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

They’re not really upset, OP. Some are a bit snippy and a bit chippy and a bit sanctimonious. Nobody appears upset.

Most of the time at Uni was a doddle, spent more time in the pub than actually working, third year got a bit harder towards the end but only for the last three months or so. Got an upper second which was good enough for me.

Undergrad (depending on where you go) - I would say yes - easier than A levels.
Masters - yes.
Doctorate (in my experience) - no.

Also, I will say at Cale, you might find that just being able to regurgitate stuff you’ve read for seminars or lectures and not doing any independent reading or actually understanding the subjects/being able to form your own opinion plus back it up with evidence might come back to bite you in the bum. There’s some extremely smart lecturers in Social Work at that university and they can tell who’s doing the work and who isn’t, no matter how well you think you write.

@flaviaritt yes I know that's why I said...in my opinion...

blarbra

Oh right, sorry. Then presumably you agree with me: it’s a bit silly for people to be posting “That’s because you only do an arts subject” (or similar) all over the thread?

Certainly wouldn't have been easy for me. I didn't go, I struggled enough with GCSEs. I don't learn well in that kind of environment.

@flaviaritt yes of course it's silly of them...everyone is different and has different abilities/finds different things hard.

That's why some ppl pass the driving test first go and some take a few tries. It's all relative...

I think I'd find the course I did (obscure modern languages) much easier a mature student. I'm re-training to be a lawyer, and think I might have struggled with law as an undergrad (or maybe not, there are a lot more helpful resources and study guides and quality textbooks for law than the language I studied. We used a dictionary that was last printed 10 years before my degree, and our final year textbook referenced countries that didn't exist any more it was so out of date) but would find it a lot easier as a mature student if I went back to uni to study it.

I’m a lecturer in a similar 2+2 arrangement, but for a different course - also in Scotland. I teach in the college, and my students go direct into third year. My students feel much the same as you, that their time at college prepares them exceptionally well for uni, and that the workload is completely manageable. Most go on to achieve a 2:1 or first.

I think 2+2 is a really brilliant way of studying for students who are maybe a wee bit young for going direct to uni, or for mature students who have been out of education for a while. It’s a much more supportive environment, and provides an excellent transition. It’s a shame schools don’t promote it more (because they are more interested in stats on university entry) really. I have a few mature students this year - one in his 40s who hasn’t studied since he was 16 - and all were very nervous about things like writing reports and giving presentations, but are absolutely thriving. (Even with remote delivery which is trying for all of us!)

Over 20 years ago when I left, but lived with 4 other friends. They did drama, media studies, sociology and business studies. I did science. One of them had 8 hours of lectures a week! My labs alone were 6 hours long.

I felt our workloads were hugely different and I am afraid to say, my content appeared harder to me.

To be honest, everyone's different, and the style of learning suits some and not others.

Also, being a mature student means you might have a better attitude towards work/life balance, i.e. the 18yos who've only just left home find it tough because of the overall lifestyle change, not just because of the academic work.

In addition, first year is often easier than further years, so while it's great that you're finding it quite straightforward, don't rest on your laurels. It may be a shock when your marks get lower as you get further into your course and the criteria for marking becomes stricter.

The whole point of this post is to question whether I am doing something wrong, not other people.

Well it's not is it, if you are in third year as you say, you haven't come online to see if you're doing something wrong and all of your grades have somehow been a result of doing it wrong. Yes, some degrees the content of the degree itself is not that challenging, but many students do other stuff alongside a degree (and let's not even mention healthcare degrees which with placements as well are a hefty workload). I worked part time when at uni, volunteered to scribe for students who had difficulty doing so, was social sec and then pres for netball, and more importantly, went out most nights. Fitting in coursework was hard sometimes, if I had been at home with not much else to do it would have been 'easy'. There was someone in my cohort like you that bragged about finding it all so easy and exclaiming she didn't understand why people were struggling. It was such a shame when she only got 41 in her dissertation, a real shame.

Hopefully if youre finding it easy, youll get really good grades and be able to study even higher levels.

