are you gettting any....
        feedback?
Feedback - whether critical or full of praise - is vital information about how you’re progressing as a student; it can tell you:

> how well you have understood something (a concept, a body of knowledge)
> how well you’ve learnt how to do something (a skill, thought process, technique)
> how well you’ve performed on all or part of a particular task or assignmen

It’s basically a check on whether you’re learning to the standard you’re aiming at, and a guide to where and how you might be able to improve.

Your grade isn’t just a number - it’s the comments too. If you read the feedback and understand it, it can enhance your overall performance, improve the quality of specific pieces of work, or help you to reach a particular target.

How do I know if I’m getting any?

> make sure you know when, where and how you’ll be getting feedback on each of the modules you’re taking. Every module should give that information in its handbook or website. There may also be informal feedback in tutorials or in lab sessions
> be aware that other students may give you feedback too; some modules specifically include peer-feedback and peer-assessment as this helps students to appreciate what can be achieved, and to really engage with marking criteria and standards.

Use it!

> Check that you can make sense of the feedback you get – maybe refer back to assignment guidelines, or marking criteria, to ‘decode’ comments that you’ve been given.

> Think about where, when and how you’ll be able to put the feedback to good use – usually your next essay, lab report or exam. When you start a new piece of work make sure you look at the feedback you received last time. How can you build on the strong points? Are there sources of help you could tap into on particular weaknesses (friends, other staff in the School, your Adviser, or the experts in SALTIRE, for example)?

I want more...
If you’re not clear about the feedback you happen to be given, or not happy with it, you can actively seek out more feedback. You could ask someone to explain a comment that wasn’t obvious to you - feedback should be a dialogue.

Feedback should always be constructive, focused and meaningful – highlighting what’s going well and what can be improved, and should always be provided in a timely manner to allow you to apply it to future assessments. You could also indicate, when you hand in a piece of work, what you’d most like to get feedback on; sometimes you may be explicitly asked to do this.

If you aren't happy with the feedback you have been given, talk to your tutor about it - or if not, your School President.

What about exams?

You can always get feedback on how you did in your exams and will ALWAYS be able to look at your exam script free of charge (although you may have to pay to take a copy away with you). This is a really important way to see how you performed under exam conditions, what you wrote, and what the examiner thought. Ask your tutor or school secretary.

Questions? Concerns? Get in touch with Sam on dorep@st-andrews.ac.uk.