Its almost Christmas! For a lot of people it means present buying, card writing, food shopping and putting up decorations. For a student, its all this and more – more being coursework deadlines and exam revision (joy of joys!)
Since my last post on my first half term in my year long masters degree coursework one has been submitted. Undoubtedly one of the trickiest and stressful 2000 word pieces of work that I have submitted, probably since my first A level Law essay. I know what you’re probably thinking, 2000 words is a doddle! I thought the same until I made my first encounter with the Statistics for Psychology programme called SPSS.
This coursework was my first for my Research Methods module, and to say it was a huge leap into the unknown was a massive understatement. The two weeks leading up to the submission deadline had 98% of my fellow students (including myself) in a state of panic. Did we have the right results? Did the findings show as significant in one area and not the other? Did we even reference right? Finally, it did get to a stage where something just needed to be written and submitted, and come what may with the grade and feedback. Overall the presentation of the first piece of coursework and how we should approach it seemed a bit disjointed and did not take into account how overwhelmed we already feel. Bearing in mind that the majority of us on the course work full time alongside our studies, have never previously studied psychology and also have roughly 4 weeks to do the coursework in.
One good thing about the structure of this course, all the lectures are recorded. This was amazing when doing the coursework, I found it so helpful to go back and refresh my memory of what was discussed in the lectures along with the notes I made, and even add to those notes with snippets I hadn’t noticed the first time round.
While coursework one did get completed and sent off, though not without a great amount of dread at the thought of the result I am going to get, I’m feeling a lot more confident for coursework 2 due in less than weeks time. This one has been well presented by the lecturer and with a lot of supporting information to guide us through its completion.
Once coursework 2 is submitted, it will be full steam ahead on exam revision for the second week in January. I dread to think how much chocolate I will end up consuming just to try and get me through this hectic month!
Wish me luck, and good luck to all fellow students sharing the same experiences!
Nic x
Nicola Cañaveras 