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Not done well in first year, worried about internships

Hello, I'm in my first year studying mathematics. Since I've been at university I've been quite unhappy due to being lonely and not making a lot of friends. I spent weekends at home and dreaded going back there. As a result, my studies have suffered.

In my January exams, i got an overall mark of 58%. I did barely any work through out the year and barely any revision just before the exams. I had just lost any motivation and interest, which was a shock to myself after working so hard at A level to get where I am.

Now my worry is internships, I'm not completely sure what I want to do after university but I would like to do an internship to boost my CV and increase my contacts. My exams are in a few weeks and I'm working my nuts off to do as well as I can in those to try and scrape a 2:1 overall, as that's what most internships want as a minimum. Plus the reason I'm worried I wont get a 2:1 is because I've missed a lot this semester and did poorly in 1-2 of the midterms which count as a small part of my final mark for this semester.

What if I don't get a 2:1 in my first year? Am I at a severe disadvantage? Come second year, I should be in a better place due to living with a few friends and being in a house environment and I am going to work hard from the start to do as well as i can. It's just I'm worried a poor first year mark will make me suffer further down the line.

Anyone been in a similar situation?

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post
Simon
Original post by Renovatio123
Hello, I'm in my first year studying mathematics. Since I've been at university I've been quite unhappy due to being lonely and not making a lot of friends. I spent weekends at home and dreaded going back there. As a result, my studies have suffered.

In my January exams, i got an overall mark of 58%. I did barely any work through out the year and barely any revision just before the exams. I had just lost any motivation and interest, which was a shock to myself after working so hard at A level to get where I am.

Now my worry is internships, I'm not completely sure what I want to do after university but I would like to do an internship to boost my CV and increase my contacts. My exams are in a few weeks and I'm working my nuts off to do as well as I can in those to try and scrape a 2:1 overall, as that's what most internships want as a minimum. Plus the reason I'm worried I wont get a 2:1 is because I've missed a lot this semester and did poorly in 1-2 of the midterms which count as a small part of my final mark for this semester.

What if I don't get a 2:1 in my first year? Am I at a severe disadvantage? Come second year, I should be in a better place due to living with a few friends and being in a house environment and I am going to work hard from the start to do as well as i can. It's just I'm worried a poor first year mark will make me suffer further down the line.

Anyone been in a similar situation?

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post
Simon

Hopefully it's been a wake up call, and perhaps in the future you'll attend more lectures and get up to date with the materials taught.

Best advice would be to just worry about the upcoming exams and concentrate on these modules, as I believe they'll make the bulk of your marks.
Reply 2
I agree with the above post. A lot of people will say that first year doesn't matter, but from my experience (leaving uni after a year and applying elsewhere) it DOES have an impact. The good news is that you are aware of the problems you've had and you know what to do to improve - I would concentrate on making sure you do your best in these exams and if you get an internship it will be an added bonus. You always have next summer to do the internship you really want and by then you'll have been more settled and hopefully in a better position.

Loads of people don't do internships in their first summer. If you don't get one now, why not just get some work or volunteering experience? This will still be beneficial on your CV and you'll get some cash out of it.
Well you say you plan on doing an internship after uni which seems to me you mean once you graduate the first year marks don't matter towards your final mark 1 little bit you need 40% in this first year over all to just get through it next year the slate is wiped clean first year marks DO NOT carry over from next year you will need 60% for a 2:1 which I'm sure you'll get seeing as you got 58% so far this year which is only 2% off what you need for a 2:1 hell who knows you might even get a first.

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