Anyone else just finding it really hard??

sarah_elton

I graduated from Oxford in 2003. Final year was an absolutely horrendous experience so you have so much sympathy from me.

I didn't have thesis stress as our degrees were marked purely on Final exams. This meant that having written two 2,000 word essays a week for three years straight, none of them counted for anything and all that counted was the marks in a set of eight Finals papers, taken in the course of 10 days at the end of the third year.

We studied our final courses in the first term, then had a full term and a half just for revision and practice. That was the hardest part - trying to knuckle down and revise for exams that were six months away. I think I spent three months procrastinating and panicking about the exams, and three months getting down to it.

I'm a typically girl and find exams ridiculously stressful - I was so taken aback to get into Oxford that I didn't think through the assessment method and how I'd get on with that. :rolleyes:

Everyone there goes a little bit crazy around Finals time. My parents were going through a messy divorce during the year too so it's a year of my life best forgotten.

All I can say is it really is worth it in the end. I got a 2:1 and my degree has opened doors to jobs I never would have got without it. I was tempted at various points as Finals got close to just quit and not do it because I felt like I couldn't cope with it all and I'm so glad I didn't.

Mukaki

I'm just fed up full stop with uni. I started with all good intention bu now, what I want to do doesn't even require me to have a degree! grrr

It's taken me a long time to work out what I really want to be doing career wise (thought I new before I started uni) and now I have, I'm stuck at uni and competely unmotivated.

famous.last.words

Just wondered if anyone else who was feeling down is now feeling much happier to be on the xmas break? deadlines all met, and apart from the occasional creeping feeling of dread about my marks im all good :rotfl:

Thank you for your kind posts Cupid and Sarah, your experiences make me feel much better.

Im sorry to hear your struggling mukaki. If you dont need a degree, and you really hate it, have you considered packing it in?

rustynash

i found uni quite tough, but i never tricked myself into thinking it wasn't going to be (not saying that's what anyone has done)! i left a lot of things late and i didn't even start my final year project until january of this year (we had since september of the previous), mostly due to my laziness and foolishness.

when the new year came around i realised i had to get off my !!!! and do some bloody work, so i did. i proper knuckled down and spent my life in either the laboratory, my bedroom (writing til 4am or later, bleurgh) or a quiet computer room (my friend was on a master's and had 24hr access). the library was full of loud !!!!!!. and i wrote and wrote and wrote.

i ended up with an awesome dissertation in the end, but i put a lot of hours into it and declined offers of boozey nights and fun. it's about finishing your degree now so don't worry about keeping up with engagements, people will understand there is a lot of work to do but just do it. procrastination always happens so i found it good to do some work then fart about and then do some work. a kind of reward system. i also had a couple of friends i would do work with - my mate doing his masters in aerospace engineering and another mate doing his bsc in power engineering. i did medical biology and it was good to be around people in different fields.

oh and by the way, i won the university prize for best dissertation in the end, i got 86% for it! so even if you leave things last minute (or last month, due in date was feb 6th) - if you knuckle down and understand this is your only chance and not feel pathetic about it all, you can do well.

i also got a first class honours and now am (foolishly?) doing a phd in intensive care medicine at a top london university in a nutshell, i was a terrible student but in my last 6 months i turned it all around and you can too. if you want it you can have it!

good luck with all your work and if you need any more help or advice i can try my best to help, just pm me and get me on msn or something.

j0hnyoung

I go to huddersfield university and am in my final year as well,

I find it hard that it just seems to be all work, work work really..

Ive had no pieces of work in this term, all of them in next term, but this involves 4 presentations, 3 assignments and then my dissertation as well, which has to be between 15,000-18,000..

I started up a website, for people to go on and discuss there problems with uni, and to put on advise for other people..Im that busy tho, that I haven't really had time to finish it really..Just got the forum on and that..

I think its hard at really hard at uni, a few of my lecturer's aren't really that supportive, whereas other one's are really supportive..But the one's that aren't supportive are the one's with the most authority! So there's not much I can do really..

Cant wait to finish this year..Im lucky, my dissertation is in 28th april, got 3 exams, then im done! (Hopefully)

rustynash

johnny, my advice would be don't use your time with extra projects - concentrate on your final year! being your final year you have to expect it to be work work work! just try and stay on top of it, it's very easy to be pulled below the depths and that's where you tend to stay..

though saying that i was writing a massive blog at the same time as my final year, oops!

mellymeep

famous.last.words wrote: »

Just wondered if anyone else who was feeling down is now feeling much happier to be on the xmas break? deadlines all met, and apart from the occasional creeping feeling of dread about my marks im all good :rotfl:

Im feeling a lot more optimistic, the essay I was dreading has been finished and handed in last wednesday.. and I am really proud of it. Depsite being stupid and not going to hardly any of the sessions of the module I believe I did pretty well on it. Just looking forward to getting home for christmas now, im still here on my own as all my flatmates have left and im stuck behind because I have to work.

Got my placement to look forward to in January too, its at Eureka! the museum for children in Halifax... its the most magical place on earth (im a big kid at heart!!)

Mukaki

famous.last.words wrote: »

Just wondered if anyone else who was feeling down is now feeling much happier to be on the xmas break? deadlines all met, and apart from the occasional creeping feeling of dread about my marks im all good :rotfl:

Thank you for your kind posts Cupid and Sarah, your experiences make me feel much better.

Im sorry to hear your struggling mukaki. If you dont need a degree, and you really hate it, have you considered packing it in?

Yes I have but keep thinking 'only a few more months to go' (in my 3rd year) so that would be a complete waste. Then there's the fact that I'm going to be paying for the course once I leave anyway so these things are stopping me despite the fact that I don't really need to be doing it.

Suppose I'll just have to get on with it now, I haven't really left myself any choice!

chicacherrycola

Hello all,

I'm am also a final year student just wanted to add a few words to Liz who posted on the first page.

I'm in my 4th year after having a year abroad - i study languages too and i'm so glad that i had that year. It was the most amazing experience and although it was very hard at the beginning i had the best time and will never forget the things i saw and the people i met. Coming back and going back to uni after this time has been so difficult, i'd not written anything academic for over a year and getting back into the swing of lectures and such wasnt fun and i sometimes think if i hadnt gone away i could be working now and have money and my degree would be over BUT i dont ever regret going. Even though i've struggled i know it will all be worth while.

-xXx-

Smidster

Only in my second year but i am in this boat

I don't understand the work but seem to spend every waking moment trying to make some sense of it. Had a lecture today which could have been in another language as it just went soooo far over my head.

Socially it doesn't help I am totally inept when it comes to meeting people and am shy beyond belief but it is definately frustrating.

Money wise not so bad as this term I am trying a more relaxed approach to money - taking the what the heck it is only pieces of paper approach instead of the '10p for that - your having a laugh'