Original post by ottilly
roughly how many hours of extra study does it take? does getting a first require a large compromise regarding social life?
Hey,
This will massively depend on your course/uni to be honest. I got a first in my psychology degree a couple of years ago so hopefully can offer a bit of insight. Obviously, it isn't easy and I definitely didn't expect to get a first when I was in first/second year (I was averaging a 2:1 around that point). But here are some things I think may help....
1. Your grades should & probably will improve over time - most of us in the first year were really disappointed when we got our first few essays back and got around the 40/50 mark. However, it's important to remember that university essays etc. are a completely different style to A-level and you will most likely get better over time, so don't be completely put off by low initial grades! First year is also a really good chance to learn and improve.
2. Keep track of all your feedback for essays - if you have coursework/essays as part of your degree, it's really valuable to keep track of the feedback you're getting and make a note of it so you don't have to go back to different pieces of work at a later date (as most of it will be on separate submission portals). This will help you actually improve over time rather than just ignoring your feedback (I was definitely guilty of just reading it and moving on in first year).
3. Make note of how your degree calculation is split - most degrees are split as 40/60 (so the second year is worth 40% and the third is 60%); whilst I don't recommend deliberately not trying as hard in the second year, it's worth keeping track of so you know when to work harder. I ended up getting a much higher average in third year which brought my grade up significantly.
4. Try to do most of your work in between lectures/seminars - I found I was still able to maintain a pretty healthy social life & part-time job by spending the time during the day (when I wasn't in lectures/seminars) working on my assignments/reading etc. You most likely won't have classes 9-5 everyday, so definitely make use of the gaps so you can have most of your evenings and weekends free
5. Make revision materials early - Going on from the point above, if you're assessed by more exams than coursework, start making revision materials ASAP (even during lectures by formatting your notes as Q&As) so you have them ready for exam season
6. If your grade isn't improving over time, make use of academic staff - I mostly ignored lecturers' office hours for most of my degree to be honest, but found them really helpful in my final year when I wanted my grade to go up as they were able to specifically tell me where I was going wrong.
7. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself!
Hope this helps a bit & best of luck with everything!!
Natalie
University of Kent Student Rep
Depends on so many factors: the uni, the course, natural intelligence and so on. I got a first at a world top 10 uni and had to make no sacrifices in my social life. I was just very conscientious with how I used my time. I studied a STEM subject so was in uni 5 days a week for at least 9-5 anyway so whenever I had a free hour or something I’d usually be studying or making a start on any coursework or assignments. That way I was able to have free evenings and be completely free on weekends too. Tbh I didn’t do that much independent study as our lecturers constantly stressed that they could only really test us on stuff in their module material. Still, I did bits of extra reading here and there on topics that particularly interested me but it wasn’t some kind of consistent routine.
(edited 7 months ago)
It's hard to give you an estimate as the answer is nuanced and you haven't given us a lot of information pertaining to your own personal circumstances and academic profile in the OP to go off of, it depends on the difficulty of your degree, your aptitude for learning new and difficult concepts, the quality of your learning materials and resources, how well your lecturers can teach, the content load of the syllabus and your own diligence.
For me personally, it wasn't that difficult to get a 1st in first year since I had already covered a lot of the content during A-Levels and the concepts were straight forward elementary principles such that I didn't have to make that much of a sacrifice with my leisure time and social life. Thankfully I've just gotten a 1st in second year too but it was INTENSE and I had to make a bigger sacrifice as I'm doing a practical heavy STEM course that involves groupwork, so my grade is in part dependent on others, and the theoretical concepts are substanitally more complicated. I'm going into my final year and need to average 68% to get a 1st class degree overall and from what I've heard from others at my uni it gets even harder.
For me personally, it wasn't that difficult to get a 1st in first year since I had already covered a lot of the content during A-Levels and the concepts were straight forward elementary principles such that I didn't have to make that much of a sacrifice with my leisure time and social life. Thankfully I've just gotten a 1st in second year too but it was INTENSE and I had to make a bigger sacrifice as I'm doing a practical heavy STEM course that involves groupwork, so my grade is in part dependent on others, and the theoretical concepts are substanitally more complicated. I'm going into my final year and need to average 68% to get a 1st class degree overall and from what I've heard from others at my uni it gets even harder.
(edited 7 months ago)
Original post by ottilly
roughly how many hours of extra study does it take? does getting a first require a large compromise regarding social life?
Hi there,
It really depends on the course which you do. Some courses, such as medicine, don't have firsts or classes of degree. While most degrees do have these, the amount of work for a first really does depend on the course. I think that it is really important to make your revision resources early so that you can actually revise rather than learning things for the first time. It is also really important to be on top of your work so you don't have loads to do all at once. I personally know people who have got a first and because they have kept on top of their work they have joined lots of societies and gone out and enjoyed the university experience as well as working hard. There is always time for it all!
I hope this helps,
Ellen
Y4 Medical Student
Uni of Sunderland
Digital Ambassador
Original post by University of Kent
Hey,
This will massively depend on your course/uni to be honest. I got a first in my psychology degree a couple of years ago so hopefully can offer a bit of insight. Obviously, it isn't easy and I definitely didn't expect to get a first when I was in first/second year (I was averaging a 2:1 around that point). But here are some things I think may help....
