To think university is fairly easy?

[watthaduck]

This is not a boast in any way, I am not trying to ruffle anybody's feathers but am genuinely curious if I'm missing something.

So I am at a fairly average university in Glasgow, I was a direct entrant into third year after completing my HND at another fairly average college in Glasgow. I am a mature student (28) and am studying social sciences with a main focus on politics, from there I'm hoping to do my masters in social work.

Anyways, leading up to university, I heard so many people, lecturers included telling me what a shock to the system university would be, how I would be studying constantly, how the workload would be so much more full on than college so I was fully prepared and slightly dreading it.

However, since starting beginning of October we have had 6 assessments for the term, 2 assessments per module which have mainly consisted of 1000 word to 2000 word essays, one assessment we had to complete four fairly basic questions and a presentation. Everyone on the course is freaking out, saying how difficult the workload is and how all the assessments are crammed together whilst me and another girl that have been on the same course from the start genuinely scratch our heads wondering if this is a joke.

I've only had one piece of coursework graded and this was the assessment with the four questions which I got 72 percent, not amazing but was happy with that being my first piece of work. Yet today I was speaking to other students who got 43 percent and said how difficult the work is this year.

At college we literally had about 12 pieces of coursework all within 6 weeks of each other including exams and I was very stressed but always passed with an A.

I guess my question is am I doing something wrong? I am putting in the bare minimum amount of effort to be honest as is my friend as struggling with motivation with it all being online. I've never felt less stress through education.

AIBU to think that people were just trying to scare me about uni? And that it's actually not that hard?

Obviously I understand and appreciate that some courses are harder than others and mine just might be a fairly easy one but I'm just waiting for someone to come out and shout JOKE

Try doing a dentistry degree. People with straight A*s in the most rigorous A level subjects having breakdowns over the academic workload coupled with developing clinical skills and managing responsibility for their patients.

@isthistheendoftheworld I am at Glasgow cal yeah

Like others say depends on the programme etc.

I recently did a masters in a totally different subject than what my undergrad was. I was prepared to work effing hard to get the basics that others got in their undergrad. In the end it wasn't really necessary and managed to get a distinction without too much effort. That being said, some of my classmates struggled.i think people who have decent critical thinking skills and ability to read the assignments did well. Being older (27) helped aswell.

My undergrad was harder, not that it was difficult but the expectations were higher and we had to be in all lectures (health care related) and it wasn't just reading. Also i was straight out of school.

Obviously it depends on what you're studying.... I'm not going to lie I found my humanities degree pretty easy but I think "harder" subjects are probably more taxing.

But I think also if you go to university from work its likely to be less stressful than if you go from school or gap year. If you're used to the discipline of work then having to do five or six assessed pieces of work and go to a few lectures a week could seem more relaxed.

I’m finding my degree really hard actually, I’m quite shocked because I didn’t find my access course hard even though that was far more full on.

I’m struggling to remember the different ways in which the university expect work to be structured and researched, it’s the opposite to how they taught us on the access course.

Feels like I’m drowning in confusion most days I’m just praying it gets better.

Depends which course and which uni.

I had a friend at a different uni whose only workload was to produce one essay a term. I had to produce two 3000 word essays a week (plus learn an ancient language from scratch) but that was nothing compared to a friend in a different course at my uni who had 5 essays a week. The most stressed person however was studying maths at Oxford. Now their work was hard.

Sounds like your course/uni isn’t sufficiently challenging for you, you might want to look at your options.

@FootballFacedOrang honestly, I look at this degree like a stepping stone for me to get into masters social work, that's what I've always wanted to do and to be totally honest I'm not enjoying the actual topics at uni and so feel like I'm just trying to get through them the best I can so that I can move on to something I actually want to be learning.

It must vary massively from uni to uni then. I went to a 'better' one than you and am amazed that you can skim read for answers for a seminar. Ours were not question based in the slightest so were not reading to find answers, we were reading to gain an understanding and then had group discussion on it. Led by a tutor but we weren't spoon fed what bits to focus on before the seminar.

I look at this degree like a stepping stone for me to get into masters social work
Ah, that’s interesting. That might be what you’re “missing”. The bare minimum will probably hurt you later down the line. You’ll need a basic level of understanding of more than just your assignments to do particularly well later on.

