Student sorrows and curiosities

One expects that every new academic year will increase the intensity and level of coursework. At the same time, it is almost impossible to miss the feeling that it cannot get much worse than before; otherwise, that would be too hard to handle. Currently, this is exactly the kind of a feeling I have. For some reason, the Psychology department divided our 9 modules very unevenly, and so this semester I have to complete at least three times as much work as the last semester. The last semester seemed excessively tense, but this one is definitely much worse. In spite of this, I sometimes imagine that moment of finishing my last exam and how all the stress disappears. Well, only until I realize that exams are not the furthermost point of all this stressful period, as there is at least one more month of waiting for the results. After all, I hope that everything will be fine, and I will look back and realize that I am able to continue, persist, and work like a dog even more.

This year should further outline my future direction. Not only the content of the curriculum, but mainly one piece of written coursework will greatly contribute to my self-awareness and subsequently to my clearer vision and action plan. This fundamental work contains three components: self-awareness, market awareness, and self-selling. Therefore, it is a collection of three areas that each university student should investigate, but which is mostly overlooked or ignored. For this reason, I perceive it to be a valuable experience and a base for various aspects of the future.

Another contributing feature of this year includes mini projects carried out in both semesters. Basically, it is about looking into an academic branch of our discipline. In the first semester we worked in small groups to design and conduct our own study on the topic of social media effects before bedtime on the quality of sleep. This way we copied the traditional approach to experiments which academics undertake in their professional life. Firstly, we designed the study and created essential documents, such as consent and ethics forms. Then we invited our participants to take part in a focus group discussion, which was recorded and later analysed with a so called discourse analysis. The last step comprised a report write-up. This semester, we follow similar guidelines. However, we focus on quantitative approach and the exploration of sequential learning. This is definitely a valuable experience, as it prepares us for a maxi project done individually during next academic year. Also this has shown us how experimental branch of psychology may operate, and we have been able to (unofficially) contribute with our findings to current research interests.