It's almost that time of year again. Oh, the joy. No, seriously, I'm over the moon. I'm travelling back to my university town next week, and I figured it'd be an appropriate time to make this post that I've wanted to make for some time now. This is going to be an incomplete guide to surviving a humanities degree. My credentials are that I've studied Psychology, as well as am currently studying International Politics, at university. Reader, I know what I'm talking about - I've never failed a class. I've never even gotten below a 2:1 (a B for the non-Brits) in any module. Not a flex, just my credentials, I swear. I say this is incomplete as I don't go into the social aspect of university much here. When I find out how to be sociable and make more friends at university, I'll be sure to let you know.
My first piece of advice is my most important: Go to office hours. For freshers, office hours are one or two hours every week where your teacher/lecturer will be available in their office for students to drop in, no appointment needed, and speak to them about anything class-related. In my experience, office hours are vastly underused and underappreciated by students. Particularly around deadlines and exams, make the most of the chance to ask any questions you have, discuss essay plans, et cetera. It's beyond helpful to take your idea to your marker, talk about it in some depth, and get approval or improvements. After all, it is likely that the person you're talking to will be the person grading you. Find out what it is they're looking for, and make it happen. The only way you'll do that is by speaking to them.
Staying on the topic of teachers - it's okay, and welcomed, to be a bit of a grifter. By this, I mean it's worthwhile to cater your assignments to your teacher's area of research. For example, when I take a class by a lecturer who works on climate change, I make sure I include some green theory in my work. Sucking up is part of the game here. But, be wary of the fine line here. Your teacher knows a hell of a lot more about their subject than you do, most likely. If you fuck up their topic, they'll know, and it won't slide. Make sure you're getting it right if you do this (return to previous paragraph.)
Another very important snippet of advice upcoming. I'm going to be mean about it. If you're going to seminars, and you're not doing the reading, engaging in the conversation, or at least giving it a shot - you are wasting not only your time, but everyone else's time, too. Seminars are not just small lectures. They're group discussions based on set readings and questions. If you don't discuss, if you don't read, no one is going to learn anything. The leader will not hold your hand through a silent seminar with only one speaker. Yes, it's intimidating. Yes, you have to learn how to get over that.
Whilst I'm on the topic of readings, here's how to do them right. You're going to note down the full title, the author, the year, the publisher/journal, etc. This way, you won't have to dig for a niche paper when you're writing an essay. You're going to highlight or note down any key quotes, statistics, points, whatever it may be. You're then going to write up to one page of a summary of the whole chapter. Compress what you've understood and taken from the reading down into a paragraph or two. You're also going to keep a digital masterlist of every reading you've done on each module. You'll link where you got it so you can find it later, and you'll put a few key points into a table. That way, when you're writing, you have everything you need to start in one place.
A lot of people don't do readings right, and a hell of a lot of people don't study right. I don't care what you say - reading lecture slides isn't studying. It's passive studying. It probably won't stick. You need to actively study to retain and truly understand information. Some ideas for how to actively study:
- Rewatch lecture recordings and retake notes
- Teach someone who is unfamiliar if you just need a grasp on the basics
- Put information into new formats - turn a book into a book review, turn notes into flashcards, I could go on
- Write past exam papers (or ask lecturers for mock questions to practice)
Here's a few essay-writing tips that I swear by as someone who has never scored below 60% (a B in the UK):
- USE THE RUBRIC. It will probably be vague; it's still useful. Find the grade criteria for the grade above what you're aiming for, and try to clearly hit every point. This way, I have gotten only ever either the grade I was referencing, or the grade below it, which is the grade I was aiming for.
- Be critical, not descriptive - most university essays require this. A bit of description is necessary. Once you've answered "what," ask "why." Continue asking "why" until you arrive at the bare-bones conclusion. For example:
Women generally exhibit lower political participation than men. Why? Because politics is a masculine environment. Why? Because masculinity is seen as assertive, domineering, etc. Why? Patriarchy.
- Use a reference organisation software like Zotero. Or, at the very least, learn how to properly reference before you even learn how to write a decent essay. You will lose entire grades if you can't reference appropriately.
Onto organisation. The biggest organisation tip I can give happens at the very beginning of the year. If you spend the daytime during Freshers Week doing your first week of readings, coursework, lecture notes, and so on, and you keep doing this weekly, you will always be one week ahead. You'll be much less likely to find yourself drowning later if you get a week's head start early on. Also, you will get sick during Freshers Week, no matter what year you're in. Being a week ahead will make that second week where you're half-dead far less taxing.
Let's get into more personal, less academic advice now.
Firstly, and I think most importantly as a disabled student - get acquainted with what support systems and services your university has in place before you need them. You might never need them, but if you (or a friend) does, and you have to try and navigate that unfamiliar bureaucracy while in a crisis, your crisis will only feel worse. Know who you can reach out to (support services, tutors, lecturers, peer guides, and a lot more) and how to do that before you need to do it.
Cook double every time you cook, save the second half. You will have many days where you don't have the time nor the energy to cook a meal, but your brain and body need food. The easiest way to solve this is to just cook double every evening. You'll always have an immediate lunch the next day.
Finally, my biggest piece of personal advice: set a time when, every day, without fail, you stop working. Mine is 7pm. If I haven't finished my work for the day by 7pm, it waits until the morning, almost always. I know it's university culture to be all "haha no sleep fueled by caffeine!," but it's genuinely dangerous and deeply over-normalised. I drove myself into a psychotic episode before I learnt to stop working a few hours before bed and take some time to myself.
I hope this helps at least one person going into the next academic year!
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