‘The placement is certainly providing me with a chance to practice these skills with real life cases’. Undergraduate Alia Awan has just started her placement year in the NHS working in a centre for disabled children. Here she gives her tips for getting the most out of your degree, from organising yourself for study to making friends.
Why did you choose to study psychology?
Initially, I chose to study Psychology because I really enjoyed it at A level. Now that I have done two years of it at uni, I can happily and confidently say I want my career to revolve around psychology. I love developmental psychology because I have always known I want to help children in some way. Through my placement I found my why. I want to make research more accessible for parents. My dream is to translate research for parents so they can implement evidence-based strategies to benefit the child in terms of development, both short and long term.
“The lecturers have made the content engaging which helped me enjoy the learning process even more.”
How is your placement going so far?
I absolutely love it! In my first couple of weeks I found inspiration to pursue my career. I found my placement through the university and Careers and Employability Service who helped me work on my CV for my application. I have been able to observe and help score assessments as well as being tasked with jobs that challenge me to improve my skills. My placement encourages me to give things a go and support is always available for when I am struggling with something. The course has prepared me well for the theoretical side of my role such as researching and being familiar with key terms that get mentioned often, but the placement is certainly providing me with a chance to practice these skills with real life cases! I have been tasked with scoring two different types of assessments which I would never have the opportunity to do in class!
I love placement year so far because the coursework/workload is less so you get time to really immerse yourself in the experience and take time to reflect on each day.
How did you find making friends?
As someone who doesn’t go to parties or drink and commutes from home, I was so worried about making friends.
“Making friends was a lot easier than I thought. Everyone is so friendly including the staff.”
There are some more obvious ways I made friends like through societies and attending lectures but through jobs such as student ambassador I have also made some lifelong friends. If you’re worried about making friends, a simple hi to start the conversation or a compliment can go a long way!
What advice would you give to first year students?
I can’t just give one piece of advice so I’ll give you two! The first is to try out different techniques for note taking and revision. First year is the perfect time to do this. What I mean by this is try handwriting notes, try using a laptop etc. Planning has helped me massively, so try making a plan the night before, or plan week by week and see what happens! Figure out what works for you. Your future self will thank you for it. The second bit of advice is take every opportunity as it comes so apply for that committee role, apply for that bit of work experience. Don’t forget to check out SLAS (They hold free workshops to help with the academic side of your degree).
“Try something you’ve never done before! What’s the worst that could happen? The best outcome would be you get some great life experience or learn a new skill!”
How did you stay organised?
My diary is my life! I use it to plan each day, plan revision, plan social events and even plan when I’m going to exercise. It helped me to fit everything in while consciously making sure my social life and academic life were balanced so I was able to look after my mental and physical health. The diary doesn’t have to be fancy and you can colour code and highlight as you please (the colour coding is my favourite part!)
How has your course been so far?
This isn’t often the part people talk about first but I would love to talk about exams! I love the way each module assesses our knowledge in different ways. For example, in the past I have had multiple choice questions, psychological reports, study proposals, group work/presentations and short answer questions. I love the variety of assessments because it allows us to have multiple chances to be assessed. It allows us to reflect on each piece of coursework/exam and the time between each assessment is to work on the feedback to do better next time. The variety of work we do is another thing I like about Psychology and the course. We have lab sessions where we do a bit of coding and statistics and seminar sessions where we debate and discuss topics in depth. Overall, I have enjoyed the course and the content.
“I am already missing attending the lectures whilst I’m in my placement year, but I am looking forward to my final year when I get to see the staff again!”
Alia Awan is studying for a BSc (Hons) in Psychology