So, what exactly do you do?

“So, what exactly do you with all the free time you have?” – This is a question I have been asked over the year on many occasions and to be honest, I am starting to get pretty annoyed.

I am fully aware that during the teaching periods us sociology students have very few contact hours in comparison to other courses and when it comes to deadlines and exams seasons in January and May that it may seem we have it so easy with the minimum amount of exams (we only had one exam in January and only have one coming up at the end of this month). But it seems people forget that sociology is a coursework and essay heavy subject and that our deadlines are always so close together, on many occasions we have multiple deadlines on the same day. These deadlines tend not be after a break/holiday, they tend to be at the end of a semester which means we have to juggle preparing for lectures with the pre reading and extra reading, preparing for seminars with the set tasks which usually includes lengthy reading as well as write the essays and coursework that will get marked and go down on record.

It has felt weird to see friends who are on other courses start their revision as soon as the holidays start when I am taking a break, on a couple of occasions making me feel slightly guilty for not starting my revision. But then I have reminded myself that weeks leading up to deadline day was stressful and that I deserve a break from the books. As well as the fact that our exams tend to be at the end of exam season so we do get some extra time to revise.

One thing sociology has taught me in the past year is most definitely time management. It is a valuable to skill to possess no matter what you’re doing but with multiple lengthy essays (which require thorough referencing) and lots of other things to juggle, time management is most definitely key!