Blog

Hello Winchester!

Well, this is my first blog ever so please be understanding about its quality. I thought I’d start with a few thoughts on what has gone before and what is still to come in the wonderful world of Academia.

When I started my degree three years ago, I had no real idea of what to expect from university life. Drinking, making friends, partying…of course these were top of my priorities, but I also knew that at some point I’d have to actually do some work.

The problem was that I had no idea of what the lecturers would be expecting in my assignments. It took a long while for me to become confident in what I was writing. This was partly due to the fact that I had been out of education for so long (yes I’m the grandaddy of the team) and so couldn’t really remember how to write an essay or how to start researching.

The other reason I had difficulty with my work was because I hadn’t really looked into what study-skills support the University offered - there is sooooo much help and advice the Uni can give students if they only took the time to find out about it.

Now if you’re reading this and about to start your first year, you will at some point be told that your first year marks don’t count and that you only have to get 40 % to pass. Great! I hear you say, but whoa now…hold on there little pony!

Yes, these things are true, but before you go off thinking that this whole Uni thing is easy, believe me when I say that it really does get much harder. The only way to truly know what you are capable of when you progress to the second year is to at least try and produce the best work that you can in the first year.There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, if you just scrape 40 in all your assignments in the first year this will be a very difficult habit to break and you may well come out of the three years with a 3rd when you know very well you are capable of better.

The other main reason is that the first year is as much about learning what you don’t know as it is about what you do; in the next two years you will therefore be much better prepared for what is to come.

There is a world-wide school of thought out there that lecturers tend to remember who did well in their first year and subsequently tend to award better grades to these people in later years. Look, this sounds outrageous, but it is based on the unconscious and usually only differs by a few percent, but if the difference between your 2.2 from a 2.1 is a few percent wouldn’t you want those few extra percent?

Well that’s probably enough for now. I just want you to know that there are so many great things to experience at Winchester but just make sure you stay on top of your assignments because the best experience you will have is opening your results letter and getting the grade you wanted.

Chisarai

Jimi