Happy Easter everybody! I hope you are all having fun eating lots of chocolate. If you’re like me and chose the sad option of continuing revision through this holiday weekend, make sure you have lots of nice food today, okay?
So today I decided that I would create another one of my beloved lists. This time it is to echo that lovely trope that always comes around the internet once in awhile: You know you’re a (insert type) when… with our type being a third year biosciences student. Being around so many of them, I think I have a pretty clear grasp as to what type of students we have become.
Enjoy!
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You know you’re a third year when…
- 95% of your conversations are about exams and dissertations; the latter 5% is for the fun stuff that will follow
This is true and if you’re a biological sciences student, your dissertation spills over into the second semester so you have it there as an easy subject of discussion for the entire year. Although some of it is casual small-talk, I think it is interesting hearing about people’s dissertations, especially those in experimental projects as people do get to work on some interesting things. Exams? Not so enjoyable. Most of that is the usual, “have you started revising? No… me either,” which I believe is a sentence we learned way before we started university.
- You have favourite lecturers
Having been at the university for three years, you get taught by a lot of the same lecturers as the modules frequently overlap and specialise. It is definitely amusing seeing how familiar you get with the names on the semester schedule you get on the first day of lectures. I think a characteristic that all my favourite lecturers share is steady presentation skills that keeps my attention. 50 minutes is a long time to demand from a bunch of sleepy students so it’s pretty admirable if you can hold a whole lecture theatre for that long!
- You’re amused by first years
Freshers are cute! I see a lot of first year biosciences student at the library with their lab books and I get way too nostalgic. My main advice would be – work hard on your coursework as it will ease the pressure off your exams. Also ask a lot of questions during labs as there is minimal possibility of getting any more extra outside insight to help you with those lab write-ups once the experiments are over. Otherwise, enjoy and don’t stress too much!
- You have 100 different answers prepared for the question of “So, what’s next?”
… and none of them provide a 100% sure idea of what is next. This is a question I tend to avoid asking unless it comes up as I know a lot of people are uncomfortable about getting asked about it. Generally, third year is so busy that it tends to fade out of your head – especially now I’m entering exam period – but the makeshift answer tends to go along the lines of, “I dunno, I’m taking it a day at a time.” This is fair enough. My advice is to focus on what you need to do in the moment because what’s next can go after what’s happening right now.
- You start to have Leicester University withdrawals… whilst you’re still here
It’s true. Every time I walk up to the Library, I get the strangest feeling of nostalgia and sadness even though I know I’ll make the same journey for the next few weeks. I think it’s a great sign that I have enjoyed my time here and I will have things that I thoroughly will miss. But I do hope it stays away for the next couple of weeks at least as the university and I still have a while to go yet.
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