June 19, 2017, by Words on Words

One year down, two to go!

This blog post was written by first year English and Philosophy student, Emily Patel.

As I walked out of my last exam, I realised that my first year of being a student was officially over. I had six exams which felt like a lot, and I was ready to celebrate that evening. That didn’t quite go to plan, as I ended up staying in. Other than that, I think my exams went well overall. I had all my English ones first – I was jealous of my friends who studied single honours English, as they finished before me! The best one was ‘Studying Literature’, as the questions were really good. I studied ‘Goblin Market’ by Rossetti, and we were asked to explore the theme of sexuality in the poem, which I found particularly interesting. This is because many other Victorian texts shared similar themes, and Rossetti herself worked with ‘fallen women’ (woman who had sex before marriage, for example). To summarise, the girl exchanging the goblins fruit for a lock of her hair and a tear from her eye (a part of her body) seemed to represent losing her virginity.

Followed by the English exams, I had all my philosophy ones. Now that they are over, it is nice to be in Nottingham without having to do work! There are nice areas to explore in Nottingham, such as Wollaton Park which is a short walk from the university campus. I went during the weekend, and there was a display of vintage vehicles which I wasn’t expecting. It was the last thing I thought I would find interesting, but to my surprise I enjoyed it. There were a lot of cute dogs too which pleasantly added to the experience.

Now that I have completed first year, I feel I can give advice to students who are about to start university. I have two key pieces of advice; firstly, try not to worry if you find your course difficult at the beginning. It is a different level to what you are used to but you will get the hang of it. Secondly, I know everyone says this but join some clubs or societies. It’s a perfect opportunity to learn something new (there are so many options), and meet new people.

I’m looking forward to the modules I will study next year, as I have more choice. I am excited to study ‘Language in society’, which explores how language affects us in different contexts, such as the impact of the language that the media uses. I did my coursework on an article about bird flu, and how the language would affect the reader, and I found it fascinating because it was clear that the language aimed to scare readers, encouraging them to seek further information from the media to find out about the illness. I am also looking forward to the ‘School of Humanities Work Placement’ through philosophy, as I hope to gain advice about my future career. However, I am sharing a house next year which I’m a bit worried about, as I lived in catered halls this year so I will need to cook for myself. I have realised that I will also need to be more conscious about money as we will pay rent more regularly. At least I get on with all the people I will live with, which is important!

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