Making the most of formative feedback is one of the most simple yet effective ways of boosting your academic confidence and grades. While university demands a high level of academic independence, you do receive a level of support once you have produced your work. The feedback you receive offers beneficial insights that will help you to improve your skill and technique. It’s important to harness the comments given and use them to your advantage as it will ultimately shape your academic progress.
I’ve received feedback in a number of forms. Almost always, your teacher will leave written comments on your work, much like in school. These comments often draw attention to the main structural issues and the fundamental changes that should be made to improve your grade. I recommend utilising this feedback as a reference point for your future essays throughout the year.
The comments are a great starting point as they set out the general rules that you should follow to effectively transition to university level work. Coming out of school, your style of writing is not likely to be exactly what is required at university. You should treat your early formative work as trial runs, to see what works and what does not.
Many teachers give you the opportunity to receive face to face feedback. In this, you will have a set amount of time to go through your essay. If you have a teacher who does not offer this, my advice is to book an office hour, which essentially has the same function. Face to face feedback is extremely valuable to your learning as it often allows you to get into the fine details of your subject and specific areas where you may have gone wrong. It allows you to process a topic one on one with a professional in the field, which is not something you will get the opportunity to do much otherwise.
I certainly think it is worth redoing your work to some extent with the feedback you receive. Often, teachers are happy to look over a reworked version of a task. Of course, as a busy student, you may not have time for such. A good alternative is to simply map out a new essay plan with the provided suggestions or go over the concept a few times to cement it.
It is, however, very important not to let your feedback impact you mentally. For your first formative essay or piece of work, the feedback is definitely more valuable than the grade itself, which doesn’t count towards your final mark. It’s easy to see a score that you may not be happy with and let this dictate your feelings towards the subject, or let it reduce your motivation. It’s equally important to not let negative comments demoralise you. It’s far better to approach feedback professionally and not take it to heart. Instead, simply take advantage of the direct help you are offered.
Formative work is the perfect opportunity to try out different methods and styles of work. It offers you practice runs for summative tasks with good support from your professors. I urge you to do your formative work and deeply consider every comment given by your professors. I can guarantee that this will dictate an upward trajectory in your grades and academic confidence.
