BSc (Hons) Psychology

Gavin

Hi! I’m Gavin, and I have just finished my first year of my degree, a BSc in Psychology.

I can remember my GCSE results day. I remember getting to school, picking up my results and thinking ‘great! I got the grades I wanted. Now what do I do?’. I had absolutely no idea what A levels I wanted to do, which degree I would end up on, or what I wanted to be when I ‘grew up’. So out into the world of work I went. Administration, bar work, and mountains of voluntary work later, I ended up volunteering for a charity that offered a counselling service, and that set my degree choice in stone. Seeing people come in week by week, and seeing how they developed over time really set off my interest in psychology, and I’m thankful that I ended up volunteering there when I did.

Naturally, my lack of A-levels proved to be an issue when trying to get onto a degree, so I started looking into colleges in my area. I settled on working toward an Access to Higher Education Diploma, a qualification designed for people that have been out of education for a while and want to get into university – honestly it was one of the best things I've ever done. It really prepared me for what university study would be like, covering everything from referencing to making a well informed choice for university. As my course mates and I had been out of education for a while, we all wanted the best for each other, we studied together, and we all keep in touch now even though we are all scattered about the country.

My first year modules were ‘Introduction to Psychology’, ‘Academic and Personal Development’ ‘Research Methods and Statistics’ and my elective module ‘Introduction to Counselling’ – all of which sound much scarier than they actually are. As maths isn't my strongest subjects I was worried about having to do statistics as part of my degree, but it really isn't as bad as it sounds. The tutor was really understanding, and went through things step by step in our seminars, which really helped us settle in to the idea of using mathematics as part of our degree. Don’t underestimate how useful coursework can be in Statistics though. If you aren't great in exams (like me) you can still do really well in this module, and the others.

Academic and Personal development was the most useful unit to me. We covered referencing, writing reports, and other skills that are needed for this degree. Honestly it was much more fun than I thought it would be by the course description – Our tutors for this were amazing, they helped keep it lively and relevant to what we were studying in other modules. My personal tutor was also incredibly helpful for APD, along with many other things. She really went out of her way to help anyone who asked her, as long as we were putting in the effort to learn.

University is not all work and no play though. There was so much to do during the first few weeks of term, from themed nights at the Students’ Union, to movie nights with societies. There literally was something for everyone, and nobody had time to worry about settling or making friends; it all just came naturally. By the time I started thinking about meeting people I already had a group that were pretty much like a little family, and it is amazing how quickly that happened.

Starting at university a couple of years later did me the world of good. It meant I was sure of the degree subject I wanted to study, and where I wanted to study it. To be honest I wouldn't change a thing about it. Bring on Year two!