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Help!: Retaking my second year

So, I just finished my second year of my bachelors, and this year was really hard for me, I had a lot of family issues as well as financial and mental struggles to deal with. I have severely neglected my studies.

A little bit of background info, during my IGCSE's and a-levels, though I passed both of them, I barely studied, I always just found that the material we would learn would just stick even without me studying. So I never learned how to properly study and time management and all of that has been very difficult for me since I have to essentially learn from scratch unlike my peers who came to uni already having said skillset. I mistakenly thought it would be the same at uni but boy was I wrong. I'm also very introverted so reaching out for help is super hard, I don't have any friends in my course to turn to either.

Okay back to the topic at hand, I rarely set aside time for my studies, and even if I had the time, due to my mental health I struggled to find the motivation to do anything. I haven't gotten my results back but I'm 1000% sure that I failed, I missed a lot of assignment submissions in both first and second sem, and for the assignments I did submit, I did them very half heartedly. I have considered dropping out countless times, but I have no passion for anything else, I don't even know if I really have the passion for my current degree. Everything just seems so bleak at the moment.

I want to start making a change now. Even though I still struggle with all the aforementioned problems, I know that I'll have an even more difficult time applying for jobs if I don't do well in uni. Im an international student as well and plan on applying for a post graduate job here and I need a leg up, seeing as a lot of companies already are reluctant to hire international students. Going back to my home country is out of the question for me because my degree(film) isn't really applicable there due to lack of opportunities available. So I reeeaallly need this to work out for me otherwise I have to return back home with my tail between my legs ashamed to face my family.

I don't really know where to start though, I don't know who I should reach out to to help me learn how to study, nor do I know what the process is for retaking a year(I have extensively searched my uni's intranet to no avail, university of Birmingham). I don't know how to bring it up to my parents either because in their eyes retaking an entire year makes me a failure(I have heard them say this about other peoples children) nor do I want to burden them with the financial stress of paying for an extra year(I don't get student finances as our situation is just barely below the threshold required to be granted student finances). I want to maybe get into an apprenticeship but again I don't know where to start and my CV is so pathetic and yet again I have no idea how to improve it. Its times like these I wish I was a nepo baby😭

This post is mainly just me ranting but if you have any advice to offer I would really, really appreciate it xx

Reply 1

SomeonesDad

Where to start?
First thing would be to contact the support services that Uni's have these days. Sometimes it is organised by the department/school you belong to, and sometimes there are centralised services. They can help with anything/everything from study skills and time management to liaising with academic staff over missing/late assignments. All Uni's I know of also have an International Student wellbeing service, so if you reach out, you will find that help is there and it's important not to become depressed; things can be turned around.

Many of the institutions have official reps here on TSR so have a look here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/a-z-of-universities.php and find your place and click on the Uni. You'll find a page and links, and maybe a direct link to someone who can help/point you in the right direction.

Best wishes