Sorry I haven’t the time or inclination to read all previous replies.
Firstly I think it depends on the degree. Some are intense, with a heavy workload. For example medicine, nursing. Others are less so with few hours of lecture. To make a sweeping statement that University is easy is pretty shitty. Also your a mature student. They’re renown for being swots and not much fun. 😂

I think you’re obviously clever but you’ve also got the ‘knack’ of academic writing.

I got a 2:1 for my degree (to be fair, I had a baby and a toddler so it was more difficult than if I had been younger with no children)

But I didn’t find it easy at all. I really worked for my degree and whilst I got about 2 assignments over 70, the rest were mainly in the 60’s and a couple of 50’s.

I went to the key skills tutor and asked why I couldn’t get higher than 68% and she says it’s all about academic writing style. Once you get that, you’re off. It’s the way it’s worded as oppose to what it says that enables the top marks.

I never did master it but I believe there’s a lot of truth in what she said. So it’s plausible that a student with average intelligence can get a first, whilst a highly intelligent student can get a 2:1.....

I passed my degree with minimal effort put in. If I'm totally honest I just couldn't be arsed so I rarely studied. I didn't get good marks, but I certainly wasn't the worst either.

I did an access course which was really full on, then did my degree (social sciences at a top uni). I found uni a lot easier than the access course, genuinely skived a lot of lectures, went to the library twice I think in 3 years and still got a first. And that was as a single parent of 2 children.

Since I graduated I’ve done some private A level tutoring and IME A levels are a lot harder. With uni, you only have to remember information for one semester, then you are assessed. With A levels you have to remember 2 whole years worth of stuff, and literally any of it could come up in the exam.

If you can write well, the actual material isn’t difficult. I completed all of my studies while working 9-5. I did my HNC two evenings a week at City of Glasgow College, then I did my BA online (not OU, via a brick uni) one module per term. I then did my MSc online, still working full time but two modules per term and the workload nearly broke me. Looking back I truly don’t know how I managed everything. However, because I write well I didn’t struggle with the assignments and I ended up winning an award for getting the highest overall grades in the cohort. It was the planning/reading/research that was hard to juggle with my job, commitments, friends, family, etc.

I’m now doing a PhD and again, it’s not ‘difficult’, it’s just very time-consuming and has a lot of moving parts to consider in addition to teaching undergrads and extra projects I’m given.

It sounds like you are academically minded and have a knack for the style of writing required.

My degree in Speech & Language Therapy was 4 years of bloody hard graft. 3 full days of lectures and one full day clinical placement every week in years 1-3 and a two 3 month 4 day a week placements in final year (plus research project. Plus academic work consuming every weekend for 4 years (or so it felt at the time). It always used to make us laugh (and inwardly seeth) when people used to say "that's interesting" when asked what we were studying, followed by "do you have to do a course to be a Speech Therapist or can you do it by correspondence"!! They often continued "it's just like elocution lessons really isn't it - I've never been able to pronounce x properly!!

If it’s as easy as you say the you should consider approaching your DoS or equivalent to ask about either an accelerated course with early MA modules or transferring your credits to a different institution.

Universities bend over backwards to make sure students to pass their courses. I think it’s easier than it used to be, introducing fees changed everything. Students are customers. They demand and expect to pass and universities have to make it happen.

Not detracting from the students who work hard but you can coast through many degrees these days.

I found the first year of university as a mature student surprisingly not that difficult. I went to a Russell Group uni.

I think the first year isn't really too big a leap from A-levels. As you progress to the 2nd and 3rd year it will get harder with more work.

I found my dissertation quite stressful.

Oh, throughout uni I had a total of 1 module that meant you'd do well if you just regurrgitated what was in the seminars. The rest you had to work your arse off and do a lot of extra reading and work to get a 2:1.

I did an access course which was really full on, then did my degree (social sciences at a top uni). I found uni a lot easier than the access course, genuinely skived a lot of lectures, went to the library twice I think in 3 years and still got a first. And that was as a single parent of 2 children.

I’m glad DD isn’t reading this. She is on her knees with her studies. Posts like this would just floor her. She is fairly clever – AAA at A level, but had to work her socks off to achieve that. Nothing comes easily to her.