Experience of Studying During a Pandemic

Since this time last year we have all been tested in ways we could have never imagined and communally experienced a life changing circumstance that has been this global pandemic.

I thought I would share a little bit of my experience of finishing a foundation year and starting my Bachelor of Science degree during this time.

I do want to first caveat by saying I have been incredibly lucky throughout this challenging time as to have had a comfortable home, good mental health, no one close to me greatly effected and I am acutely aware of how lucky I have been. My heart goes out to every single person whose life has been turned upside down for many reasons during this time. I hope that some people will resonate with my experience as a student and find some comfort if you're also embarking on studies during this strange time. If you're not there may still be some similarities in our lives.

Building a routine and organisation became even more essential than it already should be as a student. It is safe to say I massively under estimated this during the first semester. Maybe subconsciously I had felt less organising was needed as going 'into' uni was out of the equation. But it became apparent that you can still be really effected by ineffective organisation even when you're only moving from you bed to the desk!!

Another disclaimer I must add, as a 'mature' student (that title always makes me laugh....as I often feel immature still!) who was not wanting the essential 'uni life' experience my overall experience and how much i've personally been effected by the effects of Covid are far less than many. I really feel for everyone who isn't having the first year uni experience they had hoped for. I hope that your universities have done everything they can to still make you feel part of the community and hopefully next year you can make up for it with many a fresher night!!

My overall positives have been..

Lectures have been feeling more personal

As all of the learning is now taught through zoom or collaborate etc. I have found that it feels as though the lecturer is speaking solely to me. I feel that I am concentrating more because of this. Sometimes in large lecture halls with lots of people you can drift off and day dream more (dependant on your class size)

More content..

My uni and lecturers have gone above and beyond to share lots of content. Including, all the lectures recorded, tutorial questions, extra reading, practise questions and much more. Feeling like there is structure in what they are providing has helped me try to replicate this in my own learning from home.

Eating during lectures!!

haha, it's just not that okay to be munching loudly in normal face-to-face lectures but, now I can eat what I want, when I want. I actually find that it can help me concentrate....not sure how much scientific proof there is of this....

Easier to fit in wellness practises around my lectures and studying

which entail helps my learning and hopefully make me more efficient! For example, mediation, short bursts of exercise in the breaks, journalling, listening to relevant science and dietetics podcasts!

Negatives: Some of the harder things i've encountered...

Loosing track of deadlines

This was a big one for me in the first semester, and one I wasn’t really expecting. It wasn’t until half way through my first semester I realised just how much I depended on my peers during my foundation year with helping remind me of deadlines. At the beginning if this year I had a few close calls with realising an essay was due the day before deadline!!

Lack of social interaction

I am sure so many of you can relate to this feeling, even if you are not studying right now. As humans, we are social creatures and it definitely helps me engage with contact normally

Becoming complacent at attending the lectures live

I am also balancing working as a Fashion Model with studying right now, and of course work has also been effected by Covid. I found I wasn't quite sticking the balance with missing lectures at first, often for work. With no system in place for checking through my lectures to see which ones were the most important or for catching up well, this became problematic. It is so important to still attend online lectures! Or if missing can't be helped, having a good catch up system in place. Thanks to the amazing productivity app Notion I am now being able to do this (free for students, just use your student email!)

More tiring as more non-stop learning..

On the flip side of the point I mentioned earlier about feeling you're being tutored directly, I found this leaves me often feeling more tired! As I feel like I am concentrating more. Also possibly, lecturers can't see us therefore there's less cues to take mini breaks. I think feeling more tired is also just s symptom of lockdown life, as there is not much variety outside of studying currently.

Missing hearing other people's questions..

I only thought of this one recently.. and even though there is an option to write questions in the chat box or to put your mic on, I feel people are not asking as naturally or as often as they may in real lectures. I miss learning from other people's questions, it can be so helpful hearing how people look at things differently to you.

Overall...

For me personally, as mentioned my expectations for uni this time around is purely academic and to become qualified (Of course I still look forward to making friends on the course, when we get back to face-to-face learning!) Because of this, I haven't had as many disappointments as some. But I feel this experience has only given me more skills than possibly I would have from just attending lectures face-to-face. I am definitely more adaptable, have more time to work on wellness activities to support my learning. Plus as I wasn't too active on organisation in the beginning and quickly realised that in my foundation year I massively leant on my peers to remind me of deadlines....online learning has forced me to learn new skills and put systems/tools in place to ensure I am more organised and get the most out of my degree! (will be sharing some of my new favourite productivity tools and processes soon!!) I feel a lot of what this experience has pushed me to do will also one day be directly transferrable to the work place of a Dietitian. Being flexible, adaptable and un-flappable is essential for a dietitian who may be working in forever changing situations. I often hear qualified dietitian's saying, 'no two days are the same', we will all be ready for that.

Inspired by a podcast I listened to recently with Dr Chatterjee and Rich Roll. Roll shared an outlook that’s really helped me. Look at this whole situation through the lens of not what has this situation done to me, but rather what has it given to me....

Definitely struggling with Anatomy work here…haha!