How I prepare for returning to university as an English Literature Student

 Hi darlings x

So, I thought I would make this into a blogpost of two parts the first being this one which will be more academic and then I will post one next week which is like more focused on like generally preparing yourself (the more fun self-improvement type thing x). I do warn you now, this is going to be quite boring, but I thought it might help inspire some of you. 

Emailing Subject Leaders

So, the first thing I did earlier this summer was to email my subject leaders asking for the reading list. For the last few years, I received the finalised reading list soo late that I have not had much time to read before the term started. But yeah, this year I managed to get them earlier (by emailing the subject leaders) and yeah it meant I could start reading. So yeah, that worked out well. 

Watching Films

Some of the texts on the reading lists for my modules were film and I learnt last year that I would never get round to watching the films or at least not watching them and focusing. Like I would always start the films at like 11pm on a Sunday (because in theory it is like an easy task, right? so I would save it till last) and I would never be paying attention. So yeah, this summer I decided I would start watching the films beforehand just so that I actually dedicate time, I am not watching them while tired and I will actually be writing notes.

 I ordered a truffle pizza and had a glass of red, I took some notes and yeah really enjoyed the film; it was so spooky and I cannot wait to study it. 

I watched like five so far... the others I am not even sure how to find because they are quite old. 

Buying and Reading the Books

So, I brought the books but before I did, I made like a grid of all the texts I had to read. It is also encouraging to see visually how much you have done already.

Going Through Past Marks

So, I also went through last autumn and spring's feedback and marks of assessed work I did. I sort of just wrote it down on a grid with like 'good' and 'improvements'. Then I colour coded it based off of the assessment criteria just so I can spot any trends and it makes it easier to refer back to. This seems like a pointless activity you do when you do not want to do actual work but like it was helpful otherwise, I probably would not have even looked at my feedback in detail.

Stationary Buying and Desk

This is the fun part although I was quite restraint this year. I just wanted to keep it minimal, I have like a Pentel mechanical pencil that I got in Switzerland, I have a Lamy fountain pen and then I have some highlighters Mildliner by Zebra.

I did go to Sainsburys a while ago for some food and this smiley face folder caught my eye. It is so cute right?

This is my little stationary organiser which I brought from Miniso. I purchased that block of post it notes for my graphic memoir module as they are like the perfect size for annotation- smaller than the conventional square post-it note.

Planner

I know people really enjoy planners (I am one of them people) and so I thought I would show off my planner. I have a filofax pocket Finsbury and the set up I use is the week on two pages. It is an old planner belonging to my dad. I do not know what else to say haha. If you want to watch a really good video on like a filofax set up, I really enjoyed watching this lady's video. I love the aesthetic of her planner unfortunately mine is very boring in comparison. I follow a Filofax community blog and they are asking for people to guest post- I am tempted but inspiration has not hit yet about what to write a post on.

I think it is important to enjoy your summer, but I also think it is worth just going through the curriculum for next term and choosing a few light activities in preparation. This was quite a boring blogpost. I think the second part to this blogpost will be more fun because I love a bit of self-improvement. 

Best of wishes for next term!

Lots of love

happy hippo x

Btw this blogpost was written a while ago but I did not get round to editing because the WIFI got turned off in my house. Anyway, after about 3 weeks it is back on but now I have got round to editing this blogpost it is not really topical because we are now at least a week into term. Nonetheless I will post the second one soonish x

Lots of love x