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Finding my degree boring Cambridge

Hello,
I’m a first year at Cambridge doing a humanities subject but I find all my work so boring. I’m not really sure why as I absolutely loved my related alevels and did extra reading for them and it never felt like work. And I’ve continued to read about my interests within the subject in my own time. But since being assigned papers I did not put as first choice and finding lectures quite surface level I’m just struggling to enjoy anything about my degree work so far. My essays just seem to never state any interesting points either because if this.
Any advice on getting out of this slump would be appreciated. Thank you 😁
Bin lectures and read more?
Original post by Anonymous
Hello,
I’m a first year at Cambridge doing a humanities subject but I find all my work so boring. I’m not really sure why as I absolutely loved my related alevels and did extra reading for them and it never felt like work. And I’ve continued to read about my interests within the subject in my own time. But since being assigned papers I did not put as first choice and finding lectures quite surface level I’m just struggling to enjoy anything about my degree work so far. My essays just seem to never state any interesting points either because if this.
Any advice on getting out of this slump would be appreciated. Thank you 😁

What sort of grades are you getting, because it sounds as though you may be approaching things incorrectly. Lectures are not there to teach, they are there to give an outline framework, or pose a conceptual point or juxtaposition, or explain a line of thought. The reading list and your own further reading are then supposed to be for you to use that framework to investigate more deeply, to find arguments for and against etc. Then the written work an opportunity to frame those deeper arguments.

If you are getting firsts - then speak to your DoS about how to stretch yourself further, but if you aren't getting firsts, then use your time to read more broadly and enrich your essays. The first year is the time to experiment with essays, opinions etc. You should perhaps try to pitch your interests into your essays, as a point of comparison for example?
(edited 2 months ago)

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