Description. What happened? Remind yourself what you were intending to do in a study session – what were you hoping to achieve? What did you do / not do? Where did it take place? When did it take place? Was anyone else there?
Feelings. What were you thinking and feeling? Your emotions and feelings can affect your actions. How did you feel about your goal? For example, were you looking forward to this topic? Had you any preconceived ideas about the topic? What sort of day outside of study had you had (e.g. productive day at work, difficult day juggling external demands?)
Evaluation. What was good and bad about the situation? You need to be honest with yourself. What worked well? Why was this? What didn’t work so well? Why was this?
Analysis. What sense can you make of the situation? What do you think contributed to your feelings and overall evaluation? Did you bring any assumptions into the task? Do you have any new insights now you’ve attempted the task?
Conclusion. What else could you have done? What sense can you make of the session? Could you have done anything differently? What have you learnt about how you study?
Action plan. If the situation arose again, what would you do? A take home point summing up what you will do differently next time. It might be that everything went well – and you don’t need to change anything – that’s fabulous!