Top Tips For Lectures

Term has officially started with the promise of plenty of lectures to keep us busy, and while some of us have learnt how to deal with 9am’s in Newman over the years, the auditoriums may be new to you freshers. So listen up, as Hannah Davies has given us her handy top tips for surviving your first term!

1)     First of all, actually go to them!

Sure, maybe they say first year ‘doesn’t count’ but it secretly does, and put it this way… If you have 6 hours of lectures a week, that works out as over £60 a lecture, and as students we can’t ignore this waste, you’re paying for it! Hopefully that statistic will help to motivate even the laziest of students to brave the 9am lectures. And as for the ‘I’ll borrow my friend’s notes later’ tactic, you probably won’t, and you’ll actually end up confused when it comes to revision. Trust me.

2)     Try To Stay awake

No-one wants to be THAT person who’s known for always sleeping in lectures. It’s embarrassing, unproductive, and no one wants to wake up with dribble on their notepad and judging looks from the lecturer. Invest in a cheap Starbucks thermos and bring a morning coffee, you’ll thank me later.

Photo Credit – TheGuardian.com

3)     Check your appearance

We’ve all been there, it’s so tempting to roll out of bed ten minutes before a lecture. But just remember, there is nothing attractive about last night’s makeup, a smelly hoodie or a fake eyelash still caught in your hair. I guarantee it will be just your luck, that that will be the day you bump into every crush/ex/fling on campus. Dry shampoo is a must have, and if the weathers nice enough to get away with it… wear your sunglasses! They’re guaranteed to cover those glazed over ‘I don’t remember last night’ eyes.

4)     Make friends

First year is the most important time to make friends, and somewhat surprisingly lectures are the perfect place. You may have to be brave and put yourself out there, but it’ll work in your favour to have people you know in class with you; you can walk to them together, revise together, and struggle over ‘late-night coursework nights’ together.

5)     First year DOES count

So people say it doesn’t count towards your degree… When actually your tutors, future employers can still see your 1^st year mark, and it can often play a role in dissertation selection; put in some effort and third-year-you will thank you!

Overall, try and enjoy lectures. It will help you to realise what aspects of your course you really enjoy, and that can make the daunting future a lot easier.

 

Hannah Davies

Quiz: Have You Screwed Up Your Degree?

Image credit: Shane Adams

If you’re a third year, you’re bound to be wondering whether or not you’ll walk away from uni as an employable human being.

Exeposé, as always, is here to help.

We’ve put together the definitive quiz to tell you if you’ve screwed up your degree.

Have a go below…

[slickquiz id=1]

Olivia Luder, Site Manager

What does Exeter mean to me?

Photo credits to Peter Broster

Bill Bryson once wrote that “Exeter is not an easy place to love.” Clearly he never spent a summer’s day sipping a cold beer at Double Locks, never went on a perilous road trip across Dartmoor in a hallmate’s clapped-out Land Rover, or even dared to indulge in a spot of Sambuca-fuelled Rameoke after twelve hours editing in the Exeposé office.

When arriving at university one unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in September 2010 I could never have guessed just how much I would come to love Exeter, its quirks and the experiences I would get to have here. I’d like to say that in those three years I’ve given a lot to my degree, and to this paper which you hold in your hands, but the salient truth is that Exeter has given me a great deal more in return.

Although spending my first year living half an hour away from my lecturers, on a distant campus occupied by the most banterous of sports scientists, was admittedly a chore, I have somehow managed to enjoy just about every second since.

Exeter has changed a lot since those heady days, but my reasons for loving this city have not. It’s in the small things: taking full advantage of Riley’s £1-a-pint ‘student’ nights, sipping homemade sangria on Dawlish beach after that last summer exam, the scramble for pizza on Exeposé press days, RAM curly fries for lunch, missing lectures because a juicy scandal worthy of an Exeposé front page was developing.

As graduation and (un)employment loom, I can now look back on my three years of Exeter with pride and contentment. It’s definitely time for me to move on, but I will always look back on my years at this university as a very happy time.

Thomas Payne