SURVIVING PART-TIME STUDY

 

One of the biggest challenges facing part-time students is having to juggle study with relationships, home, work and a social life. Being able to balance these is vital if you are to succeed as a part-time student. Some useful advice and tips are given in the section on Time Management.

 

Some other points:

• Protect your study space
• Communicate with friends and family about your schedule
• Reward your family and thank them for your support
• Talk with your lecturers - know when they are available
• Deal positively with time constraints - learn how to become a more efficient and strategic reader
  

 

 

 

 

TIME MANAGEMENT

 

One of the best ways to ensure success as a part-time student is to develop effective time management skills. Studying is an activity that has to be planned for, especially when you are trying to fit it in around a job, family, relationship and hobbies. There are a number of ways that you can organise yourself and ensure you make enough time for everything that is important in your life. Not only do you need to plan your study time, you also need to plan non-study time. If you do not maintain some sort of balance in your life, then you may very quickly start to resent the time involved in being a student.

 

Step One: Review your week

 

The first step in getting organised is to review your week. There is undoubtedly some element of routine in your activities that will help you draft a schedule.Look at the overall picture, work out a daily timetable and stick to it as much as possible. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at you, so allow yourself to be flexible and don't stress if you have to make sudden changes. A realistic, functional schedule will help you stay on track, lessen the opportunities for procrastination and keep you focused.

 

When you are drawing up the schedule, make sure you include everything - work hours and travel time, lectures and tutorials, any regular meetings, sports activities, religious observances and so on.

 

Step two: Calculate your study time

The next step is to work out how much study time you will need each week to keep up with reading and assignments. Remember here that everyone works at a different pace so ensure that you give yourself enough time to study. Try not to schedule study time late at night when your energy levels are low. You also need enough sleep to cope with the next day's activities.

 

Click here to see a sample of a weekly schedule for a student who travels to work by train and prefers to do some reading while commuting each morning. She has Friday afternoons off to attend classes. As a mother of three young children, she is also concerned that she devotes time to them and her husband.

 

 

Step three: complete and reflect on your study plan

 

Now, click here for a blank schedule, and try to complete it for yourself.

 

Once you have finished, look carefully at the balance between your activities. There may be too much time devoted to study and not enough to your pastime, or vice versa. Do not fill in every space - it is important to leave some free time, real free time in which you can do nothing if you want to, or which you can use to catch up on things if it becomes necessary. Free time is valuable in keeping a sense of control and balance during your week; it is very easy to end up feeling as if the only things you do are study, work and be there for others.

 

See our bookmarks on Time Management

 

ONLINE SUPPORT: ACADEMIC DISCUSSION BOARD

Online study skills support for P/T students

 

If you are experiencing a problem with your study skills that you would like to discuss with an SLU lecturer and/ or other students, you can access support through our Part-time Student Discussion Board. This can also be accessed through the part-time student support area of the SLU wiki. If you want to get feedback on your writing from an SLU lecturer without involving other students, then you can email....

 

SLU lecturers will assist you with your particular problem but you will not be able to send whole assignments for review, editing or proofreading. This example of an online study skills discussion demonstrates how helpful this service may be to you.

 

This area is a public space where students may talk with study skills lecturers and with fellow students. We conduct these sessions on the Discussions area so that ALL students can benefit from the interaction with the study skills lecturers . Even if you don't pose a question or join in the discussion, you may find some answers to your problems by viewing discussion responses.

 

You may write in your request to the Discussions Board at any time. The lecturers will try to respond to your query as promptly as possible.

 

Please be reminded that VU has a set of standards, Discussion rules and ethics , which apply to all online discussions.

QUESTIONS FREQUENTLY ASKED BY PART-TIME STUDENTS

These are under development

 

There are several topic areas to choose from, depending on the type of question you have. You can choose from the following:

 

| | | | | |