Welcome 2014!

My intention for this blog this year is to share my thoughts and emotions that go into my studying process and lay out what works for me. We all have our own methods and what works for me will not always work for someone else, but perhaps it will be of some use to someone, somewhere.

Two years ago I enrolled for a degree in psychology, something I had always wanted to study. The first year I was filled with enthusiasm and I followed all the guidelines as laid out by the University including finding a ‘study buddy’. It worked well. I also sought out, amongst my friends, those I knew would provide encouragement; that too worked well. I achieved my goals set for the first year and I did this by concentrating on my ultimate goal – graduation, even though I was aware that it was still a few years down the road. I lost sight of this in my second year.

I am not sure that this is the case for everyone, but I felt as though I had hit a wall. My planning was haphazard, writing the assignments did not have the same sense of urgency that they had in the first year. I procrastinated and did everything at the last minute. My actions, or rather lack thereof, created stress and I landed up cancelling two of my modules. Surprising enough my pass marks for the modules that I did write was excellent. BUT it is not a route I would recommend for anyone. I felt no real sense of achievement because I knew that I had not put my heart and soul into the year.

 Fortunately I has overcome that psychological hurdle (or ‘bump’ as one of my friends described it) and the enthusiasm has returned. My planning has begun and I welcome 2014 with open arms.