Tracy Dix
You're listening to the Wyrd Learning Podcast with your hosts Dr. Alex Patel and Dr. Tracy Dix. Today's episode is all about preparing for a level results. Production team, Patricia Mari Solis and Kia Moran.
Hello, and welcome back everyone to the Wyrd Learning Podcast. It's been a couple of weeks since our last release. And we're very excited to bring to you an episode all about everything you will need to know to prepare for results day if you've taken your A levels this year. So Alex, what have you got planned for our listeners?
Alexandra Patel
Right. So I'm very excited. I've recently been doing a bit of work developing a ready for results day workbook. And so many people workbooks are not a very exciting thing. But to me, it's a wonderful learning opportunity. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that, as we're going through this episode. So at the moment, we're very much aware that Thursday, the 17th of August is a level results day. And people are going to be going into it with a lot of mixed emotions. Some people perhaps very confident, very excited and moving on to the next stage in their lives. Other people a bit cautious about course choices. And you know, did they really want to go and study that at university, maybe having second thoughts? Others kind of thinking, you know, all I really don't know what I'm going to get for my marks.
What my results are going to be? What am I going to do? Am I going to have to deal with this thing called clearing? And so I think that's what we kind of want to talk about today, isn't it?
Tracy Dix
So I think the main purpose of this episode is to put people's minds at ease. So whether you're a student, or a parent, or someone supporting a student who's just taking their A levels and is waiting for their results, because it can be a nerve wracking time, full of decisions to be made, and quite a bit of uncertainty as well. Even if you have a firm offer from a university already, you know, they're still the decisions are still kind of wide open, aren't they, Alex, in the sense that how do you know that just because the university is accepted you that you're going to be happy there for the next few years and be able to fulfill your potential? Yes. So if you're having second thoughts about your course, that is absolutely fine. Now is a time for you before results day to start looking into other options. And it might be that after that after a period of self reflection and thinking about what you really want to be doing in life.
Alexandra Patel
And whether this course that you currently have an offer for is the one for you that you decide, actually it isn't. And it might surprise you to know that you can go into clearing reject that offer and go into clearing and look for something else.
Tracy Dix
So I believe among students, there can be a misconception that clearing is for students who perhaps haven't made the grade that they wanted to get their first choice university. But actually, it's a really good opportunity to reassess your options. And, you know, perhaps it could be that you visited a number of university, but then visited another university, after filling out your application, and you're now having second thoughts. So it's a good opportunity to really think about what exactly you want from a course and the university, and how it's going to help you achieve your long term goals.
Alexandra Patel
Definitely. And if you think about how much you're investing in your future, you know, we're talking 9000 pounds a year tuition fees, and then you've got the accommodation living costs. So just to say, you know, if even if you end up on a course you don't like, there are still so many options out there. And it's still an incredible learning opportunity. But you are now in a position when you can take control and decide which course which institution, which university is the one that you think you're going to flourish out. So take the driving seat at this point. And this workbook that I'm very proud of does cover some of that. Would you like me to show you this Tracy? S please. Alright, so introducing the ready for results state workbook, with a lovely picture of Tracy and I embodying the playful experiential type of learning that we really believe in. So the first thing we've got here is not just a bit of text, you can actually ignore that and dive straight in. And it's a bit of a meditation or visualization drawing on the approach of neuro linguistic programming. And we don't need to worry about the big names. It's basically a guided meditation or visualization, where you think about what your motivations, your passions are where you see yourself in the future. So this is a good way to kind of get started and set the scene. And next we have a more focused activity where, where you would ask you to around the circle that you can see here, put down things that interest you, that excites you, that inspire you. And then the idea is that once you've got these 15, things written down, you draw links between them, you try and find ones that matchup that's linked together that have a certain theme. And you can identify the three that you're most interested in your most passionate about. And then think about. So you've got these nice little spots here for them. And you can then think about, well, does the course that you've applied for help you to achieve these things? You know, can we think of some examples of what a person might be passionate about? Helping others,
Tracy Dix
they can be passionate, passionate in a particular subject, likely an area of history, yes, helping others in history. They could be interested in food like I was,
Alexandra Patel
I still, there we go. So kind of working with others, helping others bit of history, the food. And so that's very interesting combination. So that person could then look at the course that they've currently chosen and think well does this course helped me achieve or like work within these areas. And if it does, great, if it doesn't, maybe it is a means to work in those areas. So maybe the course itself will lead to a career which does these things, you know, simply by being a graduate course and having graduate skills. Or it might be that this course will make you a whole lot of money and give you so much power that actually, you know, you'll have your day job, but you can pursue your interests and your passions outside of that. Because maybe you only have to work one day a week in your high powered high paid job. And the rest of the time you can spend helping people understand history and food.
