Here at SalfordPsych, we know it’s a daunting experience starting university. We wanted to help you out with some words of advice. For this blog we asked students and staff what their one bit of advice would be for all you new students starting in Level 4 this week.
Current students on Twitter
Sophie: Get organised early on with schedules/ deadlines, attend classes, participate when you get there! You get out what you put in
Karla: Unfortunately, it really does matter if you miss lectures regularly!
Zaeema: Look at lecture content the night before.
Ryan: Start assignments ASAP 🙂
Suraya: Pay attention in research methods. You really need it for everything…Slows your report writing down if you don’t know your basics already
Ivett: Take the most of this amazing journey!Lectures&seminars are important but there are much more than that! Enjoy the ride!;)
Current students in personal tutor sessions
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help
- Do not leave revision until the last minute! Try to revise every lecture weekly
- Do your reading!
- Sign up for the academic writing course
- Read journal articles
- Figure out referencing early and reference as you go along in your assignments
- Work HARD, but also don’t stress yourself out too much
- If you don’t do well in your assignments, remember, it’s not the end of the world
- Assignments take longer than you think
And finally some advice from staff:
Sam: Use each other as a resource. You’ll never learn better than when you have to teach each other
John: A degree is a marathon not a sprint.
Aim to understand the different types of assessment you will have to do e.g. essays, practical reports, presentations. Create a folder for each assessment type & put all the information you have about that assessment in the folder.
Make yourself aware of the university support systems. Identify your weaknesses from tutor feedback & go to support classes what will help address the problem.
Do your best to attend all your classes, especially all research methods classes.
Adam: You’re not in competition with your peers, so help and be kind to each other and everyone benefits.
Mike: Try to move away from a mind-set of ‘studying to the test’. Instead, try to reflect on what you’ve learned & its real-world significance and take it forward to your further study and work experience. As a result, your grades should improve and you will be better prepared for life as a post-graduate
Clare: Try to get into the habit of reading journal articles. Set yourself a challenge! Try to start reading two full peer reviewed journal articles in an area of interest to you and which is relevant to your coursework per week. It seems a big commitment to make when you have so much other stuff on but this will help build up a deeper knowledge of psychological issues and scientific thinking and enhance your scientific writing abilities.
Sharon: Uni is like a gym, membership is not enough: you need to sweat to get the results!
Linda: : Give yourself time to adjust and don’t panic and think you can’t do it if you have a difficult day!
Jo: Don’t be worried about asking us for help – it’s what we’re here for! We will always try to help if we can, but please don’t leave it until the day before your assignment to tell us you’re struggling! The earlier you ask for help, the more we can do.
We all wish you the best of luck with your studies!