Fresher Take

Academic Stressors

February 04, 2022 UoL Student Life Season 3 Episode 3
Fresher Take
Academic Stressors
Show Notes Transcript

Join your Fresher Take Podcast hosts, Tori & Alex to talk about academic stressors and how to overcome them. They are joined by a special guest, Doctor Christopher Dows, who is a lecturer at the university.  


Tori:Hello and welcome back to another Fresher Take podcast, I’m Tori, 

Alex: And I’m Alex 

Tori: And today we’re going to be talking about academic stressors. 

Now we all know that being at university can be a stressful time, particularly with our academics, so today we’ll be talking about the academic worries you might have while at university, how you can relieve your academic stress, some techniques that can keep you on track, and how you can receive some additional support while you’re a student at the University of Lincoln. 

So, Alex, what is it that worries you most when it comes to your academics? 

Alex: With me it’s to do with time management.  

Tori: Yeah. 

Alex: I always worry that, you know, with multiple deadlines being due at the same time that I’m going to not manage my time correctly, you know, and I worry that everything’s gonna get on top of me because, you know, as we all know when we have deadlines, they’re always in the same one to two week bracket which can be quite overwhelming.  

So that’s what always stresses me out because its’ just, in my head they’re all in my head at the same time so it’s just I always get stressed about what to prioritise. 

Tori: Yeah, I think that’s the worst part, isn’t it? Because it’s like, well I’ve got this one due on, like, the 20th but then another one due on the 22nd, so how do I make sure I get them both done on time? So yeah, I know that one can be so difficult. 

I think for me, the one I worry about the most is just trying to make sure I get the best grade. I put so much pressure on myself to do the best and if I don’t get the grade that I wanted then I kind of beat myself up about that.  

So because of that, I end up doing, like, twelve hour days of just working and doing my deadline, forgetting to eat, forgetting to just stop for five minutes and, like, hydrate and stuff like that. 

It can be really difficult because you just kinda want to make sure you do the best, which you’re probably, you’re gonna do the best you can do and I’m sure that all of your tutors will tell you that as well. But when it hits that, oh, my deadline is due in in a week that’s when it really gets like, right, okay, I’ve got to make sure I get this right and get it perfect. 

Alex: Yeah, I know, I kind of get that as well because at the end of the day you always want to do your best and, like, you always maybe have that thought in your head, like, as long as I do my best it will be fine but also at the end of the day when you see a number it’s just like, ahh. 

Tori: I should have done better, yeah… 

Alex: I should have done better. 

Tori: Yeah, absolutely.  

Alex: So I’m going to go into a bit of detail about, you know, how common it is to be stressed about academics because at the start of the semester, right, and I think our uni is very good at this, I mean in my experience anyway, you get told your academic deadlines pretty much instantly. 

Which on the one hand is fantastic because you already have the end goal in your head, like, you know when things are due so you can start to plan, but also that means that that worry about those deadlines is in the back of your mind from a very early point which can be, you know, a massive worry. 

And university is a big step up from previous educational experiences so it’s also natural to worry about the height of the workload that you’re going to get, you know.  

As we’ve mentioned getting several deadlines at the same time is something that maybe a lot of people aren’t used to, especially if you’re new to uni, so it’s very natural to worry about that and, also, there’s a lot of, I feel, worry that can stem from having low academic self-esteem. 

You know, worrying that you’re not good enough to get the marks, but what you do have to remember is that you got into uni, you managed to get in, you got accepted, you got the grades necessary for getting into this university, which means that the university thinks that you are capable of the workload that they present to you in their institution so if you can keep that in mind then that might help with any academic low self-esteem you might be experiencing. 

And, you know, also another worry that may come up is, you know, sometimes things happen out of the blue something like illness, something like a family grieves, you know, like some sort of emergency that you might not foresee can come up and just derail everything in terms of your academia, you know, you may miss classes and you may worry about catching up because of being absent and something that I’ve found as well, you know, if you miss one session you miss a lot.  

Tori: You do. 

Alex: So it’s very natural, it’s very natural to worry about missing sessions and having to catch up and then being behind, but hopefully this podcast is going to show you that all of those worries can be mitigated, and Tori is going to go into a little bit about how you can relieve some of your academic stress. 

Tori: Yeah, and like Alex said: it is completely natural to be worrying about, obviously, your academics and things, and sometimes things get in the way that you can’t help and, you know, being absent can also add on top of all of that anxiety and that worry.  