Tracy Dix
So that was my sister's thinking when it came to choosing a degree. So this is a long time ago now but she studied at for an Accountancy degree way back. And she is also a very enthusiastic aerialist, kind of similar to me, but she's a lot better because she's got a lot more time to devote to it. And she's also really passionate about books. She loves reading, and she's got very diverse interests. And I did once ask her, so how come you didn't consider like an arts degree or something like that? And her answer to me was, Well, I think having to study and prepare assessments on it will kill the fun for me in literature. And that's why she didn't choose it for her, it was her way to unwind. But regarding the aerial, you know, she was quite happy to have a day job that she's moderately interested in, but then have the money. And you know, she's doing pretty well she works for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Singapore. And so she's got the resource to go for lots of aerial classes, which in Singapore is considered a bit of a luxury because you know, it's a very space scarce country. So that could be the kind of decision that you make, depending on your personality, I just want to add one thing to what Alex was saying that in the kind of 15 things that you're passionate about, it's really, it's a good idea to when you kind of slim it down to the three main things to think about your values, and how those align with your values. Because there are lots of organizational specialists who have said that, you know, teams work a lot better when individuals values are very clear. And you're probably going to find that's the case at university as well. So not just like teams when it comes to working, but the people that you meet and the people that you actually want to spend time with. So whether it's on your course or through your hobbies, but also at university, you'll be asked to do some kind of teamwork assessment at some point. And so knowing your own values and encouraging other people to have a very clear vision of what that is would help you to achieve your goals. So Alex's exercise on knowing your passions and what I've just said about thinking about your values is going to help you understand and gain more clarity on your long term goals. However, let's get back to results day. So what can students expect to happen on results day Alex?
Alexandra Patel
Right. So My understanding, and I have to be honest, it's been a few years since I went to an A level of sorts. But usually the first thing you have to realize is that the universities will have your grades before you get them. So we'll talk a bit more about this later. But you know, if we're thinking chronologically, what happens with these grades, that's the first bit universities have them, then I think around 8am, or 9am, on Thursday, the 17th, you can go and collect your results. Some people may have opted to have them sent by email, or to go to the sick Form College to accept them there. Then, of course, you have the excitement, the fear, the tension of opening that email or that envelope, and having a statement of results. And then looking at what? Yes, yes, one very simple email one very simple piece of paper. So then, you know what your results are, you know, whether it has met any conditions on the offer that you've got your firm offer, or your backup offer. So you will know whether you've been instantly accepted or not, though,
Tracy Dix
perhaps there's no rush to quickly accept an offer is there? How many days do students have to decide which university they want to attend?
Alexandra Patel
That's an interesting question. Now, I don't know 100%. So what I'm going to do is direct you to your UCaaS pages, and any offers that you've been made, it should tell you within the offer that you've accepted as your firm choice, what those deadlines may or may not be. And if not to have a look at the UCaaS website. So you're asking in terms of the processor, you've got your results, you know whether you've been accepted or not. You can choose at this point to decline anything that you've already been accepted onto. If you decide you want to go into clearing for some of the reasons we've mentioned earlier. And
Tracy Dix
we happen to have an excellent podcast episode that's all about clearing don't realex now we do. Yeah, so we invited Dr. Catherine Armstrong, who has been involved in admissions and clearing process at Loughborough University in the history department. Yes, I highly recommend that. If you're reassessing your options, that's a really good episode to get into.
