Joining a course halfway through
Joining the Sport and Exercise Science (SES) BSc course in the second year was daunting at first. Knowing I would be at a disadvantage, having missed and not learnt the fundamentals of SES in the first year, and making friends halfway through the course would be tough. I knew skipping a year may be challenging at first, but in reality, I settled in right away. I learned at the start of term that even in the second-year friend’s groups change, allowing new friendships to be formed. I joined the Brighton Panthers Boxing team and became a student ambassador in pursuit of meeting people with similar interests as me. I found that finding people with the same interests is one of the best ways to make friends. My approach with people was to be a friendly and happy person to be around while staying upbeat to positively influence those around me. Also opening up to people and being yourself helped hugely for me. I knew putting myself out there at the start of term was important to find friends and study partners that would benefit my university experience. When forming a study group in lectures, I found others like me that had joined halfway through the course. This created a unique bond between us that helped me and them numerous times, especially in biomechanics lecture’s where understanding concepts and terminologies can be overwhelming at times. I also found that having a group of friends for lecture’s made studying a lot more fun and enjoyable as a result.
Before First Semester Start’s
My advice before starting term is to find people on the official university fresher’s week group on Facebook or others that are related to your course. Make sure to join these groups to make friends before you even get to uni, this will make your transition into university life that much easier.
Jay Suter • 18th September 2020