But obviously there are ways that you can try and relieve your academic stress, it’s obviously really important to keep on track with your studies and meet all of your deadlines so you can get the grades that you can get, but we also have to make sure that our mental wellbeing is healthy because obviously that is really important too. 

So if you feel like you are experiencing high levels of stress because of your studies then you have to know when you can actually walk away from your laptop screen which, again, we know can be really difficult because once you’re in that zone and you know exactly what you’re doing, and you want to make sure you get the best grade, it can be really difficult to just put it away.  

Because even when you walk away from the laptop screen your brains always racing, and like, “Oh, I just figured out I can put this there, I know what to do for this bit,” and then you end up going back a lot sooner that you should have. 

But yeah, so ways that you can actually try and relieve your academic stress is to designate time for studying and time for fun, and so, things like that, there are plenty of exploring that you can do in Lincoln, and there’s plenty of societies that you can get yourself involved in from sports to academic ones, and just little random ones where you just want to have a bit of fun. 

Make sure you get yourself involved with your societies because you’ll feel like you’re part of a big friendship group and that’s a great way of, just kind of, making sure that you separate your studies and your fun time, or even just doing something as simple as watching a film on your own, you know, it doesn’t matter what it is that you do for fun, just as long as you’re taking time away just do to something that you enjoy doing.  

But another thing that you can do if you’re really worried about your academics is you can arrange a one-to-one with your personal tutor - you can tell them what it is that you’re worrying about, which obviously is probably going to be about your academics, or even something that might be going on, like, in your own time, and see how they can help you.  

If anything they might just give you a bit of reassurance and you’ll find that that’s actually what you might of needed, like, for them to just let you know that you are doing great, you’re on top of things; you might be a bit behind but you have plenty of time to catch up.  

And I’m sure that if you needed any help with, like, feedback and things like that, whatever it is that you’re doing, whether it’s, like, an assignment or just a bit of homework that you had to do, they would be absolutely more than happy to help you. 

You could focus your mind on your favourite hobby, which could be something like binging Netflix, do some painting or drawing, you could get lost in a novel or even just picking up a new hobby - there’s plenty to learn at university, I’m sure you’ll find that out soon.  

So you might actually pick up some new things, like, maybe doing some embroidery, which is actually what I started doing last week - a lot more difficult than I thought, it really was. 

You can have a catch up with your friend where you could talk about anything, whether that’s to do with your academics or even just something fun, something that you’ve been doing, something new, something old, it doesn’t really, it doesn’t matter, just get lost in a conversation with your friend, it might help you get some things off your chest.  

And you could also go out and do some kind of exercise, because doing exercise is quite good for when we have a lot of mental stresses, it can help relieve that, so whether that be going to the gym, you could hire one of the city bikes which you can find all around Lincoln, or something as simple as going for a walk on your own or with a friend; it can be a very therapeutic form of stress relief which can obviously help clear your mind, reorganise your thoughts, and then you’re ready to be going back into doing, sit behind the laptop screen and getting on with your deadlines. 

Now there are many techniques to keep you on track which Alex is going dive right deep into. 

Alex: Yes I am, so there are lots of techniques here that I’m gonna outline for you that I hope will help, and in fact, now just skimming my eyes over the list I definitely do all of these and I have done all of these and they definitely have all helped me.  

So, first of all, organisation, which, as a word, I know sounds quite intimidating because especially if you have a lot to organise it can just seem like an incredibly impossible task, but if you do simple things such as, making to-do lists and keeping such things as notes for specific modules in one place, then it can make things so much more straight forward when you come to access your work, rather than say if you have one notebook for everything and you’re having to rifle through to find what it is you’re looking for. 

If you say, “Right I’ll have, for example, one notebook,” I’m going to use my modules as an example, “one notebook for the business of writing, one notebook for reading as a writer, one notebook for manuscript preparation,” then it can make things a lot easier when it comes to accessing what you need to access when you want to come to work on it, because you’re not having to spend perhaps half an hour trying to rifle through thousands and thousands of notes.  

Another technique is your time management which is something that is very key for me, personally.  

Something that can be really useful is keeping a weekly diary which outlines your workload just for that week, so you say, “Monday I shall do this one thing, Tuesday this, Wednesday this,” and so on and so forth, rather than jamming everything into one day.  

Spreading things and out across a week and, like, making sure you spread that workload out rather than condensing it into one very busy day can be really helpful for you.  

Another thing is communicating with your tutors, I cannot stress this enough, communicating with your tutors can be one of the most helpful things ever.  