Alexandra Patel
And I should also add that the workbook does tell you a bit more detail about the actual process, and how you accept a course or decline. And then how you would look for other courses, there's a really important course search function, which I'm sure you've come across already on the UCaaS pages. And it's the UCaaS page that you have to be on, because those have the most up to date information about what courses are actually available. So Alex
Tracy Dix
kind of started this episode was a bit of a visualization by talking about visualization. And the thing I want to emphasize is that you know, if your results come as a bit of a surprise to you, and perhaps you were a little bit underprepared for, you know what you kind of see on a sheet of paper, or I don't know how, how do students see their results, these days, I had a sheet of paper,
Alexandra Patel
paper or email, and let's believe, or email,
Tracy Dix
then it's really important to like, kind of take a breath, and you know, maybe find a space to sit down and kind of be in tune with your own intuition. I think on what to do next. It's not, this is not something you have to do straightaway, you might want to have some moral support with your friends and maybe vent a little bit before that. And that's perfectly fine as well. So I think whatever mechanism helps you to kind of cope with it, because your friends and your family can really helped to give you a sense of perspective on what's just happened. And you know, although it might seem like a huge decision, it's simply a time to just kind of regroup your thoughts and consider what your options are. And there will be many options.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, it's it definitely makes a lot of sense to kind of process whatever emotions you're feeling because it is a really big day. And it's a really big surprise that suddenly, you know, explodes in front of you. I remember the last time I was in this kind of situation, it would have been when I had submitted my PhD and gone for a viva so you know, a big wad of text about locusts and how they scratched themselves was what my PhD was about. And my Viva was about maybe two hours long. And it was an examiner from a different university. He was a specialist in that area came in and challenged me about all these things I was claiming in my thesis. And then at the end of it, I was simply told yes, you have passed with minor corrections. And it's like, wow, oh, doctor, now, I'm gonna go and get a t shirt with that printed on. But I didn't know what to do, I just kind of paused and, you know, just came up with that meeting. And there wasn't anybody around the Cardinals for all deserted. I just thought, oh, I need to speak somebody southern guy ended up ringing my mom or somebody to just, you know, kind of talk and process the enormity of what just happened,
Tracy Dix
we'll make sure you have a support network around you on results day. And think about who you want to call to share the news. If you know your peers and immediately around you, who would you want to share the news with, and then after that, plan, some processing time
Alexandra Patel
have a nice cup of tea, that always helps
Tracy Dix
chocolate, what you prefer. So actually, I'd like
Alexandra Patel
to backpedal a bit and make the argument for why it's so important to have done some preparation before results day. So you don't know what you're gonna get, you don't know what's going to happen. And so it's good to have some kind of like prep some kind of plan in place. So it's not complete panic at this point and thinking, Oh, I don't know what causes I'm going to, I didn't get the one I wanted, I need to go into clearing. But what do I do, I've not really looked into different options, or I've just picked some kind of randomly. So what we're arguing for is a bit of prep. Thinking about other options, you know, maybe even different courses, if you've got questions about the one you initially picked, but certainly different institutions. You can look at those on UCaaS. And get an idea of what types of course are currently available in clearing. But you can also access a lot of other information. And guess what, it's all in the workbook. Hooray, hooray. So I think I've highlighted three different sources of information. So we've said about the courses, the course and course outlines that are available. And that's through the UCaaS Subject Guides, and the university's own websites for the detail of what's in the course. books don't get universities are trying to suck you in, they're trying to sell this to you. So it may be quite a glossy version of what you might experience in reality. So where can you get other perspectives from? Well, it turns out there are a lot of very motivated and active students out there. So we've got websites, which cover student views such as what's Uni student crowd, or you've, you've wandered, you've Tracy, I think the student room it was, yep, The Student Room. Yep. One thing to be aware of, though, is sometimes a student may arrive at uni, and in the first, you know, three months decide they hate it, and write some awful reviews from their first year, and they're quite limited first year experience. So do take that into account. By the time they've settled into this big kind of lifestyle type change in the second year, and the third year, their views may have changed, they may actually realize or you know, understand the course better and have settled in and be enjoying it more. So just bear that in mind as well. So that's