1. Your grades should & probably will improve over time - most of us in the first year were really disappointed when we got our first few essays back and got around the 40/50 mark. However, it's important to remember that university essays etc. are a completely different style to A-level and you will most likely get better over time, so don't be completely put off by low initial grades! First year is also a really good chance to learn and improve.
2. Keep track of all your feedback for essays - if you have coursework/essays as part of your degree, it's really valuable to keep track of the feedback you're getting and make a note of it so you don't have to go back to different pieces of work at a later date (as most of it will be on separate submission portals). This will help you actually improve over time rather than just ignoring your feedback (I was definitely guilty of just reading it and moving on in first year).
3. Make note of how your degree calculation is split - most degrees are split as 40/60 (so the second year is worth 40% and the third is 60%); whilst I don't recommend deliberately not trying as hard in the second year, it's worth keeping track of so you know when to work harder. I ended up getting a much higher average in third year which brought my grade up significantly.
4. Try to do most of your work in between lectures/seminars - I found I was still able to maintain a pretty healthy social life & part-time job by spending the time during the day (when I wasn't in lectures/seminars) working on my assignments/reading etc. You most likely won't have classes 9-5 everyday, so definitely make use of the gaps so you can have most of your evenings and weekends free
5. Make revision materials early - Going on from the point above, if you're assessed by more exams than coursework, start making revision materials ASAP (even during lectures by formatting your notes as Q&As) so you have them ready for exam season
6. If your grade isn't improving over time, make use of academic staff - I mostly ignored lecturers' office hours for most of my degree to be honest, but found them really helpful in my final year when I wanted my grade to go up as they were able to specifically tell me where I was going wrong.
7. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself!
Hope this helps a bit & best of luck with everything!!
Natalie
University of Kent Student Rep
This will massively depend on your course/uni to be honest. I got a first in my psychology degree a couple of years ago so hopefully can offer a bit of insight. Obviously, it isn't easy and I definitely didn't expect to get a first when I was in first/second year (I was averaging a 2:1 around that point). But here are some things I think may help....
1. Your grades should & probably will improve over time - most of us in the first year were really disappointed when we got our first few essays back and got around the 40/50 mark. However, it's important to remember that university essays etc. are a completely different style to A-level and you will most likely get better over time, so don't be completely put off by low initial grades! First year is also a really good chance to learn and improve.
2. Keep track of all your feedback for essays - if you have coursework/essays as part of your degree, it's really valuable to keep track of the feedback you're getting and make a note of it so you don't have to go back to different pieces of work at a later date (as most of it will be on separate submission portals). This will help you actually improve over time rather than just ignoring your feedback (I was definitely guilty of just reading it and moving on in first year).
3. Make note of how your degree calculation is split - most degrees are split as 40/60 (so the second year is worth 40% and the third is 60%); whilst I don't recommend deliberately not trying as hard in the second year, it's worth keeping track of so you know when to work harder. I ended up getting a much higher average in third year which brought my grade up significantly.
4. Try to do most of your work in between lectures/seminars - I found I was still able to maintain a pretty healthy social life & part-time job by spending the time during the day (when I wasn't in lectures/seminars) working on my assignments/reading etc. You most likely won't have classes 9-5 everyday, so definitely make use of the gaps so you can have most of your evenings and weekends free
5. Make revision materials early - Going on from the point above, if you're assessed by more exams than coursework, start making revision materials ASAP (even during lectures by formatting your notes as Q&As) so you have them ready for exam season
6. If your grade isn't improving over time, make use of academic staff - I mostly ignored lecturers' office hours for most of my degree to be honest, but found them really helpful in my final year when I wanted my grade to go up as they were able to specifically tell me where I was going wrong.
7. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself!
Hope this helps a bit & best of luck with everything!!
Natalie
University of Kent Student Rep
Hey! Research methods in second year is so difficult. How did you manage to get first?/ plspls help me out
Original post by Anonymous
Hey! Research methods in second year is so difficult. How did you manage to get first?/ plspls help me out
Hey!
I know it's so hard isn't it, I still struggle with it now
To be honest, I just spent most of my revision time working on research methods and really made sure to ask for clarification on things I needed help with (which I used to be too scared to do haha). I also tried to do as many past papers as were available to me, and at Kent we had weekly quizzes so I used to go back over those as well!
Another random tip that really helped me was I used to use a 'traffic light system' to really help me pinpoint what I was good/bad at for revision, so basically putting all the different topics from the module on a spreadsheet, and colour coding if they're green (I know it well), orange (I know it but not well) or red (I don't know it). I then updated it week by week and it really helped me know what to actually focus my time on, rather than just keep doing what I was comfortable with, because I had a real habit of doing the easy things over and over!
Also, I don't know if you do because this often depends on the university/what year you're in, but if you have an open book exam for computing in research methods (whether that's SPSS or R), make sure your notes for the exam are really really thorough! So literally break down how to do every single type of analysis and when you need to use them, so you can tackle any question that comes up!
I also used to keep a note of this week by week after every computer session so I always knew what/when to use the different types of analysis & then my notes were pretty much ready when it came to revising!Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions!!
Natalie
(edited 7 months ago)
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