All your tutors want to do is help you and they’re literally just an email away, and I know it might feel, maybe, intimidating to engage in contact with someone who maybe you don’t know yet, if you’re new at the uni, but all they want to do is help you and I can assure you they will have the answers to all your questions.  

Also, communicating with your peers, so other people on your course, your friends, can be really helpful because everyone will literally be feeling the same things that you are feeling, like, odds are they will be stressed about the same things you are stressed about and talking about that with each other can be the most helpful thing in the world.  

It can be really helpful to have that kind of, you know, academic relationship where, you know, you’re all going through the same experience so it can be so helpful just to support each other through it as well.  

Another technique, and I know this may sound incredibly painful, I know it sounds painful to me, but turn off your phone  

Tori: Do it 

Alex: During time when you want to study, do it.  

Trust me.  

Or like, if you don’t want to turn it off at least put it on silent so your notifications for Twitter and Insta and TikTok aren’t just popping up constantly.  

It is the biggest distraction, and I’m guilty of this, like if I see MCU Direct on Twitter have tweeted another theory about upcoming phase four content for the Marvel’s Cinematic Universe I’m like, “Oooh,” like I will turn away from my laptop and go and look at that and read their article instead of doing my work so trust me, turning your phone on silent or turning it off can be the biggest help, because it really is the biggest distraction for a student.  

Tori: I think it’s like, as well, when they say, you know, when you’re in your exams at school and they say don’t talk to anyone because that person could have a thought in their mind and then you speak to them and they lose it, it’s like that.  

Alex: Mhmm.    

Tori: All over again, turn off your phone. 

Alex: Yeah, exactly.  

And one final thing I’m going to outline is that it can be really helpful if you find yourself a very specific studying environment.  

I know the temptation is, “I’m in my room, I’m comfy in my room, I’m comfy in my bed, I’ll just do everything in my bed,” but if you’re in bed the temptation is I also watch Netflix and sleep here so I may just sack off studying and do that instead because I’m so comfy. Whereas, for instance, if you make the effort to say to yourself, right I’m gonna go to the library for an hour, or a coffee shop, or a university building like Minerva or Alfred Tennyson, your brain will switch more easily to a studying mindset, basically, because you’re brains like, “Right I made the effort, I’ve got all of my studying material, I’m in a place of study that’s not my home,” it will automatically want to focus on the work that you then bring out into focus so do not underestimate how really helpful entering a new environment can be for studying. 

Tori: Okay everyone so now we have our special guest, Doctor Christopher Dows, who is a lecturer at the university, and he is here to speak to you about the additional support that is available at the university, so, Chris, would you like to say hello and introduce yourself? 

Chris: Absolutely, I am the programme leader for the single honours BA Creative Writing in the School of English and Journalism.  

I also was instrumental in the design and launch of the joint honours English and Creative Writing, I teach on the Masters Creative Writing, also the Creative Writing Publishing which is which is in conjunction with The Guardian, and I also supervise PHD students, and I’ve been lecturing for twenty-six years which is exactly the same time that I’ve been a published professional author. 

Tori: Amazing, so, obviously at the university, well you’ve been there for over twenty-six years so you obviously managed to have a lot of students coming in and out in that time. So we’re going to speak about PASS, which is the Personalised Academic Study Support which is available at the university. So we just thought we’d ask you what you know about PASS and how you support your students with it? 

Chris: Yeah PASS is a really, really useful and, well, as proven to be even more of an important tool for lecturing staff, and actually support staff as well. Obviously when the student approaches the SU for support, if they’re referred to the PASS system there will be some quite confidential information there, so the first thing I need to say is that PASS reports are not handed out willy-nilly, they have a high level of protection on the people who get to see them and get to access them.  

So what happens is when you’ve got a student who, let’s say for instance, has evidence of a diagnosed disability or mental health issue, the report is formed and only the relevant members of staff are told that a report is available for this student which they can then, they can access.  

They can’t actually download it, they can actually only go and read it, it’s in a secure part of the university’s system, and it helps us a lot because not withstanding we’ve already got the formal tutorial process, which is, well I’ve always been a huge supporter of it, but not only have you got the kind of…discussion, sometimes you need a little bit of extra context, a little bit of extra detail about what’s going on with people.  

So the PASS system helps members of staff to know, A. that there is an issue that we need to be aware of, and B. we can then approach the student, or if they approach us and say, look I’m going to need a bit of extra support here whether it’s academic, or personal, or whatever.  

We are much better prepared to help students, to support them in their studies. There tends to be a bit of a split when it comes to academic staff as to what they can help students with, of course if someone’s not having a great time we want to know and we encourage students to talk to us, as their personal tutors, or module tutors, or programme leaders, or whatever.  

