I’m doing full time study at the moment for the BA in Youth Work and Youth studies, 3 subjects in the semester.
I was wholly unaware of the massive jump between Vocational Education to Higher Education. The amount of work that is required for University is immense and I was not prepared.
I have to watch 2-3 lectures per subject before class, and attend the tutorials. The attendance part is easy, it is the preparation for class where I struggle a bit. I am realising now that maybe I do too much and have little time to prepare.
The assessments are also on a whole new level, I have to write a literature review for one of my subjects as an assessment, and whilst I do have experience editing and writing policy, a 2000 word essay is a bit of a jump for me. Academic writing is also a bit different from policy writing, some aspects are similar however there are key differences.
The quizzes are hard too, and I thought I could retain information easily, but that is coming into question now.
I had COVID in week 2 of my studies and that made things very hard to catch up on, so now I am working on building the foundational knowledge to do the assessments that are due.
I can understand now why people say you should limit the work that you do whilst you study. I need to reprioritise some of my commitments to make room for study.