Tracy Dix
an early exercise in evaluating information that you find online is is used about universities, there are some other sources of information, when you go to when you kind of approach universities, they often have student ambassadors for, you know, students who might be called various iterations of basically the same thing like student champions, or whatever. And it'd be good to kind of talk to them about their experience. And again, do be mindful that you are talking to a particular ilk of very enthusiastic students. But still, it's an opportunity to get an idea of flavor of what the university that you're considering would be like, and to have an interaction with them. So if they're saying certain things about the University, you can say, oh, so are you saying that or? I'm kind of thinking about this? What do you think of that? Have you heard any information? There are also a number of Facebook groups, I can't remember the names now. But if you search university students, or parents of prospective students at universities, and search the course and the university, quite a lot of information would come up. I think the other thing you could also do, of course, is to just ask the question on some of these groups and, and let people chime in with all their experiences because you get really kind of authentic stories there of you know, what people have experienced at university and that can help you make your choice. You might even find some friends there.
Alexandra Patel
And there is a third group that's have a very valuable perspective. I'm I can say lecturers and professors. No, I'm not. I am going to say, graduates, so it might be hard to hunt down some specific graduates from the course you're interested in. But don't worry, it turns out the government's and the higher education statistics agency Hisa actually spend a lot of time and efforts researching this because they are very focused on graduate outcomes are students who are paying 9000 a year for a course getting value for money, are they getting good jobs? And you know, that's quite a simplistic way of looking at it. Because it's not just about the job, you know, is it that students are coming out with much greater skills, more confidence, there are lots of other measures. But in terms of getting an idea of whether a course is the right type, of course, for you, finding out where graduates go after their course can be very valuable. So you might find out everybody does psychology and ends up with a desk job, being Secretary or you might find out that they all go into being clinical psychologists. But it might be that you're actually quite surprised as to, you know, how many people go on to a job that is specifically tied to their career at the same kind of vocation?
Tracy Dix
I can't remember the exact statistic on this. But the percentage of students who go on to a career that's directly related to their degree is actually quite low. I think so I think so. It's, it's really interesting. And it does happen quite frequently. We do go on about hobbies quite a lot in our podcast. But it does happen quite frequently, that the activities that students get into while they're at university that's related to their hobby often influences the career path that they take later
Alexandra Patel
on. Run with it. Yeah, yeah.
Tracy Dix
There's some food for thought. So you talked about courses, and you talked about universities, I wanted to say something else, location, location, location, for example, people could be kind of city, you could be more of a city person and you like a lot of burgers, you'd like access to things like theatres, and nightlife and you just like, busy, bustling places. Or you could be more of a small town kind of person and prefer, like a lot of space, be by the beach. So if you go to Swansea University, the counselors are right on the beach.
Alexandra Patel
Oh, where do I sign up?
Tracy Dix
Yeah, it's a lovely campus, if they offer the right course for you. So so that can have some bearing like, but not just the location, you might want to consider the proximity of the university to home where you consider to be home. Because you know, and what the train routes might be like, if you don't try, for example, and what that would cost. So, you know, it's very likely that when you start university, you might feel a little bit homesick, and so you might have more frequent visits to home when you first start off. And that can be a very important emotional network for you. So it's really important to think about that kind of access when you're at university. But also, for example, where you choose to live when you are at university. So what is the accommodation? Like? How far is it from where you need to be for your studies? Is it safe? Is it a safe area that you would enjoy living in? Is it where you know, most of the students on your course might live? For example? Yeah.