But there’s a limit to what academic staff can do, and quite rightly because we’re not experts.  

We’re not mental health experts, we’re not physical health experts and so on, and so what we’ll also do is ensure that if there’s something that is out of our scope that we really can’t help with, we’ll ensure that we know the university’s systems well enough, particularly the SU who I’ve worked with closely for years, we know the right people to send students to.  

It’s never fobbing anybody off, it’s making sure that we can get the right help for people depending on what their individual circumstances are.  

But the PASS system, Personalised Academic Study Support, is particularly useful for a wide range of things as well, it’s not just anxiety or depression or things like that, it may be really quite practical things like dyspraxia or dyslexia where obviously for some people cold filters work for some students, they need a larger format print or text or something like that.  

So that gives staff a heads up to have materials that are also available for particular students needs. So the PASS system is really, really useful.  

Alex: That’s fantastic, thank you, Chris, I think a lot of people will definitely find that incredibly useful. I’m now going to ask you a little bit about how, in your words, can students get support from their tutors regarding academic writing, because obviously, you know, there are so many different courses at uni, so many different ways in which people are assessed, but I feel like academic writing and, you know, university standard of academic writing is something a lot of people worry about and, you know, how to word themselves in a way that is to university standards in assessments, so how can people get support for that? 

Chris: It kind of depends on the school that you’re in, the subject that you study, and also the structure of the programme that you’re on.  

But, on top of that, I don’t know if it’s widely known, but the library offers booking sessions for, for writing development, which is everything to do with planning assignments, how to formulate academic writing, how to phrase it, the structure.  

I think, to a certain extent depending how busy they are they can help with proofreading work with you.  

You should contact the library for that, I think it’s under the guides section, I think it’s learning development or something, it used to be called that – I think it’s still called that.  

There’s also additional support particularly in some of the schools, for instance, in the School of English and Journalism we have our own dedicated Academic Writing Tutor, who is a fellow of the Royal Literary society, her name’s Rebecca Mascal.  

It may be depending on which, which subject are you’re in, what school you’re in, which college you’re in at the university, it might be worth enquiring with your programme leaders if they have their own dedicated support tutor for academic writing.  

I would be surprised if English and Creative Writing, and Journalism, are the only section, the only school in the university has got this, got this person.  

So we have Rebecca, but there’s a wider service available from the library which, I mean there’s so… there’s so many good things about our library.  

The thing about being a university student, I’m not quite that old that I can’t remember being a student, I’m not quite that far.  

Our library is absolutely fantastic and every single school has got their own dedicated subject librarian, ours is Cheryl, Cheryl Cliffe, who is just… she cannot do enough for you, she’s absolutely brilliant.  

And it really is worth having a stroll into the library and just having have a look at, just enquiring about what facilities are available there. But the writing development sessions they’re really, really useful for academic writing.  

Tori: Yeah, you’re absolutely right, the library has got so many things put in place for students in terms of, like, writing but also just how much they’re there, like, all the librarians are there, and I think they’ve also got careers and… 

Chris: Oh, yeah, I mean Helen and McKaren, the careers officer we’ve got in there as well, I mean they are just super.  

The amount of work that the careers, the careers team do behind the scenes, trying to get things together like, well everything from Allumnice coming, in guest speakers, to industry weeks – and they’re a tiny team, and they’re serving the whole university. And they work so hard, and they just really are worth going to talk to, particularly if you’re third year and you’re really not sure what you want to do, they’re there to help.  

Tori: Yeah. 

Chris: They’re a great service.  

The scale of SU support that we’ve got at Lincoln is punching above its weight, and I mean much bigger universities than us haven’t got facilities quite as good as we’ve got in some respects and they should be cherished and supported – because they’re there to help everyone, just like academic staff are there to help but don’t ever dismiss the support staff, they are equally as important as we are to give students the best experience they can have at university.  

Tori: Oh absolutely, students are very well supported at the university, that’s for sure.  

So, when you were at university and you were a student, what was your biggest stress relief when you had loads of deadlines or just do with your academics in general?  

And what would be your best advice to students to help relieve any academic stress? 

Chris: Well, my best stress relief was moderate drinking, and cycling around Nottingham, a lot.  

That was before they had tramlines, because if they tramlines I would have died. I don’t know how they do it in the Netherlands, cycler and tramlines I just like… when you end of going to, I don’t know, Beastern  that’s a completely wrong direction because your wheels are stuck in the tramlines, I don’t know how it works.  