Uni was easy I'm a registered nurse. Maybe a maths degree would be hard

I think it varies hugely between courses and universities. I went to Oxbridge and found my undergrad very challenging in terms of the amount of work. We worked on a fortnightly schedule and had 3 2000 word essays as well as 4 other assignments due every 2 weeks. It annoyed me so much when I saw school friends posting on Facebook about handing in their one essay for the term since their degrees seemed to involve so much less work for the same qualification.
I then did a masters at the other Oxbridge which I found easy, I actually commuted into London 3 days a week for work without anyone noticing and got a merit with very little work. I actually didn’t even fully read the texts my dissertation was on 😳

Ours were not question based in the slightest so were not reading to find answers, we were reading to gain an understanding and then had group discussion on it. Led by a tutor but we weren't spoon fed what bits to focus on before the seminar. Also my experience.

Well obviously mature students have a huge advantage. University courses WANT students to pass, it would be a shit course if it was too hard for almost all the students.

I would also keep in mind entry requirements for your masters. If spaces are in demand, you'll need to get as best a grade as possible from a lower uni, than an average in a higher one.

Barring specialst subjects, a 2.1 social science degree from glasgow uni means a lot more than a 2.1 from caley, when put in an application pile.

I'm not saying this to be mean, just that you might want to rethink your bare minimum attitude, no matter how easy you find it.

I did history at a 'good' university. I did sod all. I handed in a half completed unbound dissertation a day late. I didn't go to a single lecture in my third year. Not one. I was a very messed up teen.
I got a 2.2. Okay, not the greatest degree but theres no way I should have passed. The work I did a week was easily in single figures (in terms of hours).
The only thing that might have slightly saved me was I'm very good a writing total bollocks to make it sound like a researched opinion!
Working life is much much harder.

The person getting 49 isn't finding it easy, are they?

You sound well-organized, good at delivering what the lecturers want and not getting caught up in over-reading for seminars, so working smarter not harder.

Clearly not everyone can do that, otherwise everyone would get 72.

Other reasons that some students are held back/don't achieve very well is that they are demotivated, lack study skills, have a specific learning difficulty (sometimes undiagnosed, sometimes given help for this), just don't have the powers of analysis when evaluating written arguments and so on. You can't be absolutely crap and bad at time management and have none of the skills relevant, and come out with a 72 so to a certain extent this is false modesty.

It's also true there's been a lot of grade inflation in the sector, I try to hold the line, but I'm aware that at some unis nearly 40% are getting firsts, so it sounds a bit better than it used to, I'm afraid. A lot of employers are interested now in transcripts, so being consistently good will pay off.

I think you are surprised by your own success, which you need to start owning, but if you want to be popular on your course, I wouldn't go around exclaiming how easy it is.

I found it hard. I left school with 4 average CSEs and did my degree as a single parent working full time, I got a 2:1 which I worked hard for, in my last year I did a full time job and full time university.

I think science and maths subjects are significantly harder. Most art subjects/humanities/business aren’t all that hard for most reasonably academic students as long as you do a bit of reading.

Try medicine and then tell me it’s a piece of piss.

Couldn't agree more with the op. I didn't go to third level until i was older and was always intimidated by how hard it was going to be. It wasn't. Then I was told the masters was going to be so hard. It wasn't. At all.

I agree OP, but I think you have to look at it from a historical point of view, especially if you're doing arts or humanities. In the old days, I think a lot more personal study was expected. The university was mainly an opportunity to go to the library, talk to experts, etc. Fast forward to recent times and we look at how many teaching hours there are or official assessment and for some of us that was quite light.
I did languages and had 12 hours a week of lectures so was free most of the time.
Obviously I had essays and translations to do, but that still didn't add up to a full time week unless you did your own work on top. You could also take short cuts like reading the novels in translation.
My friends were doing science and were often busy 9-5, much more like a normal job. They took registration at their lectures so attendance was compulsory, whereas for me attendance at lectures wasn't compulsory, only seminars and we didn't have many of those.

This was in the 90s.
I was talking to someone who did Classics in the 60s or 70s and he had fewer hours again.

As you say not all Universities are equal and not all degrees are equal .

"Then I was told the masters was going to be so hard. It wasn't. At all."

Ah, but I found my postgraduate courses (OU) really hard and didn't finish.
Not the workload, but the difficulty of it.

YABU

DD is at an RG university that required AAA - AAB at A level (not sure what the equivalent is in Scottish qualifications). She is studying biomedical sciences, and is in her second year. It is very full on and she currently getting on average 5 online lectures a day, plus assessments and lab practicals (mostly online).

You are either very brainy or the course you are doing is relatively easy, or you are underestimating what is required of you. Humanities courses traditionally have fewer contact hours, but it means that the student has to do a lot more reading around their subject.

It seems odd that you haven't worked out that these things are relative.

I found further maths a doddle. Didn't do any work outside lessons and would have expected to get 100% in the pure and over 95% in the applied.
If I'd done French I'd have been working all the hours of the day and still struggled.
My friend sailed French, but struggled with single maths.