Third Year of University (It's hell)

I have previously written about what I expected from third year at university and what other third years had said about it. Now as I'm finally mid-way through my first semester of final year, I can safely tell you that the rumors are true.

Dissertation preparation is a go-ahead with meetings with advisers, references are being written down in academic log-books and books are being attacked with sticky notes. It's the last, huge part of university so I have to take as much time to prepare for actually writing my 10,000 word dissertation. There's not only the main body of the dissertation, it's the literature review preparation and coursework - you have to compare your selected topic with other academics that have written about similar pieces of academia.

Stress.

Even further on top of this is existing coursework from different modules. My current modules for first semester are; Corpus Stylistics (stress), screenwriting, skills modules, and my dissertation help advantage. Now, the most stressful of these is corpus stylistics - the up and coming linguistic devices to examine large quantities of text and compare with others. It's scientific in a way, bringing English and some science in with one, to make language seem a bit more interesting.

What I can say for any second years that will be making the transition next September, is read. Make academic journals (write down all of the references you want to use and reference them ready to go straight into your essay/dissertation) Get ahead of the game, ahead of your coursework so then you can focus more of your time on writing a well-structured essay and you never know, higher marks! Everything you do now is going to that final degree classification, make everything count - don't be lazy!

When you come out of university - of course you want to have a job! This is where my university is excellent in helping you out. We have a select career two weeks where we focus on CV writing, cover letter writing and putting you in psychometric test centers (most graduate jobs ask for you to complete one - revise it! There's logistical test, numeracy and literacy testing - me and maths don't mix, hence why I do English, so revise!) Also, putting you in group interview situations and to give miniature presentations, which again - is what you'll have to do in a real graduate test center. Make sure you work on your communication techniques, your presentation techniques - you need to get over the fear of presenting in front of people.

I'm looking for graduate jobs/schemes at the moment, and it is extremely time consuming. Each job you apply for, you have to cater and change you CV/cover letter to their requirements and needs for the select position. It shows when you haven't put much time and effort into your application - research the company! Now, for my video interview that I had - I revised questions that would likely appear and research within that along with writing down the key points. When these questions came up, I was able to look at my already planned out answers which was a huge help.

All I can say is be organised. Be prepared for non-stop work for your final year, of course make time for a social life - it's not nice being a recluse all of the time! But get it done, get it done before the time limit so there's less stress, Yet, enjoy it! Enjoy your final year as much as possible.