Alexandra Patel
And that's the argument for having a little look into this before. Because your time, you know, lean into that excitement of thinking about different universities have a look at? Yeah, what's exciting about the place that they're located in? Where would you want to live? Those types of things?
Tracy Dix
So Alex, how did you choose your university?
Alexandra Patel
Well, my mom told me that I couldn't live too close to home, because I would just come back too often. So I had to kind of look for places about an hour away. And yeah, so you know, I never sat down and did this kind of prep. So I was all over the place with, you know, picking degrees and whatever, no idea what I wanted to do at any points. So she'd gone to Manchester as a students, Manchester University, very good university. They were one of the only universities at that point that did psychology and neuroscience as a degree. So that's who I went with.
Tracy Dix
I came from Singapore as an international student. And part of the reason I ended up in the UK was actually because I didn't think I'd done well enough to qualify for a course in Singapore. And I had
Alexandra Patel
strategies there people strategies.
Tracy Dix
Yes, yes. If you want to move very far away from home just don't do well enough to get into the local university and then you'll have to go overseas. I don't really know my intention was to be honest, things just kind of happened. And everything's falling into place. And so it's fine. But yeah, so we believe my mum and I, especially up that I wouldn't get into the local university because we asked, and they were like, Oh, well, if you want a realistic answer, your chances are not great. As it happens, I did get an offer. But that was after I'd had another offer from Loughborough University, which I much preferred, actually, because the tutors seemed lovely. And, you know, I looked at their prospectors, obviously, I didn't go into an open day or anything, because it would cost too much. But you go to these kinds of exhibitions, you talk to the tutors, you look at the perspectives, you go online and have a look at what the campus is like. And it seemed like a really nice, accessible kind of university, it was really down to worse not to like hoity toity, or anything like that, which is more my vibe, I would say. And the reason I chose to study English, was because it was my favorite subject at school. So it wasn't particularly deep or profound. And perhaps, you know, perhaps that's why we'd like to encourage students now to kind of think about things in a more deep and profound way. Having said that, though, whatever course you choose is not the be all and end all because the skills that you acquire at university are transferable to lots of different things. And Alex and I have done lots of different things since graduating some lots.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, so I wanted to do psychology turns out doing psychology and neuroscience, which sounds both harder, and is actually more work, because it's a joint honours, had a lower grade requirement. So I went with that one. And I wanted to do psychology, not being focused on career, but because I really wanted to try and understand how people worked better, you know, so other people, and also myself. Turns out, I did not get psychology that much. But the neuroscience part loved it. So I then leans more into that kind of coming away from university.
Tracy Dix
As you were saying that I was just thinking about, you know, some students might be under, perhaps family pressure to do a certain course or whatever, you know, like parents might nudge them a certain way. And what we might say to people in that kind of situation.
Alexandra Patel
Oh, I don't know, that's a really hard one. Because it's really hard to upset parents. However, part of becoming an adults, like a real adult, not just somebody who's over the age of 18 is understanding who you are as a person and what drives you, and choosing to live the life that will make you happy. So not living for somebody else, but living for yourself. And that's didn't actually occur to me until I was how old about 30? A. And it's been a revelation.
