Making choices

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• Choices to help your academic work
• Choices to help your career
• Choices to improve your quality of life
• Reflection

Choices to help your academic work

When making academic choices, you need to consider such issues as whether:

• You have a good foundation in the skills and knowledge of the subject. If not, you may struggle with the programme.
• Your programme fits together as a coherent set of choices.
• There are areas of overlap which you may find either useful to reinforce your understanding if the subject is complete or boring if it feels repetitious and too easy.
• The programme suits your career interests.
• You can gain credit for previous learning and experience - if you have undertaken previous higher level study or been in relevant work for several years, you should ask about this at the university.

If you are unsure, speak to the admissions tutor, a year tutor or your personal tutor, depending on what your university provides.

Choices to help your career

You have important choices to make about how you allocate your non-study time. This is an individual matter, depending on your life interests, commitments and career ambitions. From a career perspective, see planning your future.

Choices to improve your quality of life

It is important to gain a good balance between:

• Achieving study objectives.
• Working.
• Developing skills and a broad portfolio of experience so as to be a strong candidate for jobs.
• Making friends.
• Networking- meeting people who can offer guidance, leads, support.
• Developing new interests and wider perspectives.
• Relaxing and resting.

University offers unique opportunities to try out new things and to assume responsibilities. Make the most of these opportunities.

For more advice please see Chapters 4 and 8 of The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell.

For further advice, please see Skills for Success by Stella Cottrell.