• Question: When university became really hard, what kept you going?

    Asked by to Anna, Chris, Jane, Iain, Nick on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      Hi Rachelw
      I realised very early on at university that I wasn’t great at learning stuff that was just told to me, I had to ‘experience’ what I was learning. I also realised that just reading information in a book didn’t help me learn either. I went to see my tutor and he really helped me to learn by discussion, this forced me to think about what I was learning, I could ask questions at my own pace and this made stuff stick. I know now that there are many different styles of learning and you have to work out what style you have in order to make the most of university. Once I realised this learning became easy.

    • Photo: Chris Cole

      Chris Cole answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      That’s a good question.

      University can be hard and sometimes you wonder why you did it? Often it’s just a particular module or topic that is hard, not the whole course. A mixture of perseverance and knowing that you’re enjoying the rest of the degree as whole pushes you through it.

    • Photo: Jane Charlesworth

      Jane Charlesworth answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      I get bored very easily so at school and university I drew pages and pages of notes in lectures-turning information into a picture or a story helped me stay awake in lectures, remember things and, most importantly, connect up new bits of information with things I already knew about. I can plod through things that seem really boring if I know it will help me understand something I’m interested in–this is a useful skill to develop.

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      There were some classes at university which were pretty tough, and I remember being quite demoralised on occasions. However, when this happened, I found it best to continue past the bits I don’t understand, and then come back later. Often the material made sense the second or third time round, once I had seen the later material that relied on it.

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