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How are you feeling about going back to studying

SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
edited March 27 in Work & Study
Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I am not studying anymore, but I do miss uni. I'm interested to see how other feel about starting studying again, because i know that when I would go back to uni, I had alot of feelings.
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Laura_tigger82Laura_tigger82 Moderator Posts: 5,086 Part of The Furniture
    Hi @SirArchibald,

    Thanks for your post. It is a really relevant one for me. I went back to uni on Monday to start my final year of a MA programme. I had the typical nerves. However, I have now settled back in as it has become incorporated into my routine again. How are you? :)
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  • FriendlyneighbourFriendlyneighbour Posts: 34 Boards Initiate
    I'm doing a distance learning degree while working a full time job. I've found it difficult to keep a work life balance due to the amount of studying I needed to do. I felt the stress it was causing me was unhealthy but lockdown gave me the chance to reevaluate and decide that the degree actually wasn't right for me, so I've recently decided to give it up but if I hadn't I can imagine I would be a bit anxious about all the workload.
  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    Hi @Laura_tigger82, super cool that you are doing your masters. I was really nervious going into my final year, but it was really exciting and I loved the freedom I got while doing my diss and choosing my own modules. I imagine you get alot more freedom during your masters.It good that you are settling into your routine, I found staying in my routine really good for helping me stay productive How are you finding your masters?
  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @JaySpender I remember my 1st lecture of my final year, it was online tho. I am glad you are looking forward to your lectures, it really cool that you cna have them in person. It is really nice to get into that learning mindset and i think being in a lecture hall really helps with that, harder to get disctracted! In some of my online lectures I would just play on my switch, I would not recommened that =)
    I studied psychology at uni, I really enjoyed it too.
  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @Friendlyneighbour, yeah, i can imagine that working full time and doing a degree would put an insane amount of work and stress on you. I'm glad you put yourself first and had made a decision that fits you. There are definitely people I know who did a degree just because and they really did not enjoy it, so I think you saved yourself alot of pain and stress. There are some many option other than degree and you are right, you can always come back to and try it again when you have less of work load.
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  • Laura_tigger82Laura_tigger82 Moderator Posts: 5,086 Part of The Furniture
    Hi @SirArchibald,

    Glad you feel it went well for you and that you enjoyed it! Do you mind me asking what your dissertation was about? Just intrigued.

    In terms of the Masters, we get freedom in the sense of the topic we choose to focus on. It is quite rigid in terms of the lessons and core reading list. It is very tiring but more than worth it in the end! Also, very interesting content because I am at the stage where I have chosen my specialism (SEN) and can just focus on narrowing it down for each assessment. At the moment, my focus is dyspraxia in primary schools and it is really fascinating as I have only supported learners with dyspraxia in secondary schools previously :)

    Also @JaySpender, as long as you plan it out and work on it in advance and one step at a time, you will be just fine. For example, whilst you can't get started on the results, data collection or data analysis early, you can get started on the literature review early and you can spread out the reading and the writing for the ethics process. It is a lot of pressure they put on you but, when it comes down to it although it is worth more than some of your other assessments, it is not the only thing included in your final grade. Does your university take into account your results from the first year and second year too?

    Good luck everyone! <3
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  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @JaySpender. I was the same way with online lectures, I hope your lectures are going well.
    At first with my diss, it was a bit daunting with how much I had to do, I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it in time. But my university gave alot of support and guidance through our final year diss, which was really helpful. I also had a really good project supervisor. So this gave me confidence to start as I new that I could ask for help if i needed it.
    I did alot of research at first and did it pretty soon after starting my final year, i did a like 2 months of just reading before starting my diss, so I was really well informed.
    Form me the biggest block was actually starting writing, i had no idea where to start and i felt alot of pressure to get started, but once I did start writing it, it was much less pressure.
    Advice i would give is start early, once you know what your doing start doing a little bit of reading and once you feel well informed enough you can start making a plan. I broke my plan up into intro, methods, analysis and discussion. I then further broke it up into the topic I wanted to cover in each section. Finally, i think its good to finish your diss early if you can, because then you can spend some time re-reading it and editing it. I finished mine, left it for a day or 2 and then re-read it and edited it. This helped me as I could check for errors that i missed previously.
    Another bit of advice is get a referencing tool, i used mendely and it was sooo god, cut dow n my refencing time massively!
  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @Laura_tigger82 In my diss I was got to pick a question and could look then tweak it if I wanted to, and it was up rto me about how i approached it and collected the data ect ect. I did psychology so I was we did an experiment, collected the data and analysised it. I quite enjoyed working with the data.
    My diss was on how cognitive control is affected by food addiction. In it i defined cognitive control as process like inhibition control and suppression. I separated participant into low and high food addiction using a questionnaire. I showed participants pics of food and measured their reaction time to task done after showing them the food pic. This was all done on a laptop. It was so interesting reading about food addiction, its somewhat similar to substance abuse disorders, as it cause the brain to release alot of dopamine.
    Unfortunately our result didn't find anything to support our hypothesis, but I learnt alot from my diss and am happy with how it turned out.
    Your diss sounds really interesting and its super cool that you've been able to expand your study to primary schools. Are you getting to work with children in the primary or just looking at research written about them?
    I can imagine that a master is alot of work, my friend is doing one and she has a big workload. But its good that you are enjoying it and it is definitely worth the work and effort you're putting into it.
  • Laura_tigger82Laura_tigger82 Moderator Posts: 5,086 Part of The Furniture
    Hi @SirArchibald,

    Oh, your research sounds interesting. I would be particularly fascinated to know whether particular foods (e.g. foods with food colouring and additives) are more likely to be classified in the more addictive group. I know I am attracted to sugary foods! How did you find the structure of the dissertation and choosing a question?

    In terms of the dyspraxia assessment, it is not my dissertation yet, unfortunately! But it is still interesting and based on research written about them. I am finding out so much more =)
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  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @Laura_tigger82
    I was kind of given the topic of cognitive control and addiction and at first we wanted to do loook at drug addiction but i was told that that wasn't possible for ethical reasons. I didn't find it too hard, the .hardest part for me was doing the result section as I didn't now what to write or how to write it. Luckily that was the part that i was given the most support with.
    How is your masters going?
  • JamestbankstonJamestbankston Posts: 2 Newbie
    Yeah I still remmeber those days.
  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @Jamestbankston . Sometimes I still feel like im uni student with essay and then I remember i have been a student for months! :p
  • La_LaLa_La Posts: 156 Helping Hand
    I am in a similar position. University has many ups and downs.
    Personally, I want to avoid it for now.
    ~ Dreamer ~
  • SirArchibaldSirArchibald Posts: 75 Budding Regular
    @La_La Thats understandable you have to do what is good for you.
  • La_LaLa_La Posts: 156 Helping Hand
    @SirArchibald That's true! All the best to you as well. University definitely has some very good positives, I think that both options are fine.
    ~ Dreamer ~
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