Tracy Dix
So but you didn't choose psychology and neuroscience? Because of any input from your parents. Was it? Like it was just a
Alexandra Patel
university? It was my choice? Yeah, the encouragement was around the which institution on justice, good institution. It's a great time there. But actually, you know, so I'm going to ask you this chance in a moment, I'll give you my answer first. So give you a moment to think about it. What would be the most important question you would ask in order to determine which university or which course you would go for? And so I'll answer so you've got a moment thing, okay. And it would be student to staff ratio. It wouldn't be you know, how much contact do you get with the experts in a subject area? How much face to face kind of teaching do you get? How big are the classes, because nowadays, some places have, you know, 600 students in a year, and a tutor might have 60 students super tutors are sometimes called and you don't get I would say kind of value for money, they're really, you don't get contact, you don't get that social interaction. That is an essential part of the learning process. It means people can be quite isolated. Obviously, you make friends and that side of things, but you can be quite isolated from people who can tell you how a subject area works, how the department works, all the rules and the hierarchies and the you know, the hidden ways of how this kind of culture which you're in Taking part in actually work. And we went to see somebody Well, actually, no, we did a guest lecture, didn't we? And it was, it was lovely, because there was the lecture lecture. And then there was a small class. So apparently not everybody was actually showed up to the session. But you could see that, you know, the lecturer knew who the students were. And, you know, they were able to discuss things, and that was inspiring interest and passion in students, and also, probably bouncing back to the lecture as well. Because you know, that social interaction is a really essential part of learning. So that will be the question I'd ask.
Tracy Dix
So yeah, I think that's a question worth asking. But the other thing is also to get to meet some of the lecturers and tutors, because you get to know a lot of about a person from the way they relate to students. You know, and I think beyond open day as well, because if they don't genuinely care about students, I think that would show I think that would I think that would really come through in their personality. So I'm not sure I would give as defined an answer as you, Alex. So I did say about how I came to choose the English department at Loughborough. And for me, it was about the kind of energy of a place so this is me going very kind of into my intuition. Again, that sometimes you just kind of get a vibe off somewhere, you know, when, especially when you go and visit it, but it can happen from like looking at their marketing material. Definitely talking to tutors, perhaps talking to students if you get a chance. And I think the more kind of stories you can gather about a place from people's experiences there, the better. I think that's probably the thing that would kind of helped me solidify my decision.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah. And guess what, we have a range of questions and suggestions that you might want to investigate in our downloadable workbook. Which, incidentally, is fillable, isn't it? It is, it is up, no need to print it out. You can save the planet one piece of paper at a time.
Tracy Dix
Yes, and just have it on your phone handy. But do I think it's a very powerful exercise to do that. Follow your passions, activity, make sure you write everything down, don't just think oh, yeah, so these are my passions and have them like in the back of your mind, because you need to consolidate those ideas and kind of think about them a lot deeper. And you can't really do that if it's just floating around.
Alexandra Patel
So we also covers the clearing process in quite a lot of detail. We won't go into this hugely here. But we've got a lovely little roadmap of a model. So I created this infographic myself, so very proud of it. Well done, Alex. Little things made me very proud. So the different steps you might go through. Firstly, if you decide to enter clearing, you would need to look at the UCaaS websites and use their search tool to find courses that are available, you can do that, as we've said before the actual day. And without committing to going into clearing about points. This is just a bit of a background research, spend as long or as little time you want on this, but it's probably worth having a little look around. Then on results day, if you're in clearing, you would call the universities that you are interested in. And you'll probably speak to part of the kind of admin team for clearing. Quite often you'll speak to somebody in admin who will kind of go through, you know what your grades were, what courses you're interested in. And then if they think you're a suitable match, they might pass you on to an academic to talk in a bit more detail about what the universe is to talk in a bit more detail about what the university is like, what the course is, like, what the teaching was like, etc. So at this point, you know, you might ring a couple of different places, and they may make you one or more informal offers. So once you've got a definite kind of offer, at this point, you go into the UCAS track system, and you can add your clearing choice. So you can only do this once you've had a formal offer from a university a verbal offer, and they'll probably give you an indication of a timeline, you know, you've got 12 or 14 hours to accept this offer. Because at this point, I guess clearing starts to get a bit kind of fast paced. It's not a case of you've got 10 minutes to go to checkout. But there is a timeframe that you need to think about. The next step is of course to celebrate well done, you have just achieved something incredible and are about to take a very exciting step into the future. You'll then have to think about Well, where am I going to live? If so arranging accommodation,
Tracy Dix
by accommodation for first year as we mean usually it's halls of residence, isn't it rather than students having to be thrown out into the private market?
