Hey guys,
I hope that you're all well and that you've had a good week. Mine has been crazy busy and it just flew by.
I'm here today with something a little bit different. It's a tag created by myself about MY university experience to give you a little bit of insight from a student's perspective. I decided to answer questions asked by my friends, peers and people who are looking to go to university and attend open days where I represent my school. Go grab a cup of tea and enjoy.
1. What course have/are you attending?
I'm a second year LLB Law student. In my first year I did LLB Law with Criminology but I decided not to carry the Criminology modules into my second year as I did not enjoy them.
2. What made you pick this course?
I decided to study law as my dream ever since I was a little girl was to become a barrister. As I got older I actually looked into law and I realised that I am really interested in the subject and I even took it on as an A Level in college. I did not do as well in my A Level as I would have liked but I did not lose interest and I think now I'm more passionate about what I'm doing than ever.
3. How do you manage your time?
It's all about planning people. I have this little magical book where I write down EVERYTHING that needs doing, EVERYTHING that needs attending, EVERYTHING that needs to be handed in etc. This magical little book is a planner and it is a life saver. The trick is to write down those things and then to follow through with the Grand Learning Plan when you get back home from your day.
Another sweet tip that I have for you is to utilise your breaks. WTF am I talking about? Well let me explain. You have a lecture from 9-11am, a 1h seminar at 1 and a workshop from 3-5pm. Well that's a lovely amount of break time to be spent with your friends right there, am I right? Nope. My tip is treating those breaks like lesson time and going into the library to go to do your work so that when you get home you can just chill out or go out and have way more fun with your friends than by sitting around in a coffee shop for 2 hours whilst complain about the work you have to do once you go home.
It's basically all about balance. One full day of work means more hours to chill out on the weekend (very useful if you're hungover).
4. What's the workload like?
Well this strictly depends on your choice of course. I have 4 lectures a week and between 3-4 seminars. Some seminars require more work some less. So it really depends on how well I know and understand the topic. At the moment my work load is crazy as on top off the regular work that I have to do I have 3 pieces of coursework to do and a group presentation to do. However it is manageable as long as I plan it right hence why I use my planner so much.
5. Any advice for picking a course and university?
Figuring out what course you'd like to do is the first and most important step. My advice in picking a course that is right for you is looking at what you're interested in, what you're good at and what you would like to do in life. I do recommend wider research into this as there is a world of possibilities out there and they are all worth exploring. I think that this is something that you should seek more objective help in i.e. asking teachers, career spokespeople at your school or university tutors at open day is going to be more beneficial as their opinions will be more neutral. Then you can start thinking about WHERE you'd like to go. Which universities offer the course you're interested in, how far are they, are you going to move out or commute from home and other such questions.
My next food for though is picking a university and a course for the right reasons. The main goal of university is getting a higher level education and a degree. It also costs a lot of money so going to (a) university/course to be with your friends or to experience the 'student life' may not be the arguments to base life decisions on. Lastly and most importantly pick what YOU want to do and not what your mum, dad or great aunt Izzy from Wisconsin wants you to do. They are not the people who will be the ones having to study or work in that particular field so making yourself happy.
I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you found it somewhat helpful. Feel free to ask more questions and I'll see you in my next post.
Mollie
xx
