Any final year (mature) university students around?

[Northernsoullover]

Come join me weeping into my laptop..

Not this year, but close enough to empathise. (March is sudden realisation of how much is still left undone; April, rising panic; May, crying to your tutor; June; grim determination ... )

What's your subject?

I graduated last year and it’s only now I’ve stopped randomly panicking that I’m missing a deadline

Its an Environmental Health degree. I've so much to do and I'm not procrastinating but my grades have dropped this year. I'm totally blaming remote learning but I'll never know for certain.
I really need to do well on my last assignments but everything I write is rubbish.

Yes! Finish in September and I’m I’ll be 29 😬 it’s been a long slog.

It’s just getting harder too 😭 two exams and a project to complete and I have my mortar board (virtual).

When do you finish this year?

Third year too! I'm struggling so much more this year, hard too know if it's just gone up a level due to third year, or it's due to Covid and it all being remote. My motivation is at zero and having kids at home with juggling homeschooling has just been awful. I have an essay due a week today and I'm on 200 words. I've barely made a dent in my dissertation. Feels like it's all unravelling and to make it worse, I read 2 days ago my graduation had been cancelled. Not huge in the grand scheme of things, but it has been what's got me through the last 3 years and kept my focus, a sort of end goal. So sympathies, as I feel exactly the same.

I have to say, I've wondered how you all access the reading needed for dissertations. I can understand tutorials by zoom and some things can be accessed online, but not the Uni libraries. How is it all working?

@Kezzie200

I have to say, I've wondered how you all access the reading needed for dissertations. I can understand tutorials by zoom and some things can be accessed online, but not the Uni libraries. How is it all working?

At my uni most of the books are available digitally and were before Covid. For the ones that aren't the library staff scanned in the required chapters with copyright approval. Journal articles are all digital anyway.

Pleased you have access. I just remember having to buy my daughter £200 worth of books for her first year! She only graduated 4 years ago! Pleased it's moved on.

I'm just finishing my nursing degree. I qualified 10 years ago with a diploma so just needed a few modules.

Working in ICU during a pandemic and writing a dissertation is vile and I can't wait for it to be done.

I had to double check i didnt write yhis thread. I am a final year student that i so far behind with my work i doubt i will graduate in the summer. I just dont have the motivation at all. 😢😢😢😢😢😢

I'm a Master's student and currently regretting all my life choices! I should be working on an assignment right now and I just keep staring blankly out the window.

The virtual learning is really not what I wanted out of this. I never wanted to do distance learning as I knew my motivation was shit. The university have really done a lot to try and make it feel more than a distance learning course. But it is still so easy to just let everything slip.

I'm a Master's student and currently regretting all my life choices!

Yeah, that was me ...

I'm trying to imagine what it must be like to be studying this year. I was fortunate, a few years ago, in that the really specific reading for my dissertation was all available on the Internet because no actual books had been written on the subject. I'm assuming librarians this year are forewarned about books needed for each course and have the material ready?

@Smarties87

Third year too! I'm struggling so much more this year, hard too know if it's just gone up a level due to third year, or it's due to Covid and it all being remote. My motivation is at zero and having kids at home with juggling homeschooling has just been awful. I have an essay due a week today and I'm on 200 words. I've barely made a dent in my dissertation. Feels like it's all unravelling and to make it worse, I read 2 days ago my graduation had been cancelled. Not huge in the grand scheme of things, but it has been what's got me through the last 3 years and kept my focus, a sort of end goal. So sympathies, as I feel exactly the same.

I hear you. I haven't even really started my dissertation. With the cancellation of graduation I might ask for extensions. Our no detriment policy will allow us to resubmit some stuff but if I get my grades up I'll always wonder if I truly deserved it. I was on a first last year but my marks this year have ranged from 40 to 75. Mostly in the 50s. Crap crap crap.

@OcelotPanda

I'm a Master's student and currently regretting all my life choices! I should be working on an assignment right now and I just keep staring blankly out the window.

