What I wish I knew before starting my BA at King’s

• Independent study

When you get to university you might hear a lot that you will have to conduct independent study for the majority of your studies and this is definitely true. While this may seem daunting at first, I assure you, by organising your work habits through proper time management, you will not only be able to get your work done, but you will have more time to have fun too. Independent study is geared to help students grow individually and see what work they can produce from their own understanding of each module. Honing your independent skills will be important in helping you achieve the best grades because ultimately, the amount of effort you put into a task the better the outcome will be!

• Readings

Readings are crucial for your understanding! – I myself have found times when readings have been difficult, but getting them done for each of your modules is especially important because most of these readings will be relevant to the essays that you will write. So, having a good grasp of the content will be beneficial to your learning. If you need help clarifying content then you can always ask your module tutors. They have been extremely helpful to me in times of need and clarification!

• Office hours!

If you could take one piece of advice from this blog post that can really help improve your grades then I would have to stress this one! Office hours are your grade saver! Office hours are generally 10-15 minute slots per student where students meet with their module tutors either online or on campus to discuss any concerns they may have about the content, the readings, or anything else in general. These office hours have been extremely helpful to me and I have had so many questions answered by lecturers regarding how to best approach an essay question or to clarify content and this has in turn, improved my grades.

• Formative assessments

These ‘assessments’ aren’t graded, they are more like an essay plan that you can submit to your module tutors and get feedback on in order to improve your essay. In my opinion, making sure you get these done for every module gives you a really good opportunity to fill in any gaps in your knowledge and improve your essays so that you can achieve high marks in your final submission.

• Personal tutor support

Since I have been speaking mainly about how to best approach your academic studies and to try and achieve the best possible grades, it is equally, if not more important to look after your mental well-being. Some ways that have helped to manage my stress levels throughout my studies at King’s have been through speaking to my personal tutor and catching up with them regarding both personal and university life to ensure that I can balance everything properly.

By Asya Begum – Religion, Philosophy and Ethics BA.