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If you are in university then you are doubtless aware of how precious the time of your tutor/s is. The amount of time that you get to spend with your tutor in a one-on-one capacity can vary, but it generally varies between hardly any time, and barely any time. This is why it is so much important to make the most of this time. Follow the simple steps in this little manifesto and you will be able to say that when it comes to seeing the tutor, you’ve got it all sewn up.

Be Prepared
If you are working as hard as you should be then you should have a fair idea of where you are at any given time and what it is that you are doing well with, and what it is that you aren’t doing so well with. So let’s take a scenario whereby you see your lecturer for a one-on-one tutorial on a Monday, and then again on a Friday.

Take some prior to the Monday slot (we all like getting the books out on the weekend), to note down what it is that you aren’t doing so well with. You know, the grey areas, the opaque stuff that’s been getting in the way. Write it down in bullet form to make sure you can talk about it all in a concise manner with your lecturer that takes up as little an amount of time as possible. The less time each point takes up, the more you get to discuss.

Make sure that you lay the information out in a way that makes it possible for you to simply fill in the gaps. Write down each problem/query at the top of a page so that as your tutor gives you the information you’re looking for, you can write it straight down. Eventually you’ll have built up a great cache that you can use as a reference, every time you find yourself a bit lost.

Make a Recording.
If your tutor wants to gets the best out of his or her pupils then they should have no problem with you recording them. It isn’t as if you even need to go out of your way to get a diction machine these days, because every modern mobile phone has a voice recording function. If you’ve got all the questions planned out and you record your tutor giving you the answers then you have the information you need and you can listen to it as many times as you want.

Complex things can sometimes take some time to understand. You sometimes have to read a book several times, watch a film several times or listen to something several times, in order for it to give you that eureka moment. If you compare this to listening to your tutor once, without even making any effort to write down what he or she says, then it stands to reason that you’re going to struggle to get the most out of your tutor.

This post was written on behalf of OCVC.