It was, I tell you, this sounds like, “Aww yeah, yeah you would say this because you’re a tutor,” but honestly the biggest stress, the best way to avoid stress is just get everything prepared early.  

Just know what’s coming, read the modules guides or the module handbooks that you’re given.  

Don’t listen to anybody else on any of the chat groups that are put together, just talk to the tutors so you know exactly what you’re being asked to do, and just prepare in good time. I know, I can’t come up with anything more genius than that - because that’s it.  

Virtually, all of the stress that comes is due to panic and it’s usually down to poor time management and just not genuinely knowing what it is that you’re supposed to be doing. Now, the level of information that you get on some modules, on some courses – it varies, I know that, I’ve been doing it long enough to know that.  

But it doesn’t hurt to say to your module leaders, your tutors, whoever it is, ‘Look, I don’t quite know what I’m being asked to do here, can you just clarify it for me?”  

And try doing it face-to-face as well because email is, urgh, you wake up in the morning as a tutor and you get through the first twenty or thirty and then you’ve still got more coming in, and it’s just so much more easier, and faster, to talk to someone about things, and for me it’s personally preferable to talk to people face-to-face.  

Notwithstanding social distancing so on and so forth in the situation that we find ourselves in at the moment, but honestly try and avoid the stress in the first place, which, of course, the whole point of particularly exams, you have an elevated experience of stress because in life, and when you go into work, there will be very stressful times and you to be able to work under stress at certain points.  

But, particularly if you don’t cope very well with anxiety, and anxiety per say has just gone through the roof for staff and students alike over the last year and a half. You don’t need it, you just don’t need the extra stress and, as staff, we are sympathetic, incredibly sympathetic to what people have been through – because we’ve been through it too, you know, we didn’t sign up to be distanced learning tutors, we signed up to be on a campus and to enjoy the experience of being with students.  

And it breaks my heart when you’ve got young students in particular who just cannot cope with it, they can’t cope with the stress and you just need to do as much as you possibly can to mitigate against that as an individual. We’ll do as much as we can but one thing, and I have to say this: there’s a limit to what we can do as members of staff, and also you have to, you know, students have to understand that we have to work within a certain framework.  

So emailing staff over a weekend or emailing someone in the morning and expecting a reply within in twenty minutes… it doesn’t work like that because we’re often so busy doing other things, that’s not to say that we don’t care if we don’t get back to somebody straight away.  

There’s got to be a little bit of give and take, there’s got to be some realistic expectations from students, but the bottom line is we are here to help and we will do absolutely as much as we can as quickly as we possibly can.  

Alex: Exactly, exactly.  

And on that note, I am just going to go into a few additional final points that I do think link in for additional support, obviously your tutors would have mentioned this, as they do every year when it comes to extensions for assessments, which are applied for by, you know, going into extenuating circumstances.  

And I know a lot of students may feel worried and thinking, “Well, what if my circumstances aren’t deemed extenuating enough,” but you don’t know unless you ask, and I think that’s a lot of attitudes students have, you know, they think “Oh, I’ll just be fine.”  

If you think you’re not going to be fine - you need to ask and you need to take the steps to apply for extenuating circumstances, or extensions for your assessments.  

So if you feel like your performance in assessments by a circumstance occurring that you can’t control, you have to apply within ten days after your deadline and have appropriate evidence, which highlights why you’re applying i.e. evidence from a doctor if it’s a medical issue, and if you need further information on that you can visit: www.studentservices.lincoln.ac.uk.  

And, similarly, extensions can be granted for you if you have a genuine reason for being unable to hand work in on time, you need to contact your school administrator to enquire about applying, but if you’re unsure about how to contact that person in your relevant school you can contact student support at studentsupport@lincoln.ac.uk who will put you in touch with them.  

And on that note, that is the end of our podcast on managing academic stresses, thank you everybody for coming in and listening and we really would like to encourage people to take note of the techniques of stress mitigation that we’ve mentioned.  

Thank you very much Doctor Chris Dows for coming and joining us today, you’ve said some fantastic things that I know a lot of people are going to find really, really helpful. 

Chris: You’re very welcome.  

Alex: Listeners, please do follow us at UOLstudentlife on all our social medias so you can find out when podcasts come out see all of the other really helpful content that the people at Student Life create. I have been Alex 

Tori: I’ve been Tori. 

Alex: And we’ll see you next time where we will be talking about the festive activities that are going to be available in Lincolnshire. Thank you very much.