The virtual learning is really not what I wanted out of this. I never wanted to do distance learning as I knew my motivation was shit. The university have really done a lot to try and make it feel more than a distance learning course. But it is still so easy to just let everything slip.

I've enrolled on a masters. I'm already regretting it.

Me!! I’m third year nursing student and I’m so overwhelmed. I have 18 more weeks of clinical
Placement between now and august. I have been offered my dream job ready for qualifying but i owe 16 days of catch up work and have 2 portfolios due that I haven’t even started/looked at. I have to fit this is around the placements and a primary school aged DS. I’m on a run of nights all over Easter so of course feel terrible as I won’t see him :( couple this with all the work I have to do plus 3x13 hour shifts and I could sit and cry. I feel like these last few months are going to be the hardest.

Thankfully I handed my dissertation in last week which nearly killer me off and I had a maths exam this morning which I have hopefully passed.

I really feel for all of us. I finished work at 2pm today and thought I would put a few hours in. I ended up having a nap which was meant to be 30 minutes and I slept for two hours. I'm so cross with myself

I too could have written this post. Third year student, generally been top of the class, realised today I had my first ever missed deadline, found out by chance on a group chat! I'm so far behind, I've extended work that is now building up. I attend all my online lectures and chat away like I know what I'm doing. When actually I don't think I've taken anything in at all this year.

I had a bit of a panic yesterday. 6 weeks in which to write a dissertation. Plus a 3000 word essay about something I do not understand. I am not going to be able to do it. If I ask for extensions I won't get the chance to resubmit. I honestly want to cry.

That sounds tight @Northernsoullover !! Have you made a start on the dissertation? Or have any ideas on what it’ll be about?

I’ve just had my feedback from my project proposal and it’s the worst grade I’ve had for the whole degree 😢 the idea is good it’s just my writing is shit, I know this already. I’m doomed, I feel defeated to possibly fail at the last hurdle.

I've started it. I just can't write my lit review..Its about as academic as a Janet and John story. 7 hours on the laptop today and I managed 300 words. Most of them crap. I feel like I'm going to fail at the last hurdle too.

Going back to the 3000 word essay. If, at this stage, having tried your best, you really don't understand the subject - it must be that it hasn't been properly taught.

Is there any reason, beyond pride, why you haven't chased up the relevant tutor? A friend of mine described finding themself in exactly this situation a few years ago. They reluctantly took themself to the tutor - who was able to sort out the difficulty in about three minutes flat ...

It doesn't matter if today's 300 words of dissertation are crap. Your brain can't improve them until it's seen them. And they'll connect to or prompt a thought further along. You do honestly need to be brave enough to wade through the crap stage; the good stuff is underneath.

I’m going to start one of the portfolios today, it’s 5 loooong pieces of work so just want to get it done!

The 16 days of made up time is hanging over me. It’s an accredited hours court so I HAVE to make up the time and feels like it’s just hanging over me! But going try to get this first portfolio done and that’s one piece ticked off. Just hope I’ve passed the exam and dissertation 🤞🏻🤞🏻

I graduated last summer with my MSc (I did it alongside my 9-5 job) and I’m now 9 months into a full-time PhD. I’ve been studying in one form or another (HNC > BA > MSc > PhD) since 2014 and I am tired 😂

@PursuingProxemicExactitude Its difficult to say whether its been taught properly or not. I've got complete brain fog at the moment. I did speak to the tutor who said if I was having trouble finding literature then I needed to work on my search strategy. I have boolean operators coming out of my ears. He literally couldn't be arsed..
I'll get there. I always do. I just might not have any teeth left from clenching my jaw with stress

I know a bit about lit reviews, is there something specific that isn’t working? Are you maybe being too specific in your search terms? Or using the wrong database?

Huge sympathies to everyone, it does feel relentless a lot of the time. I was looking forward to the Easter break until I clocked the deadline for submitting my dissertation proposal. Sob.