By Aileen O’Leary
It happens every year: an email is circulated by either department heads or lecturers regarding provisional exam results. Nothing induces panic faster in a student than exam results or a deadline. For weeks you’ve agonised over how you did, if you failed anything, what grade you received and then you discover your results are being released.
It’s a stressful time for any college student, whether you aced the exam or not, and it can be daunting. The best way to deal with exam results? Acceptance. Accept that you tried your best and whatever the grade is, good or bad, it’s final. It’s done and there is no point looking back or getting mad about it.
Here’s what you can do, speak to your lecturer/tutor about your result, find out where you can improve upon and how. Use the supports available on campus, from the academic writing centre to the grinds available through the SU. If you are struggling with your course work or the course load itself there is plenty of help out there for you.
Another way to stay on track is to set up a study group. If you’re struggling to comb through the reading list and lecture notes, get together with a few people from your course to study, whether it’s for exams or just in general. At least then you can split up the reading list and share notes.
Missing a lecture here and there is inevitable, you might be sick or have an emergency, and in that case it’s helpful to have a friend you can ask to send over notes from a lecture. Most lecturers upload their slides to Blackboard, but in the event that they don’t it’s always helpful to know someone who went.
While it might be tempting to head home in between lectures if you’ve got a couple of hours to kill, try to hold off. Instead, maybe head to the library or the reading room for an hour or two, try to get a start on those midterm assignments, it means you won’t be spending your evenings trying to write up essays or assignments.
By making your day in college a small bit longer it means less time walking to and from college and more free time when your day is over. Personally, if I have a four-hour break between lectures I tend to go home, make food, and nap, and by the time I have to head back in for that last lecture I’m wrecked. Also if it’s cold and raining, the odds are I’m taking lecture notes from home.
It’s not all doom and gloom though; if you stay on top of your college work you’ll make it through the semester with ease. As long as you keep showing up and participating it’s honestly not as bad as it’s made out to be.
Congratulations to all our readers. Hopefully you’re happy with your results and if not there is always time to turn things around.
Check back for the next instalment of the final year diaries, exclusively in SIN.
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