How did you settle into university life?
Minus the crying when my parents and boyfriend left me to settle in on my own, I adapted to the university life very fast! I threw myself in the deep end and invited a few people I chatted to in a group chat to my room and since then, we have been inseparable! It took a while to get to know each other properly but we all felt like we had known each other forever, which was the best feeling! Of course, I felt homesick for the first couple of weeks, but trust me you get used to it! Chester has become my second home and I’m sure I will always be a special place for me after I finish my degree, I’ve become to adore the city and it’s a great place to attend university.
Tell us a bit about your course so far.
Settling in on my course was not as scary as I thought it was going to be, all of the lecturers we very welcoming and we had lots of team building activities to help everyone get to know each other and it introduced me to my friends on the course.
I love my course; the lectures are easy to talk to and explain each module well and all of my modules are also very interesting. I also have made some great friends on the course, which has made it even more enjoyable. Since starting the first year, my confidence has already grown, and I now feel more comfortable doing presentations in front of people and my first few grades for my assignments are a very good standard. I have learnt lots of new skills such as referencing, the marketing industry, academic journals (…) I could go on forever, but I don’t want to bore you!
As part of one of my modules, we had to do a presentation in groups on selling a product, having only 30 minutes to prepare. We had to be persuasive about why someone should buy this product. The point of this lesson was to help increase our confidence when presenting and our persuasive techniques. We also did a peer-led project session which helped me greatly as we learnt about what assessment centres are about and understanding what they expect out of us when we attend one, also that they are not as scary as they seem! We did various group activities such as building a tower out of pins and straws and the balloon chair challenge, this helped us it brought out our competitive side and our teamwork skills and gave us feedback for the future.
I’m loving my time at university so far and am looking forward to picking my modules for next year. I will be moving into my own house with the girls in my current accommodation which is exciting and gives us more freedom! I have met friends for life whilst gaining experience for my future career.
What challenges has university helped you to overcome so far?
When attending university there are always going to be challenges; I have had a few challenges. The first one being referencing! My worst nightmare, before attending university I had never referenced in my life! So, it’s inevitable that I have struggled with it. However, with learning resources and online I have started to figure it out I’m slowly getting there, it will just take time. There’s also a study skills team that can help with this! Another thing I’m focusing on is my time management on how to socialize whilst studying and a part-time job. I’m getting there with this too.
