The Pressure of Tests and Coursework

When I was first offered this course, I had my doubts but managed to mostly brush them aside for the simple joy of being accepted into a University in the first place, especially one in the UK. I have to say, though, that this is probably one of those times in life where a person's inner cynic turns out to have been right after all.

Some people function at their best when under intense pressure and I happen to be one of them. Unfortunately, the line between pressure-that-inspires and 'the straw that breaks the camel's back' is a thin line, at least for me personally. The autumn term was relatively straight-forward. I had a few issues with one bit of coursework but everything went fairly well at the end. As this spring term draws to a close, however, things have taken a 180 Degree turn to put it mildly. For a below-average, if you'll pardon the understatement, student like myself the barrage of new concepts and coursework has been overwhelming. By the time I grasp the basic concept of the first piece of coursework, I find myself close to, or beyond, the submission date. Needless to say, my work has been...less than satisfactory even by my own standards. If I see a silver lining to all this, it would be that I'm still largely sane, a task in which the combination of caffeine, sugar, music and the wonders of technology have contributed immensely.

Ultimately, this is what I've signed up for and I have no one else to blame but myself. I can only keep a 'stiff upper lip', as the saying goes, and try my hardest.

~ Noel T. Muivah

Pressure of Tests and Coursework

Many students manage to get higher grades while under pressure, it makes the task seem a lot more realistic and surreal as the pressure of a deadline or the pressure of having a word count can be enough to motivate even the laziest of students into action and into doing their much needed essays, reports or projects. I am one of these students that manages to work better under pressure, as I feel it motivates me to do better than in normal circumstances.

If you have chosen a very much essay based course, such as a English or a Law course, the workload can be quite challenging anyway, whereas if you have chosen a report based or lab based subject, you get to do the lab based work, such as programming, reports or experiments on top of the regular work load, making your load much harder to cope with in my opinion. This can lead to increased stress and the other variables that come with that. In my opinion, my work load for the first term has been varied between subjects, such as more work for lab based subjects, like Computer Programming and less work for subjects like Mathematics.

Music seems to be a way of making myself concentrate more and for longer on things that matter like the University courses and a way to cope with an increasing work load. You could almost call me an audiophile in the way music is a way of escape from pressure, it also helps when actually doing work and assignments and it also makes it feel like a smaller workload. Another way to reduce workload would be to work on assignments from the moment you receive them, and chip away at them until they are done, which could take days, but it makes it feel like much less work then sitting down at a desk and trying to do all the work in one sitting. You may have more ideas over the course of many days then just one day anyway for your assignment or essay.

I expect the workload in the future to get heavier, and therefore more time spent revising, researching and using information that is harder to find and understand. Therefore I expect this workload to increase both in labs and out of them writing reports. I also expect the pressure to increase as the time for deadlines decreases, instead of being a month or so as they are now, I expect they may decrease to a point of around a week, which will increase the amount of work needed in a smaller period of time.

Pressures of tests and coursework

 Now, this is when things start to get tough. The weeks have seemed to be flying by and we have already gone through one term of university. All the assignments and tests have just been thrown at us at once we caused me great concern. University has shown to be a different ball game, because unlike college and secondary school, the teachers can give you one to one and physically help you do your work. However, in university everything is done independently which can be quite challenging. In my opinion I have never liked the way university work was set up, because they give out assignments 3 at a time and expect us to have enough time and knowledge about that specific subject to produce a high quality assignment on time. On the other hand, I have been coping quite well in this current time but the high rising amount of tests and assignments coming up is a little bit daunting, but I believe in my ability to perform at the highest standard possible.

   This week, we have our academic skills test which is going to be quite open, being that I have not studied an English based subject since year 11 so it will be quite interesting to see how I actually perform on that test. One way I use to reduce the work load of all my assignments is that I plan to do the assignment they give me either 2 or 3 days later, because when I do this it allows me to not only finish on time but to also have enough time to rest and finish up any other assignment I have to do.

   In my opinion, from all the modules that I am currently studying, I feel that Mathematics is probably one of the hardest subject. This may be because I only studied Mathematics when I was doing my GCSE's and even though I achieved a grade A, GCSE and A-level Mathematics is a big jump, so I think that in order for me to have a better understanding with Mathematics I should have studied A-Level Mathematics because this would have just given me an overall gist of how Mathematics in university would be like, so nothing would have been new to me.

   Overall, apart from assignments and work, I'm finding university life vibrant and I'm just trying to take each day at it comes in order to enjoy my life at university while it lasts. 

IFP GROUP 1 BLOG 2 PRESSURE

BLOG 2 – THE PRESSURE OF TESTS & COURSEWORK

The subject of our second blog is the Pressure of Tests & Coursework. Please take time to think about the pressure or stress that you have (or haven't) been under thus far this term. Has the workload been too heavy or has it been manageable? What can you do to lighten the load and make life easier for yourself? What concerns do you have about your workload and what expectations of future workload? 

Please plan your thoughts in Word first so you can check you spelling, grammar, and punctuation before posting. Although a blog can be less formal than a normal piece of writing, try to use language thoughtfully watch for overly simplistic language and repetition and refrain from using slang etc. Spend some time on this as you will be using as a input source for a 'reflection' later and the quality of your blog entries will constitute part of that overall mark. 

Please feel free to make (respectful and thoughtful) comments on others’ posts but please refrain from insulting or offensive language - I will have to remove it and it may constitute an academic offence. Please note these posts can only be read by myself and the other students in your academic skills class, unless someone has the specific URL. 

This blog was supposed to be completed by the end of Week 10 but as I am a little late in getting it to you you can take up to the end of week 11 - so the new deadline is lunchtime Friday 13th.