I have just completed my first year of university and it is safe to say I am absolutely relishing in the prospect of having a relaxing summer!
I would like to talk a little about what I do at university, my achievements and how I got there.
I study Chemistry and have had a love hate relationship with the subject for the past year. I love the content and learning new mind blowing concepts, however being examined on this content is a whole different ball game. I very much appreciate the science, however understanding it for an exam is something that has been a work in progress this year.
It is pretty crazy to move out of your family home into a flat with strangers with a bank account balance (at the start of the year) that makes you feel like you can do absolutely anything you want to.
Firstly, getting yourself to lectures is the most important factor in my opinion to getting a first. Being there first hand to experience the lecture is a lot different to watching it back on a podcast as some other time - I mean, you're literally paying for it.
Organisation is also absolutely vital at university as at the same time you will experience an inflated social life and find yourselves going on nights out during the week (which is something I've definitely experienced before). Lecture notes can quickly pile up and before you know it you're in the study week before exams start and you're listening lectures from the second week of the semester only just making revision notes. Make sure you keep notes up to date! You will thank yourself later when you have a 50 minute lecture condensed into a A4 page that takes you 5 minutes to read - this will greatly assist in your revision.
Get the text books that the university recommends as typically a module in a course will closely follow content from a book on the modules recommended reading lists. This was the case for several of my modules and having the textbook with exam questions and extra reading was very beneficial, particularly because in university you don't get past paper answers whereas with the textbooks you do get the answers to the questions that are similar to the exam paper itself.
Listen very carefully to your lectures, they write the papers you are going to sit and the end of the semester and tend to put some emphasis on content that is on the paper. This is what took my grade from what could have been a 2:1 to a first. Don't get me wrong, they won't outright tell you whats on the paper but subconsciously give away a lot more that they realise - or maybe I just got really lucky with my lectures, but it's always worth keeping an eye on.
Get out of your flat as much as possible! There are a lot less distractions in the library/cafe than your home (I feel as though this one is pretty obvious so I shan't blabber on).
Talk through content with course mates. It took me until university to realise that my verbal chemistry is awful, I would have no problem writing down answers to questions however having academic dialogue with peers was a massive issue I've worked on from the start. This is particularly important as my exam papers didn't have strict mark schemes and rather than recalling an answer for marks, marks were awarded for writing down ideas/concepts and considering application of content - this skill can be greatly improved by taking about the subject and gaining a greater understanding rather than just learning the syllabus.
It is important to remember that your first year is time to adjust to a different living and learning style and therefore grades aren't the most important aspect of first year, but it is pretty cool to say I got a first in my first year of university.
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