Hi, my name is Isla and if you haven’t read any of my blog posts before, lovely to virtually meet you, otherwise, welcome back. I’m going to break down my usual week at Exeter uni as a 2nd year English student…
So, it’s a Monday and I’m up at 7:30am. I’m a big fan of a ‘self-care Sunday’ beforehand where you relax and maybe recover from any nights out you did the week previously. This is essential if I want to be on campus and at my 8:30 lecture on a Monday morning. Most Exeter students live between 5-15 minutes walk from campus, and Exeter Uni campus is hilly…so leave time to be out of breath and wanting coffee before your lecture. I normally have two lectures, split by plenty of study time in the library where I’ll get a lot of my reading for the week done, check up on my emails and my society/social events for the week.
Lunch involves convincing myself I don’t want to buy a sandwich from Pret (Pret a manger – the place on campus where my student loan goes to die) and eating my wraps from home, followed by some more secondary reading. As an English Literature student, I have a lot of reading to do of course, but we also have access to the archives and the Bill Douglas museum on campus for further research where you can find different media to reference in essays and seminar debates. I have around 11 contact hours per week, split into lectures (1 hour) and seminars (2 hours) where we debate texts and give presentations on personal research. I then have around the same no. of hours of independent preparation to do for my classes, which is why I like to use the time between lectures to study in the library.
This year I’ve been studying modules such as Culture, Crisis and Ecology in a Postcolonial world, Satirical English Literature 1660-1750 and Shots in the Dark: American Film in Profile. All have been really interesting, but I’d have to claim CCE as my favourite module this year. Around 5 I normally head home, then to the gym for an hour, before deciding whether to stay in and chill or go out to a society social.
There are loads of amazing societies at Exeter uni – over 250 actually – and all of them run social events and activities throughout term. There are multiple social options every night from getting pizza at the Old Firehouse, to quizzes, to charity fashion shows, to ‘Where’s Wally?’ on campus with the hide and seek society, to clubbing and concerts. I like to see what’s on through friends and social media, and then choose on the day – you don’t have to be a member of a society to go to some society socials. I usually go to Travel society socials (always lots of people but very laid back), Korean society socials (they have the BEST food and I’m studying Korean as an extra class) and then a mixture of bigger joint society events like the RAG Fashion Show, Australian Red Cross Party Down Under and International Society Ball (you meet new and really interesting people).
My week is fairly similar from 8am-5pm Mondays to Fridays as I like to get all of my studying out of the way, so my evenings and weekends are free. However, on the weekends I like to get out of the ‘Exeter bubble’ a little bit and catchup with people I haven’t seen so much during the week. I often visit the Quay or get a train to Exmouth beach for a couple of hours, or head to Castle Drogo for a walk and a picnic. Exeter Cathedral and the area of Campus near Queens building and Reed Hall are also really nice spots to sit and chill with friends and some snacks if you get good weather.
So that’s my typical uni week! If you’re coming to Exeter university soon as a fresher or are here already, consider looking at new societies and activities on the student guild website for next year. More societies are added every year, and you never know who you might meet or the parties and events you might be missing.