Written by Laura Ihm
If you’re anything like me (or most students), your year starts in September with term one. Now we’re also going headfirst into the second half of term two. In the first term, you may have found a familiar routine: you now know your favourite places to study and the best places to get coffee. After Christmas and New Year’s, it can be hard to get back into the groove of things, especially if you add some January Blues on top... deadlines, more lectures, trying to keep on top of your friendships, sleep, and health – term two may have hit you like a train that missed the reading week platform. I went out and asked a couple of postgraduate students (who, being in their second degree already, have been around longer and have a little more experience with these things) what their advice is for term two. Postgrads make up half of the student body at UCL by the way – so I think their voice may be helpful to you.
First up is Allie! Her main bit of advice is to “enjoy uni life as much as possible and continue socialising and trying new things. Definitely try new societies and clubs, even if its term two, and make sure to spend time with your friends and explore all the UCL study spots!” All of this is super important! If you feel like you missed the bus because you didn’t join societies in the first term – don’t despair! The Student Union is there for you at any point in the year with different events. “This Girl Can” is a very inclusive initiative aimed to encourage girls to try out new sports. Keep an eye out as well for events specifically for postgrads posted on the Student Union Webpage and in their newsletter.
Although it is easy to get swept up in all the exciting extracurriculars on offer, it’s important to make sure you’re staying on top of university work as well. Ash advises us to make sure to “not just leave stuff towards the end of term two,” as in term two, the workload is usually higher than term one. Towards Easter, you may also have to start thinking about exams. The best thing you can do is to make sure you stay on top of everything as it comes.
The advice Lucia has for us is also along these lines: “Keep challenging yourself! Think about what you thought you could have done better as an undergrad - now you have the chance to improve on this. If you were better at essays than tests beforehand, this might be the time to consider how to work harder on exam prep”.
As a student you should be continuously improving and working on your academic skills. Some of this happens naturally with practice, other skills you do have to actively work on. What that looks like depends on your own learning style - UCL can support you with this. Check out: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/students/academic-support for some great resources! A good place to start is to identify the topics you don’t know and try and do some additional reading on them. Going outside of the course curriculum can often help you integrate the knowledge from lectures in their context, and therefore helps everything make more sense.
At the same time being a student can be super challenging and its ok not to be ok. Tad has some important wellbeing advice: “I would recommend that those with a history of mental health issues of any type genuinely seek help early, even if they think it is in the past or that they'll be fine without assistance. Especially with the stresses of the exam period, I ended up personally struggling a lot and was told 'too bad, you should've applied for a SoRA in advance'. It would have helped a lot if I had, and I'm now in the process of making sure I've got one in place for the rest of my studies”.
A SoRA is a Statement of Reasonable Adjustment. This means that ‘UCL must make reasonable adjustments to learning, teaching and assessment to support students with a disability or other ongoing medical or mental health condition’. Most important here is you must apply for a SoRA before you need it. You can do this by reaching out to the Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing team in Student Support and Wellbeing (SSW) at any time during the year. If you think this is something you need you can check it out here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/chapters/chapter-4-assessment-framework-taught-programmes/section-5-reasonable-adjustments
Before doing a postgrad degree, some people spend years out of school between undergrad and postgrad. Whether you’re currently a postgrad or thinking about applying to study at postgrad level, Lucia says “Don’t be intimidated by the idea of doing a postgrad! If you feel like you haven’t worked in an academic setting in a while, this shouldn’t hold you back. Trust your instincts - you know you were a good student before: trust that you’ll still have those good study instincts".
So, make sure to make the most of your time at UCL, whether you’re an undergrad or a postgrad! There is plenty on offer and so much support available to you and of course world-class teaching. Use term two as your chance to grow, learn, and enjoy being a student in the best city in the world.