What worries you most at university…Your grade situation or your money situation?
9 in every 10 students are frequently concerned about grades, according to a survey by Jisc earlier this year. Nearly 8 in every 10 students worried about money.
They’re both big concerns, but grades are a worry for practically everyone.
Are grades a worry BECAUSE of fees and money matters? Have issues got worse as tuition fees have gone up?
It’s not like grades have ever been a shrug-fest, but think how much pressure you’re under today with £9k fees as part of the deal.
It’s why there’s such a push and pull around the “students as consumers” angle, even though it shouldn’t be part of your day-to-day academic work.
You can be overwhelmed about all sorts of things without realising. Not that long ago, you risked wasting a lot of your time if you didn’t perform as well as you’d like in your degree. Now the risk is wasted time and money.
And while you may only pay off the debt when your earnings are high enough, the money remains as a constant reminder. Some students want the best grades so they can justify that student loan balance.
Balance ‘productivity’ with ‘good enough’
I don’t believe it’s worth forcing a First Class Honours. I can’t see the value in working solely to get the best grade possible. Make it a serious factor, yes, but don’t turn it into your whole reason for being.
A top grade isn’t the surefire route to future success.
No matter how much you’d like to grab that First (or at least an Upper Second), make sure you pay attention to the rest of your experience at university too.
In other words, look beyond the A grade. It doesn’t matter if you get a B. A Second Class Honours isn’t going to destroy your chances of a bright future.
A sole focus on the academic work alone, however…That could be a mistake.
Frugaling has listed 10 reasons why you shouldn’t obsess over the highest marks. Basically, work hard, but make sure you’ve got time and energy for other commitments too.
There comes a time when you investment bigger and bigger amounts of time to smaller and smaller gains. The magic is to find a sweet spot that combines ‘productivity’ with ‘good enough’.
There are some study fundamentals:
- Turn up and do the work;
- Seek help when you get stuck;
- Make it a priority.
That last point about priorities gets a bit more complex.
You’d think the study priority is about doing really well in acing tests and excelling in coursework.
It’s not. Your priority is finding your version of good enough.
Priorities, Not Urgency
I’m not saying your grades don’t matter. I’m not telling you to take your work less seriously.
I’m pointing out that you have more than one priority. Studying is just one of those priorities.
And when you know several priorities need to be dealt with quickly, your issue is with urgency.
Urgency is different to prioritising, as I’ll explain in a moment.
Other priorities can include:
- Work experience;
- Achievements;
- Extra-curricular activities;
- Building a portfolio of work;
- Investing in your future as a graduate long before you graduate.
These are priorities. Think of others that you’ve got. You need to juggle these.
Scheduling, deep work, practice, routines…There are ways to keep priorities in check so they don’t get in the way of each other, so they don’t overlap, and so they equal more than the sum of their parts.
If you only look at academic work while you’re a student, your other priorities will creep up on you. Deep into your final year (or worse, after you graduate), the other items I’ve listed above will become surprise priorities.
Avoid surprises as much as you possibly can. The more surprise priorities you have, the more urgent work you’ll have to do. At some point, it’ll become too much.
That’s why you need to pre-empt your priorities. Work out what your future needs are at the moment. Work toward those needs in small chunks while it’s not urgent.
Having nothing in place means you have too many urgent priorities. Stuff appears needing immediate action. Another recipe for overload.
Don’t get to that point. Take the time while there still is time. Make your priorities as relaxed as possible.
Imagine two people doing their coursework. One person spends small chunks of time over two weeks to get their coursework done. The other person does nothing until they pull an all-nighter just before the deadline.
Both people had coursework as a priority, but one of them let that priority become urgent.
In both cases, they could still pull off a top grade. In both cases, they may keep succeeding and land themselves a great job and fast-track an impressive portfolio.
But the all-nighter urgent priority case is leaving too much to chance.
Putting it off, or always on?
If you’re prone to procrastination, Lifehacker suggests that it’s because you get an “impulsive tendency to do what feels easier, rather than the thing you know you should be doing”.
When you feel that problem, it’s worth checking out Wait But Why’s two-part series on beating procrastination:
[Yes, read both parts! I’ll wait…]
Once you’ve got past the procrastination, the next issue is getting those priorities in check.
On a casual level, you may think about your situation every now and then. You may be moved to take action over something random. Maybe not.
It’s time to face your priorities head on. Juggle them as you go so you don’t leave anything until the last minute. Or worse, until it’s far too late.
A number of relaxed priorities will help make a positive difference. A bunch of urgent priorities is far less forgiving.
When time is on your side, you really can relax to do more. That’s why it pays to face your priorities. When academic work is just one of the situations you’re dealing with, you continue to work hard, but not at the expense of everything else.
Keep all your priorities in check. Focus on both your present and future priorities. The importance of grades will become less rigid. And you may find that less pressure leads to a happier run on those grades anyway. Win-win.
And that’s why the all-nighter is a much riskier option than small, consistent doses of work, spread out over the allotted time.
Instead of the all-nighter, what if you want to spend every waking moment on your study? My suggestion is to step back for a moment and take a wider focus on your other priorities. Why are you studying without any other activity? What are your future plans? Are you plans likely to work out if you ignore everything except study?
If you’re prone to either procrastination or perfectionism, it’s time to bring your other priorities into the mix. Don’t let those priorities sit at the side and become urgent.
Instead, relax through all that you do. It can make a huge impact on your life, your grades, and your health.
Whatever your situation, you need to think beyond your grades.
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Next time, I’ll tell you why your degree isn’t worth any less now than it used to be. And I’ll help show what you can do to be distinctive.
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