• Question: What do you believe is the hardest part of doing a degree in science, and what advice would you give to students about this?

    Asked by meggielou to Alex, Laura, Richard, vediacan on 24 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Prince

      Richard Prince answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      Hi Meggielou,
      Compared to non-science degrees the workload for science students can seem much higher – there is a lot more “contact time” in lectures, tutorials and practical classes. You also have coursework to complete and exams, but these parts aren’t necessarily any more intense than say, arts subjects. What this means is that you have to be good at managing your time. Students these days are under lots of different pressures. Many have to work at part time jobs to fund their studies and things like applying for placements and jobs after graduation can take up huge amounts of time. So, my advice would be to realise this from the start and make sure you get a system going to cope with all the different demands on your time. Make sure you know when all the deadlines are and how long things are going to take you. If you get it right, you can be successful at university and still have a good time – you need some “play” to balance all the work!
      Best wishes
      Richard

    • Photo: Vedia Can

      Vedia Can answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      Hey Meggielou!

      I personally do not think it is hard doing/ studying a science degree. However, it is a very demanding profession. The only difficulty that you may encounter is finding a balance between your personal life (work (money) commitments, family etc.) and academia. However, you can overcome these difficulties (if you ever encounter any) with improving your management and organisational levels. Life is unpredicted so make sure you take on a subject that you find easy to handle.

      Best Wishes,

      Vedia

    • Photo: Laura Newton

      Laura Newton answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      Hey Meggielou!

      Firstly in science degrees, there is a lot of stuff you need to remember! Not a lot you can do about that except try and do a degree that you are interested in so that you get less bored.

      Also, for me, the jump between school and university was really huge. The workload was bigger, you’re expected to work by yourself a lot more and it’s harder to learn in lectures where the lecturer just talks instead of interacting with you like a teacher would. It took me a while to realise that just going to the lectures wasn’t enough, I had to read over them again, do extra reading around them and make extra notes to fully understand what was going on and by that time it was really hard to catch up. Which is what I spent my first summer holiday doing which wasn’t really that fun. So if you can work this out as soon as you get there and get used to a routine of doing the right amount of work it will help you in the long run. The more you learn properly during the course the less you have to cram for exams which should mean better marks and less panic!

      Good luck with your studies!
      Laura 🙂

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