Adapting to home life and term 3 prep!
One thing that I find the hardest is coming back home from university. Being out of the loop back home makes you forget how different it is living independently at university. Simple things like, eating times, what you eat, when you go to bed, how you talk even the clothes you wear might have changed and your friends and family back home will have noticed this difference. Some members may embrace it, others will have some sort of criticism. Criticism is good, it helps you learn and grow further. It can also help to consolidate your own beliefs and lifestyle. Take everything as it comes and you must remember not everything needs a reaction.
Work habits need to change. It’s almost impossible to work in my household, just because I have a very busy and hectic family life. I love it, it keeps me active and I’m spending quality time with the people who have made the person I am today. However, it’s hard trying to adjust your time schedule with everyone else. When you’re spending time with friends and family you can’t help but think about that assignment or set of revision notes you should be working on. This is where the beauty of sacrifice and multitasking takes place. Some meet ups you’re going to have to reject or arrange to see multiple friends at one time. Even if you have different groups of friends who don’t know each other, trust me it’s interesting and fun when you all hang out together- you all will have a common aspect otherwise you wouldn’t have chosen them to be your friends. So by saving time you’ve created more time for you to dedicate on your work.
Staying focused. Working at home either can be easy for you since you have fewer distractions because you have no lectures, no society events or labs/seminars. However, the sun is out, your brain might get into summer mode too early, this happens to me on a daily basis! But if this happens you need to have some self-discipline and get your act into gear. Tell friends and family about your deadlines/exams so they can check up on you. Set yourself little deadlines and checklists to complete on a weekly basis. Revision should be a steady process. I’m a person that gets bored very easily, so I dedicate days for my work. I set checklists for the specific revision day and I aim to complete everything on that list in that day. I’m not a person who can study a little bit each day because I lose interest so easily. It’s important to understand your work habits and stick to what suits you.
Re-read old essays and feedback. Your exams are the last chance to boost up your grades for the year. You must have a sound understanding of the content covered in the year by the time you get back from the holidays. Then practice exam technique during the term. (That’s the goal). Ask your tutor plenty of questions, I can’t stress this enough. Your tutor is going to mark your exam, you need to understand what they are looking for. There aren’t past mark schemes for us to memorise. We need to figure out the correct style and way to approach exam essay questions.
RELAX! have faith in your own work, enjoy the learning. That’s how you develop original ideas….perfect ingredient for a first class essay. Talk about your topics with other people, create posters whatever that will keep it interesting for you. But also, enjoy your break. Refresh and recharge, term 3 is going to be tough.