Alexandra Patel
Yep. And that's a great way to meet people as well. You'll need to update student finance, if there's been any changes in terms of which institution that you're expecting study. And then it's the exciting part of preparing for university. And I believe Tracy, we will probably be putting together some more podcasts and material to help students do that. So we're likely to do something around actually, you know, getting ready to take your first steps into university and arriving there. But also, and this is our specialism is really thinking about how do you adapt the skills that you had at a level, you know, learning revision writing into the skills that you need at university, there's a lot of crossover, but there are a lot of differences as well. And we specialize in helping people see that some of you may have, you know, picks up on me saying that, you have to make clear in calls to university. And I know for me, that would have been a terrifying, terrifying thing to do. I'm not sure about you, you'll probably vary hugely, some of you probably would talk the poor admin person's ear off for an hour, whereas others might be absolutely terrified that we have your back on this one. In addition to all the other incredible stuff in this downloadable, free workbook, we have some advice around the types of things you want to try and include in your conversation. So I've got lovely, another infographic here, such as you know, show you enthusiastic about the university. Present yourself as a committed student, you know, you're motivated, you're passionate. Explain your situation. So if perhaps, your grades were lower than expected, and you had extenuating circumstances, you might want to mention that and just say you know, that you've learned from it and emphasize again, how motivated you are as a student, you're ready to ask questions. So you might want a little list of things that, you know, like things we were talking about previously, it will help you decide whether this is the course you want to do. And lastly, really emphasize that, you know, you're interested in this course, you're passionate about it, because motivated students do better. universities don't want people to just be well, not even showing up. They want people who are going to come be committed students, and enjoy it perform well get great grades. So it's in that situation, it's a win win for the university. And for the students. They don't want to be taking money off people who really aren't interested who are going to struggle because they just don't want to be there. Plus, it's a waste of your money, or huge waste. We have some tips about things not to say in a clarion call. I'm a bit about after the clearing call. And I think lastly, oh yes, yes, we've got some stuff about, you know, some examples of what conversation might look like. So we've got a bit of a script here that you can have a look at. Obviously, you wouldn't read this kind of script is just to help you prepare help you see how a conversation may happen. And then we have a clearing phone call roleplay activity. Now many of you are probably recoiling in horror at the phrase roleplay however, if you're gonna prepare for something, the best way to do that is to do it, is to experience it. So if you have a friend or a parent or a colleague or somebody you can kind of run through this, you know, pick up your phone and get them to pick up their phone and have this actual conversation and see how it kind of plays out. We've got bonus which I'm not going to tell you about you'll have to download this to see. And lastly, we are also running a free masterclass. It'll just be me. Unfortunately, on this occasion. Tracy's a well deserved holiday, I believe,
Tracy Dix
yeah, just away for five days, but happens to be one of the days when this workshop is running. Nevermind, you get me again next time. Yeah.
Alexandra Patel
But it's kind of, you know, an opportunity to ask some questions about some of the activities and things in the workbook. And also, if you've not been able to have a roleplay practice we'll do that in the session. We will have some pretend kind of clearing phone calls. What better way can you prepare for the real thing.
Tracy Dix
So if this episode of our podcast is the first time you're encountering us, then do subscribe, because then you'll know every time a new episode lands. And if you're at the start of your academic journey planning to go to university, then we release content fairly frequently through podcasts that will help support you to your uni life, with an emphasis on university essays and preparing for exams. And we're really excited because, like Alex was saying, our next two episodes are geared towards supporting students through the transition from studying for a levels to excelling in your university assignments. But we're really excited because we're going to be welcoming a couple of a level students on our podcast, to share with us what their experience is, like, have a level assignments and what their essays are like. And we can have a nice comparison between what the expectations are of them writing essays at levels and how that's going to be different from university essays.
