By the tiswa editorial team, from the official sources listed at the end of this guide. How we write our guides
A titration report is due Sunday, a new experiment starts Tuesday, and the written exam for the same course is on Thursday. The lab does not wait, the report eats the night, and the exam asks things like “why was this solution used?” This is an invented example to show the method. The common mistake in a week like this is to treat reports as a burden separate from revision, when they are the nearest thing you have to exam questions.
How do you organise study time between a report, a lab and an exam?
Start from weights and dates. Open the course outline and write down what the reports, any practical exam and the written exam are worth. Put all the dates on one sheet. The report due Sunday takes its hours first, but make one block inside it a revision block: you do not write, you explain the reason for each step to yourself and redo the calculations.
| Date | What is waiting | Where revision fits |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Report on an earlier experiment | Redo the calculations from raw data in a separate block |
| Tuesday | New experiment | Answer the pre-lab questions from memory |
| Thursday | Written exam | Test yourself on the why of every earlier experiment |
The table is an example. Take your real dates from the official course schedule.
Study revision tips: how do you turn lab reports into a question bank?
Open your last three reports and turn each section into a question. The aim becomes “what does this experiment measure, and why?”. The method becomes “which step would ruin the result if you skipped it?”. The results become “calculate the value from the raw data”. The discussion becomes “what are the sources of error and how do they change the result?”. People who write written lab exams like these, and they are sharper than any general summary.
- Gather your papers
Marked reports, instructor comments, pre-lab questions and the lab manual.
- Flag your losses
Every deduction or comment is a score-1 topic.1
- Turn sections into questions
Aim, step, calculation and source of error for each experiment.
- Answer from memory
Close the files and write the answer, then compare and note what you missed.
- Redo calculations by hand
From raw data to the result and unit, with pen and paper.
An example for one section, invented as before. In an acid-base titration you recorded the base volume at the end point over three trials. The exam might ask: why repeat the trial three times, why take the mean, and what does reading the burette from the wrong eye level do to the result? If you write those three questions yourself from your report and answer them aloud, you have revised the whole section in ten minutes. That beats rereading the report twice.
Mind map revision has a place here too. Draw the experiment in the centre, branch out aim, apparatus, steps and sources of error, then close it and redraw it from memory. Whatever you cannot recall is the topic that needs another session. If you cannot order your week, ask the lab supervisor or a more advanced student which experiments weigh most, without asking for actual exam questions.
Why redo lab calculations by hand?
Calculations are where the small marks that lower a grade disappear. Redo one calculation from every experiment: a mean, a deviation, a concentration, a unit conversion. Also redraw the apparatus or the procedure from memory and compare it with the original. Unit and diagram errors show up on paper faster than on a calculator, which should only be your check.
Let repeated errors guide you. If you wrote the wrong unit in three reports, it is a habit, not a missing fact. Write your three recurring mistakes at the top of your revision sheet and check them before every answer.
How do you revise lab safety without memorising it blindly?
Safety gets asked often and forgotten often. Tie each rule to its reason: why goggles in this experiment in particular? What happens if you add acid to water the wrong way round? A rule tied to a reason survives when the question is reworded. We do not list safety rules here: your lab has its own manual, which is the reference, and if you are unsure, ask the lab supervisor.
For the practical exam itself, where your hands are assessed, the broader guide is a study plan for practical courses. Medical laboratory students will find the preparation side in the first practical course checklist.
Three mistakes show up again and again in lab courses. One is copying a classmate’s numbers into a report and then finding in the exam that you do not know where they came from. Another is ignoring the red-pen comments because the mark is already recorded. The third is revising theory only and skipping the lab because it is “practical”. None of this applies if your exam is entirely hands-on with no written part; use the practical course plan instead.
What if you only have three days left?
Day one goes to the score-1 topics: calculations and reasons. Day two to pre-lab questions and answering from memory. Day three to a timed self-test built from your three reports. Do not start a new report on the last day, which is the worst time to write one. For one last pass before the paper, the night before an exam covers what to do and what to leave. With several courses at once, see splitting study time between subjects.
Remember sleep. The NHS advises regular sleep times and no screens for an hour before bed,3 and the UNC Learning Center notes that short breaks restore focus in long sessions.2 After two hours of calculations, stand up for five minutes.
