New Years Resolutions.

Hi all, hope you're well and have had a good Christmas!

I've been back home from uni for the past two weeks, enjoying spending time with friends and family who I haven't seen in three long months! I have to admit since being back it has been too easy to slip into old bad habits. Before leaving to come home, I had made a manageable plan of how I was going to carry out doing lots of studying and still find time to spend with family and friends.

However, spontaneous plans with friends and just enjoying the comfort of your own home at Christmas has lead to me failing to study as much as I would have liked.

These are the books I am supposed to be reading over this Christmas break...

These are the book I have read over this Christmas break...

It is now coming up to the new year though, which has lead me to think about what 2014 holds. As a third year Psychology student, there has never been a more important year. This year I am due to graduate and decide what I want to do after finishing university, scary stuff! So I have come up with some new years resolutions for this year, and how I wish to carry them out.

Main Goal: Graduate University with a 2:1
This is the big one, the one all sixteen years of education has been leading to- a degree (hopefully a 2:1). I'm due to graduate in June/July time and if I achieve this it will be my greatest achievement to date, so I have come up with some sub-goals to help me achieve my main goal.

Spend more time studying
I'm not sure exactly how many hours I spend studying, but I know there are a lot more I can put in. I plan to get up early and study in the library before midday lectures and later ones, and to dedicate more weekend time to the library when it is the most quiet.

Do more academic reading
This is something I know I really need to improve on - I need to do much more reading. I plan to try to do academic reading each day, and aim for at least 50 pages per day. I plan to do more reading for exam revision and try to do more reading when I have less assessments.

Not procrastinate with assessments
I often start them early, but when I struggle I put them aside rather than asking for help. I plan to start them early, ask for help when I need it and try to finish them a day or two before they are due.

Get advice on postgraduate study/funding
I'm starting to worry about life after my degree. I know I want to have a career in Clinical Psychology but the path to it is so difficult and confusing I don't know where to start so I plan to get advice from the university about how I should go about getting into Clinical Psychology - and fast!

That is all my goals for now, I just need to stick to them! I hope you all have a great new year and good luck with any new years resolutions you may have.

See you in the new year!

Robyn

My First Blog Post

Hello! Welcome to my first post on this blog! To introduce myself I'm Robyn and I'm a third (and final) year Psychology student studying the straight Psychology course (C800). This course is BPS accredited which is important if you wish to go on to further study or employment within Psychology after finishing your degree.

The undergraduate degree for the BSc Psychology course that I am taking is over three years, and consists of both assignment and exams over each year. In the first year your assignments and exams do not count towards your overall grade that you will get for your degree. In my experience this is a relief as studying for a degree is completely different to how I studied and was graded for my work at sixth form. In this way it gives you a chance to adapt to the different way of learning and still come out with the best grades possible in years two and three. In the second year the layout is very similar with exams and assignments, although there is a higher expectation within the assignments and exams as would be expected as you progress, and you need to spend more hours studying on your own. I am only my first semester into my third year and in this year it is very much the same apart from one big assignment that most student’s dread – the dissertation.

I think that people often hear about dissertation projects from word of mouth and so think them to be a mountainous challenge and I can promise you it is not as bad as it seems. In my third year, the research dissertation is just a module for the year (in which there are equal to four modules each year) and the dissertation itself is worth 80% of the module. Therefore my dissertation is less than 25% of the final year. Also it is actually quite fun, being able to choose what you want to study and learning how to do it – it’s quite exciting to be conducting your own research! Although it takes a lot of planning and work, I am not nearly as scared of it as I was when I was in first and second year and when I knew little about it.

I applied to study Psychology because since I was in my early teens and had to seriously start thinking about what I want from my life I have wanted a career in Psychology. It is something I have always found really interesting and been passionate about, and since it is the study of human behaviour it is always something you can relate to.

Three pieces of advice I would give to someone starting university would be:

• Start and try to complete work as soon as you can; it is the best way to keep on top of your work load. 
• If you struggle with assignments, don’t be scared to ask for help from lecturers, they are often very happy to help. 
• Manage your time and money properly.

I think that is all for this first blog post! Be sure to check back for my next blog post in a week! Please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch. Thank you for reading, see you next week! 

Robyn

University Of Bedfordshire - Psychology