Assessment that determines my career

Dandelion

I debated making this as I know it’s quite confusing and probably won’t make sense to people but I just really needed to get it out.

So I’m at uni and my degree is 4 years long I’m in my third year atm and it’s a placement year. I work in a hospital and during the year I have to complete this portfolio (a collection of like 30 pieces of work I’ve completed throughout the year). I’ve now finished my portfolio but I now have to get it assessed by an external assessor. They basically video call you, you have an interview, you give them a tour of where you work and they assess your portfolio. Mine will be coming up in the next month, I’m not sure when yet.

I’m getting so nervous for it, I don’t even have a date yet but it’s already keeping me up at night and I can feel my anxiety getting worse. I really need to do it and pass it to be able to do the career I want and I know it’s only three hours of my life and when it’s over I’ll feel better. It’s just the fact that I could still have to wait a month for it and I’m already feeling so nervous I don’t want to be feeling like this for a month. I’m hoping that when I get a date and least I’ll know when it is and that might make me feel a bit better.

I just have no idea how to feel better about it, I know it’s a bit of a unique situation but if anyone has any advice I’m fully open. I just need to try and make myself feel better about it cause atm I really feel like I won’t be able to do it.

Past User

Hey @Dandelion, sending you love right now because this is such a draining experience to be going through continuously. I agree that having a date may make you feel better, the uncertainty at the moment must be quite nerve-wracking. These are a few things that have helped me in the past with upcoming assessments:

Practicing some self-validation: look at how far you’ve come through your degree and what you have accomplished. You say you don’t think you can do this, but you wouldn’t be in this position if you were not able to. You are in this position because your abilities got you there! I do appreciate it may be difficult at first, but in time where you feel like you cannot do this try and remind yourself of how you got yourself to this point. When you’re feeling nervous take some time to write a few things down that you’ve done during your degree that you are proud of, e.g. passing your 2nd year!

Another small thing that helps me is planning something to reward myself with after the assessment! It sounds so simple, but it’s another positive thing to focus on about completing the assessment and may even make you look forward to the assessment date!

Wishing you the best of luck ❤️

Laura_tigger82

Hi @Dandelion,

Thanks for reaching out. As a university student myself, I can appreciate the pressure you may currently have. With this pressure comes nerves. I was once told that nerves are an indicator that we care about our work which is evident in your post. Nevertheless, I understand that it can feel uncomfortable to wait for results and it can affect our sleep which is particularly noticeable for long projects, such as your portfolio or dissertation.

Would it be possible for you to confirm the date with a module leader? Typically this information can be found in your module guide but module leaders tend to be happy for you to send them questions. In the meantime, could you reflect on your strengths in the module, aspects of the module you enjoyed, focus on preparing for the next academic year or make plans for your summer before starting your fourth year?

Wishing you all the best with your results!