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CLaSS Student Resources: Understanding Feedback

Understanding Feedback


You submit your work and you get your marks back, but then what? Or, perhaps your lecturer or supervisor makes a comment about your progress, but you aren't sure what to do about it. Use the resources below to turn your feedback into action, and ultimately improve your skills for your next assignment. 

Take action from your feedback

Your lecturers will provide both positive and critical feedback. Generally, the positive feedback is easy to understand, but sometimes the critical feedback can be unclear or can use terminology that is not so easy to understand. Try to identify the main points in the feedback and think about what your tutor actually means. This can be challenging as your tutor may be using phrases and words that you may not fully understand to begin with. 

Use the search tool below to understand how to take action from your tutors feedback comments. 

 

Working with feedback to improve your grades

Throughout your studies you will be receiving various forms of feedback. Much of the formal feedback that you receive will be focused around your assessments. Feedback often takes the form of comments from your tutors about where you did well and not so well in your assessments. But your feedback may also indicate where you are in relation to your learning goals and objectives, any gaps that you may have in your knowledge and understanding, misconceptions that you may have regarding core theoretical concepts, or gaps in certain practical skills. 

Feedback is an essential component of effective learning

Feeding forward: Creating a personal development plan

  • Make sure you understand your feedback and can see why your tutors are saying what they are saying.
  • Create a logging system. Include your own reflection and ideas for what you need to do to improve.
  • As you build up your feedback, start to collate it to show recurring themes and comments.
  • Use your collated feedback as a guide and checklist when planning, preparing and reviewing your work.