It’s nearly the end of term!

It’s now week 8 of the second term and I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that I’m now over halfway through my first year at Uni, how time flies! With just over 2 weeks left, I know we’re all looking forward to a relaxing Easter break before the final term starts. But this is also the time when everything starts to get serious: deadlines build up, work needs to be finished and the end of term exams are just around the corner, so it seems appropriate to finally approach the topic of how you’re assessed on the Linguistics with Spanish course.

Just last week I submitted my first essay for the Language in Society module and with only 1000 words to write it eased me back into my essay writing zone quite well. The essays you have to write for the course are usually between 1000-3000 words and so far I haven’t struggled to meet the word limit at all. The best thing about the assessments this year is that you have 2 essays per module but the first one is always a practise essay. This gives you the perfect chance to test out your new knowledge and get feedback on how to improve.

My Spanish language module also has practise assessments and last term these were only about 500 words long, meaning I could concentrate on the quality of my work rather than worry about word limits. This term, however, I’ve also had a practise Spanish listening and writing exam which was daunting but gave me even more practise at writing on the spot within a time limit…and it wasn’t too difficult either! Spanish does, however, have end of term exams (unlike the Linguistics modules) so I’m now starting to go over my revision for week 10. Last term the exam was difficult but this year’s grades don’t count towards my overall degree so it’s reassuring to know I can improve on my work without worrying about resits.

Hopefully this has given you the reassurance that the essays and exams this year (while sometimes difficult) are definitely doable and aren’t something to have sleepless nights over! Work hard, revise well and you’ll have no problems at all!

Until next time, Beth.

PS. I’ll try not to approach the scary topic of exams again for a while, so you can relax!