The workload in the United Kingdom is extremely different from that of the US.
In the states, I would 100% be working practically every night on some kind of assignment or online project or having to review for quizzes twice a week but over here that is definitely not the case.
Here, they generally only require you to write an essay and take an exam during finals week and then after that, you're golden. Which definitely didn't sound too bad to me when I was told this by our academic advisors.
Only one paper and an exam? Sick, I can do that, for sure.
Yeah, I really can't.
Coming from America, where our workload is on the verge of being ridiculous, you would think I would be able to handle such a small amount of work but honestly, I feel like it makes school so much harder.
More emphasis is placed on your essay and you have to make sure you REALLY know what you're talking about when writing it. Not saying that when I write I don't know what I'm talking about, but in lectures of over 200 people, I find it's really hard to get lost in the sea of students and not pay attention during class.
It's a struggle to keep myself from scrolling through Facebook and hold myself accountable when professors will never know what I'm up to while I'm supposedly taking "notes" on my laptop. Especially coming from such a small university at home (shoutout Chapman), where most classes I have been in are 25 people max, it's really hard to hide yourself away in a corner so I am held accountable by basically everyone around me.
Basically, focusing in classes is hard and now that essays are coming upon their due dates, I'm realizing just how much I need to review in order to feel at all prepared to BEGIN writing.
Of course, it will get itself done on time but the struggle of having to acclimate to such a different type of teaching and workload has definitely taken its toll on me.
I took our small workload for granted and now I am fully understanding what it is like to be a stressed out uni student again. I was on vacation until about 4 days ago and now it's finally hitting me that the semester is definitely here and happening.
Thera are so many distractions while you're abroad, it's easy to find yourself lost in just what you are doing and not focusing on what you really should be doing. This week has been a wake up call, but I'm thankful for it.
The next week or so will not be fun, but I have finally gotten myself in the mindset to get my work done and not just continually put it off one more day.
Wish me luck.
