Heading back to part-time study while working - mature student. What are your Top Five Tips?

Denalihighway

Hi folks

I'm heading back to part-time study while working a reasonably demanding 9-5 job. Mature student. Excited about it but also, I guess most of us have a little apprehension about the commitment and so on. My course is 2 evenings per week, it's a 4 year course degree course, semesterised.

If you had known what you know now after doing something similar, what would your top five tips be?

Anything from managing time, tech, study approaches, day to day cr*p - I'd love to hear them.

Appreciate your time!

maneno

I was in your shoes a few years back. I would recommend identifying the modules you will struggle with early on and ensure you attend those lectures and dedicate more time on them

Denalihighway

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117766282#Comment_117766282

thanks - the beauty of the course is I'll probably find them all pretty interesting. Also, this time around, I actually can't imagine missing a single lecture unless it was an emergency. I've learned from my mistakes :)

Cheers

I’ve done it and it was defiantly worth it for me career wise. It basically got me a job where I wanted one. Good luck with it.

Arrange your holidays / free time before big deadlines. I took some unpaid leave at the end just to get everything over the line at the end. I would have really struggled without that in Year 4. Be aware of your leave requirements and don’t take days for people’s weddings / social events or other stuff you would do otherwise. You’ll need those days to take the pressure off and / decompress.

Enjoy and Bon Courage

Tip away and get assignments in as they come. As you’re working it’ll just create stress and perhaps become unmanageable if you let things slide.

De réir a chéile a thógtar na caisleán ( castles are built bit by bit) is the motto to follow.

mondeoman72

On time management: DO IT NOW!

We had lectures about study and time planning. Do not leave things to the last minute. The continuous line was - do it now.

Do not put off assignments, study and revision. I have an exam friday and another monday. I am struggling and now aiming to see what I can do to get the pass. If I had of started revision study a whole month earlier, it still would not have been early enough

Wabbit Ears

I'm heading into year 3 of a DBS management QQI Lvl 8 Degree course, part time, 2 nights a week.

some observations:

Learn to take notes during the lectures, both live and online. trying to do them after the fact is a nightmare.

You'll probably be surprised that the desire to ace this and do your best isn't that common. A good few folk will be shooting for a pass and this will show itself big time in group assignments.

There will be those who expect others to do their work in group assignments. Smack that down early and fast.

Dont worry about age gaps.

Where possible, interact with lecturers. Make sure they know your name and your face. Ask them questions offline if your struggling, they do like helping if its a smart and concise question. If you do this, they will give you the benefit of the doubt. With several hundred students, many of which piss them off or are disinterested, standing out positively has helped a lot.

Dont bother trying to learn all the material, rely heavily on past papers and worked examples and do them repeatedly until you can do them fast. Also, remember there isnt negative marking, you can get 90% of a questions marks and still get the answer wrong as long as all your workings and process is right.

Denalihighway

Great stuff - thanks all