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"I think" - AngelWings' University Journal

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AngelWings:
Not an update. Just wanted to show some of the work my classmate has been doing:

AngelWings:
Note: This post is going to be quick and disjointed, because I don't have much time at the moment.
Date: 31st August 2018
August 2018 will be done in a couple of hours. Every time I start a post, it's about how time's flown - and it really has. I have just under 2 months left until thesis deadline.

Honours Project
The models I've been working on are nearly complete. I'm currently finishing some checks, interpretations, graphs and such to tie up all of the loose ends. I've also been starting to write up my thesis and it's coming along slowly, but I'll need to read some more for better references.

Coursework
Don't think I mentioned this last time, but a week after the last post, I had another coursework assignment due. Yesterday, I received feedback for that assignment and I'm pretty happy with the result.

Last week, the cohort had a few sessions regarding 2019 and onwards - basically giving us information on what's next after Honours. They also introduced the next coursework assignment, which I'm hoping to finish really soon.

Other
Besides Honours, most of my time has been dedicated to job hunting. I realise that my spare time is slowly getting eaten up by Honours and the impending load of thesis writing, so this section will seem really sparse for the next couple of entries.

In terms of how I'm feeling right now, I'm a little tired, but I think it's to be expected at this point of the year with the continuous workload and the fact that it's a Friday night. Otherwise, I'm okay and just need to sit and do things. Recently, there have been some ups and downs, but most of those are related to job applications and not uni-related, so I won't put them into this journal. Anyway, I've run out of time today, so I'll sign off until next time. Have a nice weekend, everybody! ;D

AngelWings:
Date: 30th September 2018
This past month has seen me burn out and recover. Still in the recovery process, but it's slow.

Honours Project
The project is now complete, with only two big assessments left: an oral presentation and my thesis. The oral is what I'm working on currently. I had a practise run last week, but it was pretty terrible and the complexity of my project meant I needed to redo my script to make it even simpler to understand. After a bunch of editing, I'm now practising it again over the next few days and making minor edits to my slides that accompany the presentation.

Thesis writing has therefore slowed for the moment, but will be back as soon as my oral presentation is over. With the oral assisting me in realising the results, I'm hoping to just smash out the rest of my thesis immediately after my oral and have it done within a week. I already had about a third of it ready before the oral took precedence, but it wasn't quality and I wasn't proud of it at all. Armed with my new direction, I should be able to just sit and write (well... type) like a madman.

Coursework
Our last non-project related assignment was due a few weeks ago in mid-September. It was only worth a small amount, but I felt like it wasn't worth losing any marks over, so I tried to make it perfect. Results have yet to be released for this.

Other
As I said, I crashed and burned for a couple of weeks, but used that time to fix up several things. Some were related to my project like fixing graphs and simulations, reading relevant articles and writing little bits and pieces of my thesis. Some were related to jobs, since I found a few jobs to apply for or I proceeded to the second stage (interviews usually). (Side note: Those changes in my current part-time job I talked about two entries earlier happened, which went relatively smoothly.) I spent a lot of time procrastinating during those weeks I burnt out. Fortunately, I've recently figured things that I need to avoid. Thankfully, AN isn't one of them. About a week ago, I inadvertently regained a little of my motivation after meeting with my supervisor and that's the push I needed to get back into the action. I'm hoping it lasts. (Also, my thesis is now due in less than a month, so I'll probably have finished by the time I write my next journal entry. I'm in a real time crunch, so please excuse my erratic presence on AN until I'm done in late October.)

Life beyond Honours at the moment is still a mystery. Hopefully, I'll be employed full-time somewhere for the next few years. If I do well enough in Honours to go for a PhD, then I might do that in a few years' time. Since my project has been theoretical, I'm intending to bring my technical skills back up, gain a little life experience and then come back, but I'll see how I go first before I make any concrete plans.

Alright, that's all for today. I'll keep this updated whenever I get the chance.

AngelWings:
Date: 23rd October 2018
This month has flown past and seen me racing against time more often than not. Over this past month, I've done an oral presentation (which I discussed in my previous post) and my thesis.

Oral Presentation (aka Final Seminar)
My oral presentation, which we call the 'final seminar', went down surprisingly well. This was despite:
- redoing my script 4 times until I was satisfied with it and the last iteration was done literally the night before
- having an 18 minute speech prepared for a 15 minute oral (students were strictly timed)
- doing a theoretical project - one of the hardest projects to discuss, due to the depth of the concepts
Add that all together and you have one very difficult situation.
Somehow, I managed to not only speak fast enough to finish exactly on time (i.e. took up the 15 minutes allocated; I'm usually a fairly slow talker), but also communicate my complex project to a general scientific audience and still deliver an impromptu joke at the end (and got a laugh in response, which eased my nerves).

Everyone in the Honours cohort presented ridiculously well too. The quality of everyone's presentations was amazingly high and I don't think anyone scored less than 85%. That's 85% with the academic staff (i.e. the professionals) being harsh, by the way, which, as you can imagine, was not easy.

My coordinator probably thinks I'm slightly crazy for cheering like a madman and fist-pumping the air for some of my friends as they walked up and down for their presentations. In my defence, I'd say that was justified by the quality of their presentations and the reactions from the audience.Thesis (the scarier part)
Pretty much the day after the oral presentations, most of us were writing our theses. The whole process kept going for the following few weeks.

We'd come to campus or hibernate at home, typing, reading articles and editing like crazy. Some had extra meetings with supervisors to discuss their results and discoveries in more depth. Some faced huge adversities by having to redo large quantities of stats several times, complete lengthy analyses in the space of a few days, have computers malfunction and rewrite entire sections of their thesis a week out from the deadline. If we ever came to chat, it'd become long conversations and venting our stress.

After all of that, the deadline (yesterday) arrived and everyone except those with extensions submitted.

"Wait, Angel Wings, does that mean...?" I hear you ask.

Yup, I'm done. (Well... effectively.) I finished Honours. I did it. It's over.

And I don't know how to feel about it.
Ecstatic? Sure. Anybody should be. Proud? Of course! Sad and strange because it's over? Sure, those too.
It's hard to think that I started this journal with basically zero knowledge on my project and a handful of friends. Fast forward to today and I've become friends with most of the cohort (which was already twice the size of normal cohorts to begin with), have countless memories to cherish and, somehow, I'm considered an expert in a niche field of research. It's pretty crazy when you look back. It's been such a journey that this journal will never be able to adequately express everything I want it to say. This year will not be forgotten any time soon. Now, there's only one thing scarier that looms ahead of me. What's next? I've had a number of people ask me this already, having gone back to campus earlier today to tie up some loose ends. 
And the answer is that I simply don't know. All I know is that I need a break from study and so I won't be studying next year, although I'm hoping to do a PhD in a few years, if everything permits. I'm hoping to look for work again soon, but I think I'll need to take time and recover first. I haven't had a proper day off since I began Honours in mid-February/ early March, so I think I'm well overdue. I don't know what the future holds, but it looks promising. Until I figure things out, I'm going to hope for the best. And when the day comes that I do know what's next, I'll give it my all. 

Signing off until either results come out or something uni-related/ interesting happens, Angel Wings (a newly finished Honours student) out.     

Joseph41:
CONGRATULATIONS! Amazing work - sounds as though it's been super hectic, but you're right: it's absolutely, 100% something to be proud of. :)

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