Sometimes it can be challenging to know where to begin with complex tasks like large assignments.   Or it can feel overwhelming dealing with how to break down large, broad tasks into smaller, achievable parts.  If you are concerned about your ability to break down or achieve on time, major course assignments, and you work better in a group or with support from people face-to-face, get in touch early with one of the following avenues of support with your study.

Consider enrolling in a study workshop on campus
If you can manage making time to be on campus for face-to-face workshops, you may find it helpful to look at the Libraries and Learning Services website for Workshop enrolments. Here you will find a range of workshops for undergraduate and postgraduate students that are free to you as a student at the University of Auckland.  For example, search for the one hour workshop "Strategies for succeeding at Univeristy" if you are new to a university study environment.
Gain new skills to help you break down big tasks If you like learning on your own, you may find the resources developed by Libraries and Learning Services will help you on your way.  Visit the University of Auckland's General study skills and exams pages for a range of information and resources you can access in your own time.

Find, read, print and understand your course outline

In week one of the semester, you will be given a course outline - some people call it the course booklet, overview or schedule.  This will be one of your most important course documents to pay attention to.

This course outline may be provided totally online in your online course area through a system called Canvas.  Each of your courses you enrol in will have an online course area in the system Canvas.

In Canvas your course outline may be found in the page called "Syllabus" or your lecturer may provide it as a file that you can download.  

(Note you will only be able to log into Canvas once you are enrolled as a student.  To learn more about the online system Canvas, visit the University of Auckland Canvas information page.)

Or you may be given a printed copy of this overview of course learning activity, lectures, assignments and key due dates.

If you are not provided with a printed copy of your course outline, it is a great idea to print this course outline and have your key dates visible in your work or study area - that way you will know when key lectures / tutorials are scheduled, when readings /activities need to be completed and when assignment due dates are coming up.

It is really important if you do not understand anything in your course outline that you first ask your course lecturer (or tutorial leader) to help you clarify what is required.  They may refer you to other support people, such as Student Learning Advisors or Subject Librarians or MAPAS Advisors for additional help.  If your course lecturer does give you someone's name/details you need to make sure you follow up with those key support people - they are there to help you with your learning.

Find, know, record and break down your assignment deadlines

Break it down

Once you have found your assignment deadlines (due dates) given to you by your course lecturer (in week one of your course you should receive these in your course outline), make contact with the Student Learning Services team or the MAPAS team if you are concerned about your ability to break down any of your assignments or essays into manageable parts.

Whatever system you use to keep track of your commitments - a printed calendar, a paper diary, an online calendar in Google, Outlook or iCalendar - make sure you enter in the key dates for your assignments so you don't miss any due dates. 

Start from the assignment due date and work backwards to break down how many weeks you have available in order to complete the task.  Work out what support you may need and make sure you are leaving enough time to get the help if you need it.  If you can help it, don't wait until the week, or night, before an assignment is due in order to seek support.

Get to know your course outline

Below is an example of a course outline showing weeks, key dates, learning activity, location of lectures and assignment due dates.

Look for key dates and information about where*  and when your course lectures, tutorials and seminars will be run.     Pay attention to advice from your course lecturer about how much time to spend on certain tasks or activities. Your lecturer will provide you with key dates when assignments are due.   It is a good idea to mark these into your printed or online calendars and set some reminders early so you have time to work on them and get support if you need it.

* In the University of Auckland, you will always be given room numbers providing you with the building number first (e.g. 733-201 location means - 733 is in Tamāki campus).  Then the room number is listed second (e.g. 733-201 location means - 201 is a level 2 room in the Tamāki campus building 733).

If you don't know where your course room is you can visit the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences "Campus Information" pages to help you to navigate around Grafton and Tamāki campuses. 

A big part of doing well in postgraduate study is learning to 'decode' what your course lecturer is asking you to do and demonstate in your course assignments.  Your assignments are where you show you've understood your course lecturers, tutorials, readings and learning activities and synthesised those into new learning for yourself.

It goes without saying that you just can't do a good job on a large assignment or essay by doing it the night, or even the week, before ... not with something that will require careful planning, reading, thinking, editing, re-writing and more thinking!

That's where it is really imporatnt to be able to break down your assignments into manageable chunks and stick to completing the smaller tasks that will allow you to achieve a successful end result.

One of the most important parts to get right is to: understand what your assignment is asking you to research, explore or do.

Understand what the assignment question or topic is about

Understanding what your assignment is about and in which ways it relates to your course learning gives you a good start with figuring out how to approach completing each assignment.

A great resource to help you with figuring out your topics to research for assignments is shown below - it has been developed by Subject Libriarians in the Philson Library, at the University of Auckland's Libraries and Learning Services.  This detailed resource is called the "Medical and Health Information Skills Online" resource. For now, just have a look at one page, shown below, that helps you to clarify your research question or area to search for information.

Clarify your assignment question or topic

Click on the image below to see an example of support pages from the Medical & Health Information Skills Online resource.

Remember, you can meet with a librarian one-on-one, email them for help if you get stuck or attend a workshop to gain more skills in these areas of breaking down assignments and making sense of your assessment or research questions.   Keep in mind, we don't expect you to be an expert at all of this when you start your postgrad study.  But we do expect you to find help when you need it.

Once you know more about what your assignment is asking you to do, research or summarise, it is important to know how to approach breaking down the tasks you will need to do in order to complete an essay, report or presentation.  Usually this will involve searching for relevant literature or other evidence/research to back up any ideas you present.

You can learn more about how to effectively search for information in the last Section called "Academic Capabilities" of these Online Question Resource Links Pages - go to the page called "Searching for Information" to learn more.

For now, have a look at the Information Cycle image below, or visit that page from the Medical and Health Information Skills Online Resource.  You will  be expected to carry out this type of Information Cycle for major assignment work in your postgrad programme.

Click on the image below to see an example of support pages from the Medical & Health Information Skills Online resource.

Think like a project manager

¹ Emily Vanburen. (2014, April 2). Taking It One Step at a Time: Breaking Apart Big Tasks. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.gradhacker.org/2014/04/02/taking-it-one-step-at-a-time-breaking-apart-big-tasks/

Postgraduate students are encouraged to create new ideas and perspectives in their work, and not just consume knowledge.  Access the links below to learn more about how to connect with an active academic community, and explore what research interests you might pursue in future study.

Set up alerts to receive new literature relevant to your study.  Do this by visiting the Libraries and Learning Services information pages (for Business students but open to all students) where you can learn about how to set up: Search alerts Citation alerts Track your research impact Learn about making, and finding, research that is Open Access