between various chapters or topics, and let your brain take it all in!

Please find the official end-of-year exam timetable here.

News Archive

IRSJ marks five years of championing social justice
2016-08-12

Description: IRSJ 5 year Tags: IRSJ 5 year

Members of the Advisory Board of the IRSJ,
Prof Michalinos Zembylas (Open University
of Cyprus), Prof Shirley Anne Tate (Leeds
University, England), and Prof Relebohile
Moletsane (University of KwaZulu-Natal),
listen to a speaker on the programme.
 Photo: Lihlumelo Toyana

The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) marked its fifth anniversary with a function on 27 July 2016 in the Reitz Hall of the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). Earlier that day, the Advisory Board of the IRSJ, chaired by Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, hosted their annual meeting.

A new book was also launched, co-authored by JC van der Merwe, Deputy-Director at the IRSJ and Dionne van Reenen, researcher and PhD candidate at the IRSJ. It is entitled Transformation and Legitimation in Post-apartheid Universities: Reading Discourses from ‘Reitz’. The function featured not only reflections on the IRSJ, but a four-member panel discussion of the book and higher education in 2016.

The IRSJ came into being officially at the UFS in January 2011. Prof André Keet, Director of the IRSJ, said: “With a flexibility and trust not easily found in the higher education sector, the university management gave us the latitude and support to fashion an outfit that responds to social life within and outside the borders of the university, locally and globally.”

The IRSJ has not hesitated to be bold and
courageous in reforming ... traditional policies."

 

Prof Jansen went on to mention three things he finds appealing about the IRSJ: “Thanks to Prof Keet and his team’s vision and understanding of how important it is for students to have a space in which they can learn how to be, learn how to think, and learn how to contribute, the IRSJ has become a place where students can learn about things that they might not learn in the classroom. Second, it created, for the first time, a space where members of the LGBTIQ community could gather in one place. And third, it speaks to the intellectual life of the university, as evidenced by the research and publications produced over the past few years.”

Prof Jansen added: “The IRSJ will only be successful to the extent that we have safe spaces, courageous spaces, in which not only black students talk to themselves, but where black and white students talk together about their difficulties. If you’re entangled, you can’t get out of [that] unless you speak to the other person.”

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Prof Michalinos Zembylas of the Open University of Cyprus and member of the Advisory Board, said of the IRSJ: “The works produced by the institute in this short time have been valuable to this community and beyond, because they recognise the complexities of education, ... while pushing the boundaries of how to translate theoretical discussions into practical, everyday conditions. ... For example, the IRSJ has not hesitated to be bold and courageous in reforming some traditional policies in this university—remnants of an ambivalent past that reproduced inequality and disadvantage.

In reflecting on how the IRSJ came into being during her opening remarks, Dr Lis Lange, Vice-Rector: Academic at the UFS, said that it has always been “dedicated to transformation.” She added that it “gathered the energy and creativity of some of our most promising student leaders.” She concluded: “For me, the greatest success of the Institute, besides publications and local and international networks, is the fact that something that started in the margins is being asked today to come closer to the centre, to play a larger role in the structural transformation of the university.”

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