Reading and understanding assessment feedback is an important learning process, it's also a great way to easily improve your marks on the next assessment!

So, here are some great tips to help you to view your assessment feedback as a process for meaningful learning, rather than just seeing the result or mark.

1. Why is feedback important?

Effective feedback is important because it supports you to identify:

• Where am I going? (What are the goals?)
• How am I going? (What progress is being made towards the goal?)
• Where to next? (What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress?)

2. How to learn constructively through assessment feedback

Managing feedback involves accepting it objectively and calmly, which can be challenging but it's achieved by reading over the feedback once and then returning to it the next day. This develops your ability to absorb the feedback better and identify solutions and actions to be more successful in your work.

When reading your feedback, don’t forget to ask yourself questions to prompt your self-reflection and help you to proactively learn, such as:

• What are my strengths in this process - what have I done well?
• What are my skills and behaviours that need improvement and development - how could I learn and grow?

3. It's time to change your perception of feedback

Feedback gives you an opportunity to celebrate your skills and focus on the areas where you can progress. Reframe your thinking towards receiving your assessment feedback by:

• Checking and changing your automatic self-talk - conscious and deliberate, positive self-talk is effective to replace the mind chatter that limits you and makes you feel negative.
• Using constructive self-talk - encourage and affirm helpful thoughts to reprogram your thinking about your abilities and situation using constructive reframing, such as "Just making a start by looking at my feedback means I’m one step closer to improving my skills and learning.” or "If I focus on reading the feedback objectively about the task, rather than personally, I’ll manage the advice better and use it to develop my academic skills. This will improve my work for the next assessment”.

4. Turn feedback into goals to improve your work

We know this is easier said than done because sometimes it's hard to make sense of the feedback or how to improve it. That's where you can get further support and advice developing your academic skills by asking your friendly USC Learning Advisers.

Good constructive feedback is specific. So, to get better feedback, you need to ask specific questions. For example, rather than asking in a consult "Can you have a read and just tell me what you think?", it is more targeted to ask, "How do I link my ideas between sentences?" or “Have I clearly signposted to the reader the main focus and ideas of the question”.

5. Don’t forget to use Studiosity as a tool for assessment feedback on writing

Don't lose marks on simple things like spelling, grammar and sentence structure - use live chat with a Studiosity educator or upload your document to Studiousity for additional feedback outside of business hours.

Check out this student video on their experience with using Studiosity to improve work. Good luck with your next assessment!