My third-year experience

Ellie Plummer – 3rd Year Media Production

Somehow I’m in my third and final year of university. With graduation on the horizon, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t absolutely terrified. However, I am also so excited because it means that I can decide where life takes me. My current plan for post-graduation is to get a part-time job whilst freelancing and doing my own projects to build up a portfolio and showreel. But! Dreaming aside, I have a LOT of work that I need to complete before I can even think about graduating. I have come up with a few points that sum up my third year experience so far.

Time goes ridiculously quick.

At first you’re an innocent fresher who is unaware of the ways of the world. You’re peppy and excited for 9am workshops and have joined as many societies as possible. Suddenly, without realising you’re a third-year who spends 8 hours a day in the library trying to face a dissertation that unfortunately isn’t going to write itself. You may become a lot more cynical but at least that adds to your ability to criticise outdated theories. I advise you to enjoy university as much as possible because it’s unbelievable how fast time goes by. I have a day off every week where I relax and try to forget about work so I don’t get too stressed and can spend time doing things that I enjoy. I do go to Quack every now and again because it’s very important to have the occasional night out.

University is very flexible

I currently only have two lectures on my timetable, which is a bit unnerving – the reason for this is that third-year is all about fitting in contact time around our schedule. As most people are all doing different modules and specialising in different areas, we are all busy at different times. We are able to schedule our tutorials and choose which masterclasses we wish to attend. Plus, there are also workshops that I can sign up for to help you when you leave university. Having a flexible timetable definitely, makes third-year more enjoyable as I don’t have to stress about working things around lectures and seminars.

Time management is so important

First and second year have definitely helped a lot when it comes to time management. It is so important to equally spread out your time for each module as you don’t want to focus too much on one and then do absolutely nothing for another. I often plan out my weeks so that I’ll have specific days to spend on each module. This helps as it breaks up what I am doing each day rather than doing the same thing for days on end.

Ultimately, university it supposed to be the best time of your life and as long as you have a good balance between work and socialising/hobbies then you will be fine. Third year is tough and can be a touch soul-destroying at times but it will be so worth it in the end. Always think about walking across the stage as you graduate and how proud you will be of everything that you have achieved.