Emily Hall
I know the feeling. It’s 10pm before your assessment is due. You promised yourself you wouldn’t leave it to the last minute, but here you are, changing things here and there. Should that have a colon or a semicolon? Is that in the passive voice? Should there be an ellipsis here…
It is easy to feel like the success of your entire academic life is riding on those final exams and assessments. Everything you have learnt from the age of 4, all those years of homework, revision sessions, GCSEs, A Levels – it has all led to this moment. Twenty years worth of study on your shoulders, all for it to be resting on your final assessments of your last year of university. That is a lot of pressure. Too much pressure, for someone to healthily have on them.
The truth is, everything you’ve done up until this point has been a stepping stone for a much longer journey. Whatever your educational journey, whether you were homeschooled until the age of 10, whether you went to private school or public school, you’ve slowly been laying the foundations for your academic life.
Each test, each exam result, has helped you get to where you are. Now I don’t know about you, but I know that for me it wasn’t all easy sailing. I have come out of exam halls crying because the topic I revised so hard for didn’t come up.
You feel shattered. Defeated. It is so easy for it to feel like it’s the end of the world and someone is pulling the floor from underneath your feet. Though in reality, you’re not falling off a cliff edge but walking across stepping stones, slowly becoming the version of yourself that you are today.
The reason for that metaphor? I hear you ask. Well, I hope it provides reassurance that whatever happens with exams and assessments and the concluding moments of your university degree, that is not the be-all and end-all of your academic life and journey into adulthood.
Like everything you’ve experienced so far, your university studies have been an instrument of growth and a catalyst for progression, both personally and academically. While academic gratification is great and it is rewarding to see your hard work result in something, remind yourself that your university experience is worth so much more than a number on a piece of paper.
Life after university can seem a looming and intimidating prospect. The world of work, and all that comes with it, might make you long for a 9 am lecture or group presentation. But it is also full of possibilities.
So as you click ‘submit’ on your final assignment, or walk out of the exam hall for the final time, be proud of your achievements. You have taken a pretty big leap across those stepping stones, remember to look back every once in a while.
Featured image courtesy of RUT MIIT on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes have been made to this image.
