Dissertation stress

I’m in year 3 studying education studies and found out we have a 4,000 word essay on top of the 8,000 word dissertation due within a week of each other in our final semester.
We’re awaiting what the other module’s assignment is.

We have had only essays in semester one. Two 2,000 word essays and one 4,000 word essay.

Is this average workload for year 3? I’m going to have to skip class and pull all-nighters to manage this, not to mention I work part-time and some students are raising children.
I feel like we’re all burnt out already before semester two has even started.

Original post by undefined

I’m in year 3 studying education studies and found out we have a 4,000 word essay on top of the 8,000 word dissertation due within a week of each other in our final semester.
We’re awaiting what the other module’s assignment is.

We have had only essays in semester one. Two 2,000 word essays and one 4,000 word essay.

Is this average workload for year 3? I’m going to have to skip class and pull all-nighters to manage this, not to mention I work part-time and some students are raising children.
I feel like we’re all burnt out already before semester two has even started.

Hi,
I understand your stress of having to write a dissertation and write other assignments all at the same time, I have just graduated from university in July and experienced the exact same thing, so I know how stressful third year can be.

At the university I went to we had 2 self-certified extensions a year, which we could apply for and didn't need any evidence which then gave me an extra 5 working days to complete work. Does your university offer anything like this? If it does I definitely recommend taking it as it was very helpful for me when I had big pieces of work due at the same time. Meant that I could get one done and then focus on the other without having to juggle the two.

Another piece of advice I suggest is planning out your time. I found this very useful because I knew what piece of work I should be doing when I went to study so I didn't have to waste time deciding what to do. This also meant that I could keep track and make sure I wasn't spending too much time on one piece of work and made sure I got them both done. This will be useful for you too if you are working part time. I don't recommend skipping class especially if you are writing assignments in that module because more often than not lecturers will give advice on what to include in the assignments and that's something you don't want to miss. If all the work is getting too much I recommend speaking to your lecturers or tutor because they will be there to help you manage workload and give you advice.

I hope this helps🙂
Louise - The University of Wolverhampton

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 2

cheadle

17

I’m in year 3 studying education studies and found out we have a 4,000 word essay on top of the 8,000 word dissertation due within a week of each other in our final semester.We’re awaiting what the other module’s assignment is.

So you're going to have to do some serious planning for this. I recommend a giant laminated wallchart were you can plot out the various internal deadlines that will be needed (eg first draft, proofread, do references, etc) to this amount of work in a sensible fashion. So your mission is to break down each assessment into lots of mini tasks in chronologial order and literally plot them on your wallchart.

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 3

University of Huddersfield

Official Rep

16

Original post by Anonymous #1

I’m in year 3 studying education studies and found out we have a 4,000 word essay on top of the 8,000 word dissertation due within a week of each other in our final semester.
We’re awaiting what the other module’s assignment is.

We have had only essays in semester one. Two 2,000 word essays and one 4,000 word essay.

Is this average workload for year 3? I’m going to have to skip class and pull all-nighters to manage this, not to mention I work part-time and some students are raising children.
I feel like we’re all burnt out already before semester two has even started.

Hi Anon!

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been struggling with stress during your third year. As I’m currently in my third year, I know the feeling well. I was told that the third year is structured like this to show whether or not you can adequately manage your time and juggle different tasks/responsibilities. However, doing so can be harder for those who are not just studying, but who work or have children as there’s only so many hours in a day.

Unfortunately, this just means you really have to use your time as best as possible. If you absolutely need to work and can’t forgo the money for a while, then you’ll need to spend as much of your free time as you can manage dedicated to your assignments. Break each assignment into mini tasks and assign a mini task to a week. So you work on your introduction one week, then the main body the next week and then the conclusion the next week. So on and so forth for your other assignments.

Also, a lot of universities offer two self-certified extensions during a year, so you can get extra time on assignments to try and balance out your workload.

I hope this helps! 🙂

Estelle
Third Year Psychology
University of Huddersfield

Reply 4

Scotland Yard

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

20

Original post by Anonymous

I’m in year 3 studying education studies and found out we have a 4,000 word essay on top of the 8,000 word dissertation due within a week of each other in our final semester.
We’re awaiting what the other module’s assignment is.

We have had only essays in semester one. Two 2,000 word essays and one 4,000 word essay.

Is this average workload for year 3? I’m going to have to skip class and pull all-nighters to manage this, not to mention I work part-time and some students are raising children.
I feel like we’re all burnt out already before semester two has even started.

Hi there,

I agree with the advice posted above - you'll need to plan ahead, make clever use of your time, and use a self-certified extension if available to you. Alternatively, or in addition to this, you can try to get the deadlines shifted around. You can do this by either getting in touch with your course rep(s) if you have them, or trying yourself to organise a request to move the deadlines signed by as many people in your course as you can. I don't think anyone in your course is too tickled about these deadlines so it shouldn't be too hard if it comes to that.

Dissertation stress

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