education

Deadlines, distractions and difficult books: how uni differs from school

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The most obvious difference between studying at school and at university is that the structure of school hours is no longer there, so you’ll have to develop time management skills and work out your own timetable. How much you study depends on your course, but Pete Langley, director of study help at thestudentroom.com, advises “a reasonable day’s work from Monday to Friday. Expect to burn the midnight oil sometimes, especially around exams, but also plan to have days off.”

Academically, you’ll need to learn a lot of new skills quickly. “A-levels are a very controlled environment to study in,” says Langley. “At university, answers will be less clear. There is more for the student to think through, and a much wider range of reading. You might not be used to reading around subjects, writing 5,000 words, or reading difficult books. You’ll need to develop your reading skills: finding the library, getting the books on the reading list, not being put off by language, and techniques for skim reading.”

You’ll also need to learn new writing conventions, too: such as referencing and how to structure an essay.

At school, support is always there: at university, you’ll have to seek it out – and don’t be afraid to do so. “Being independent doesn’t mean that you can’t ask for help,” says Langley.

Bhishak Bremanand, in his final year of a biomedical science degree at the University of Bedfordshire, agrees: “I found my personal tutor very supportive and very quick to respond on email, and I’d always stay behind after lectures if I had a question. Nobody is going to come to you, but if you ask for help, then you’ll get it.”

But university isn’t all about studying – it’s a great opportunity to widen your circle of friends, so long as you try to meet people outside your comfort zone. “The only people you are guaranteed to see with any regularity socially are your flatmates, so a lot depends on whether you become friends with them,” says Lia Higgs, first-year history student at the University of Bristol. “However, there are many more random and extracurricular ways to meet people, and I did end up finding my group of people in lectures.”

Get down to work

Some handy tips for getting on with your university work and dealing with deadlines (but don’t forget to take some time out too):

1 Plan and prioritise
Plan ahead. Use a calendar on your phone and make sure you have all the lectures, seminars and deadlines in there right from the start. Also, learn to prioritise tasks into urgent and non-urgent – you could even assign each task a number for importance.

2 Working tips
Allow plenty of time for reading: it takes longer than you think. And consider working for a certain number of hours every day in order to get ahead with your studies. Also, remember that big tasks can seem intimidating, so tackle them by breaking them down into smaller chunks first.

3 Uni deadlines
Take your deadlines seriously. If you start missing them, you could end up with an awful lot of work that needs to be done at the end of term.

4 No distractions
Find somewhere to work with no distractions that suits you. It doesn’t have to be the library – it could be your room, a coffee shop, or a study area.

5 Time to relax
Don’t be afraid to enjoy some free time: not just to take part in clubs, societies and sports, but also to just relax and chill. You’ll struggle to concentrate without it.

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