Alexandra Patel
And in our next episode,
Tracy Dix
we'll be talking about different styles of writing. So different genres of writing that you might see around you, whether it's kind of marketing, copy, website, copy blogs, mass market publications, and how those styles are different from university essay writing, so that you understand the kind of correct ways to conventions of academic writing and why it's really important to master those.
Alexandra Patel
Adams, we're very excited to have some new courses in developments. So specifically aimed at first years, there are two, the first one builds on this kind of writing, you know, how do you move from a level to academic essay writing, and we will give you all the tips and processes and tools that we have learned over? Many, many, many, many years at university. And when I say that I've been at university since 1998. Was my first year. Long time.
Tracy Dix
I'm the same. Yeah,
Alexandra Patel
I guess. So. We're the same age. So
Tracy Dix
why are we so good at this stuff, Alex?
Alexandra Patel
Well, there are many, many, many, many reasons. So we both have undergraduate degrees. And both have master's mines and research what's yours in mine was on.
Tracy Dix
My was a master of arts in Shakespeare, Stratford upon Avon, and a cultural history of Nissan's England. So you get to a very different perspective with Alex and myself. But also, not only have we kind of completed University assessments up to PhD level, but we have also spent quite a lot of time teaching these skills to students, and collaborating with academics on how they teach these skills to students, which I'd say is quite a rare position to be in. Because very often, no one actually teaches students how to write an essay, you know, on your assessment rubric, you'll often be told, well make sure it's 1000 words long, make sure it's, you know, clearly written, comprehensive, well researched, and properly referenced and excellent. But they don't actually tell you how to do that. And very often, that kind of carries on into academic life, where academics have sort of failed around trying to figure all this stuff out for themselves, and then not thought about how to teach it to students. So it becomes a little bit of a vicious cycle. And I would say, overall, that the support at universities for essay writing can be quite mixed for this reason, you know, some academics are really engaged in, you know, thinking about active learning and stuff like that, whereas others might be drowning in their workload. So it can be a very challenging situation.
Alexandra Patel
Yep, certainly. And for me, you know, you think kind of study skills. Yeah, that's okay, maybe a bit boring. Maybe I'll miss those lectures. But, for me, it is a real kind of vocation, because it is a way of helping people who come from really diverse backgrounds really succeed at university. So you know, there's a small number of people who get it straight away, you know, they're fine. And that's probably more luck than nothing else. But there are a lot of people that it takes a long time to kind of peel back the layers and understand how the culture of a university works, what the expectations are. And for us to be able to explain this and run activities, experiential activities, where you do things and we give you feedback. And just seeing how it changes us Students approach and how they can suddenly move from, you know, struggling with essays, all the joys being sucked out of them to really excelling, you know, creating new ideas, interesting things. And really being motivated about that subject. It's, it's wonderful to see, you know, I used to love having sessions with, you know, a student doing dissertation or an essay, and then kind of like really thinking about, well, what what are you researching? What the implications of this wow, this is really interesting.
Tracy Dix
It is, yes, a lot of what students learn and research at university is really cool. And that's one of my favorite things as well as when you talk to them. And seeing students like yourselves just light up about their subjects, because you've made it relatable to, you know, real life and made it applicable. And they can see the practical applications of it, they get very, very fired up then, and it's great to see.
Alexandra Patel
So follow us on our social media, keep listening to the podcasts, and we will keep you informed and up to date with the new and exciting things we've got under developments at the moment. And good luck. Fingers crossed for results day it's going to be brilliant.
Tracy Dix
And on that note, thank you very much for listening to our episode today. And until next time, goodbye. Thank you for listening to with earning podcast with your host Dr. Tracy Dix and Dr. Alex Patel, produced by Patricia Marie solace and Kia mirande Music ride effects machine on Pixabay
