Determination and Resilience while studying

As a foreign student, I needed to be determined and resilient. When I started, I was overthinking everything. I was even doubting my grammar and I was afraid I was going to make a fool of myself. I even considered postponing the start of my degree. But in the first year of studying, I did my best to adopt the mindset that I wanted to do well and that I had what it took to succeed and to finish with a first-class degree. Unlike most of the other psychology students, I asked lots of questions: during tutorials, after receiving feedback on my assignments and I even had a couple of in-depth conversations with some of my tutors. I welcomed all the feedback, and I tried to avoid making the same mistakes. I remember one particular time in my first year of studying psychology when, after two weeks of hard work, I received a B on my essay. In all honesty, I thought I deserved a better grade. The structure was good, the referencing was perfect, I answered the essay questions, so I did not know where I went wrong. The tutor was kind enough to have a phone conversation with me and to explain how the essay could have been improved. The main problem with it was that it was too descriptive. I did not quite critically evaluate enough, making reference to different types of evidence and showing how they supported the theory. I was surprised. I told my tutor, ‘well, I knew how to do that, I read the materials, I knew about different types of research, advantages and disadvantages’ The problem was I did not know that I was supposed to critically evaluate the research that supports the theory. ‘Nobody told me’ I said. I did take on board all the advice I received and by the end of the second year of studying psychology, my grades were mostly A+. Remember, essay writing is not only about knowledge it is also about developing good writing skills. If you are not doing as well as you’d hoped, please don’t worry. The fact that you are reading a blog about essay writing shows that you are already walking the extra mile and you are putting the extra work into achieving better grades. Writing psychology essays is a learning curve – it takes time and practice.  But developing your knowledge and skills can be fun.

An Important Piece of Advice

If you ask for more feedback or even if you challenge a grade, do it in the nicest possible way. Tutors are people and their work is stressful. There is a small chance that they are slightly unfair on some essays, but then other times they are perhaps a bit too generous with their marking. I experienced both situations. Asking for more feedback and ways in which you can improve is the best you can do.