Academic Insecurities
I’ve always been insecure of my academic ability. I’ve always been afraid of preforming academic assessments with a certain amount of fear as I usually feel that I must be extra careful not do make a mistake in the way I put forth my academic work. I have always enjoyed research but not at a masters levels as I did it more at a practical level whilst I was working in marketing.
After the conclusion of my first semester, I was surprised that I was able to perform well however I always thought that was not a big indicator of being able to do the second semester and my dissertation well. As the second semester includes more assessments alongside the writing of my dissertation, I couldn’t quantify how I would perform and this this insecurity extended into my Digital Analytics class as I am not aware whether I would be able to perform well with regard to the assessment.
Strategies
I have learned from my last semester about what works and what doesn’t work personally when it comes to tackling academic assessments and here are some of the strategies which has worked for me:
- Having routine time slots every day for reading course material and writing assessments. This has done wonders for my time management as it has given me a dedicated time slot to work on my assignments and do my reading which not only disciplines me but also gives clarity as I am progressing through lectures.
- Don’t stress about doing assessments, just do them. I have always been someone who stresses about deadlines and work which needs to be done and sometimes I would find myself stressing about assignments and course material when I am preforming another task, so, I have slowly trained myself to not worry about assessments when I am performing another tasks (Work in progress). When I feel like I am stressed about assignments then I would simply just start doing some work or I will schedule time in which I can actually complete some tasks.
- Remember to take time for your well-being. This has also been a very important step in being efficient in my studies as it is currently teaching me not to get threatened or overwhelmed when I have a new assessment which I need to complete. Furthermore, this has made me happier generally as my fear of academic assessments is being kept in check (to a certain degree).
Realizations
After learning more about the Digital Analytics course within the past few weeks and learning about the assessments with my lecturer (Francis) I found that there are many practical elements which needs to be applied to this module and it was very reassuring to know that academic study could entail some practical and personally reflective aspects to it too.
I feel that both our assignments on this module are very applicable to the real world of Digital Marketing. Since I have a some experience in Marketing already, I could see how this could’ve be applied to my past occupations as well as be applied to my future occupations because the analysis of data as well as it’s applicability could contribute to my future career path. I think the applicability and practicality of the whole Msc in Digital Marketing including the Digital analytics module helps me in not being so scared of academia as a whole however I still have insecurities popup when I think about performing well. I guess I’m on a journey to make myself accustomed with academia and I believe that through practice and constantly exploring new strategies will help me reach a decent level of understanding.
Analytics with Jude 