Epidemiology at 48: Any different this time around?

The first time I was a full-time university student, I was all of 17. The last time—other than now—I was 28. This time around, I am nearing the half-century mark. What’s different, and what would my advice be to someone my age contemplating a return to school?

I don’t recall having a physical problem with being a student in my teens and twenties. But the first thing that comes to mind when I consider student-hood at 48, unfortunately, is “aches and pains.” I have osteoarthritis in both hips and left the gym long ago to save time and money. The combination with seven months (and counting) on a secondhand chair in front of my computer is not pretty. If I do my daily sit-ups, push-ups and stretches, I get by with minimal twinges. The best help, though, is my daily walks to and from my sons’ elementary school. The younger one complains vociferously and begs to be driven, but I am adamant. Bit of advice #1: Stretch your legs every day.

What Revising For Exams Really Looks Like At My House

Here’s what I hope you will think is a humorous and helpful account of what revision 25 days before  my exams begin looks like at my house.  My study room and office look like something of a omnishambles right now. Books, bundles of legal size writing pads, pens and highlighters are everywhere.  They cover my desk, which is really an 87 inch dining table seconded for my higher purpose. I made a special shelf for each course in my book-case, just in reach of my ‘desk,’ where work for each course that will be needed in the days prior to exams is organized.  There is another area dedicated to three-hole punching and binding in notebooks. Lamps for reading and table trays are fitted in near every chair, except my collie dog, Jelly Bean’s. Her pink pillow and super comfy purple chair are sacrosanct, though the same cannot be said for my husband’s.

All the Best – The best of times!

So we all need a hideout corner in the midst of stressful times such as these.

For me, the only ‘corner’ I resort to is the one where my piano lay. Playing a tune and penning down an ode alongside reminds me of the importance of rhythm: Not too slow, not too fast. I always try to employ that idea in the field of academics too.

This blog contains one such ode by me, which goes out to all my fellow students at the University of London International Programmes. Cheers!

Studies and real life

Hi, everyone.

I have decided to write a post on the applicability of the knowledge you get while studying at UOL LLB in real life.

I have to repeat that I am lawyer already and work as such but I do not have a QLD in the English law and I am studying for this degree in order to understand and apply English contract law solutions for my current project, where many contracts are generated on a daily basis and almost all of them are, by the selection of the parties, governed by the substantive laws of England.

As I wrote before, my studies got a bit overextended due to my own poor time-management skills. However, even being not so productive as required by the study plan, I gained some knowledge of the English law of contracts, enough to understand the basics and to help the business I am employed by.

Argumentation Boggarts and Brollachans

I told myself that, when the first day of April arrived, a significant increase in what I call my ‘study application’ will need to occur. My focus is now entirely on 2 areas of concern. The first is in-depth research on specific topics. The second is disciplining myself to develop a complete argument before beginning to write an essay. You cannot imagine how challenging the second point is for me. To be successful at it sometimes I cannot even pick up a pen until I completely think through my argument and its structure.

Over the years I have been studying and writing in this program I have often wondered why this is so challenging for me.  I have wondered why an outline, essay plan, or argument, or whatever you want to call it, is even necessary.  A paper or story can certainly be written without one, but it will surely be as haphazard an affair for the reader as it was for the writer.  If you stop to think about what an essay plan or outline does, for example, provide focus, notes specific details, engages with the topic in a spirited way, makes the writing process more efficient, and aides concentration, it seems quite impossible to write a text of any kind without a clear plan or outline.

Daddy’s homework

“Daddy, are you doing your homework?” My five-year old daughter gets it. Not that there’s much to get. If Daddy is surrounded by a splattering of books, journal print-outs and scribbled notes, with a pencil in his mouth and a quizzical-to-stressed look on his face, chances are he’s studying.

She started school in September and has homework every day (except Fridays). The letter tracing and phonetic spelling exercises that amount to her homework are accomplished within minutes of her whirl-winding home. It’s not exactly taxing, but she adores it. There’s an obvious sense of self-importance, but also a real sense of duty. This isn’t a task done in the classroom with the teacher breathing down her neck. This is her responsibility, something that she does on her own, away from the structured school day.

As a parent, I silently questioned the need for homework in the first year of school. Why would a five-year-old need to supplement school learning with extra tasks at home? I should have known better. I’m an external student, juggling one and a half jobs, parenting and lots of other demands, problems and commitments that life flings at me everyday. Why shouldn’t my daughter’s school life spill into our home life? Isn’t that what I’m doing right by taking this degree?

Meeting Church Fathers: St Ephrem the Syrian

In February 2013 I attended a study day on Church Fathers at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, dedicated to St Ephrem the Syrian by Dr Sebastian Brock, probably the world’s foremost expert on Syriac Christianity. In the morning Dr Brock introduced St Ephrem’s life and his times, and in the afternoon we had a chance to consider some of his profound and moving writings which are available in English translations, in particular by Dr Brock. It is interesting to note that St Ephrem wrote in the Syriac language, which is a descendant of Aramaic language spoken by Jesus. One often hears that it is not just what is taught but also who teaches it that matters – and Dr Brock’s lecture was a proof of how a dedicated scholar who deeply cares about the subject of his studies makes a huge difference.

Worried About Writing For Exams: Can You Tell A Story In Six Words?

Urban literary legend has it that, over lunch one day, Ernest Hemingway boasted to colleagues he could write a short story in six words.  His colleagues doubted very much that even the great Hemingway could write a story in six words.  They each wagered $10, betting a $60 pot against him.  Hemingway scribbled these six words on a napkin, ‘For Sale: Baby Shoes, never worn.’  According to legend Hemingway won the pot. The phrase is often misquoted, and whether or not there is any truth to the story does not matter. It makes a vivid point about writing that is helpful as we prepare for exams.

Right now our online gathering places are buzzing with conversations about the sudden need to write in a very specific way. In the English Department our examination consists of three timed essays with no support materials allowed. You must have read, thought, and decided, and then in the exam room, respond with an argument to three out of 15 questions within the three hour time limit.  Most of our anxiety about the process focuses on the amount of time available and the challenge of saying everything we want to in just one hour.  Exams do feel like a puzzle sometimes and writing our first timed essays at home before exams can increase anxiety rather than abate it.

Epidemiology at 48: Solving the kids-and-studies equation

When I asked my eldest if he saw a down side to my studying, he sweetly said that “it keeps you away from time with your kids, but … if you’re helping hundreds of thousands of people, I suppose it’s okay.” Wow! So…if I’m not helping hundreds of thousands of people (and I hasten to state that I am, unfortunately, not), I should stop studying and focus on my kids?!

It’s so hard to get that balance right. But I wouldn’t be effective as a student or a mom if I didn’t take time for all the other stuff.

My husband and I had an unwritten prenuptial agreement: we would take turns as stay-at-home parent. Some friends predicted failure, but we are now in round three, and after five years of work in New York City, I’m back at home. This time, I don’t have to contend with breastfeeding or playgroups: I’m 48 and my sons are 12, 11, and 9. Everybody is in school: surely a recipe for chaos! But I’ve made it halfway through the school year and we all seem to be thriving. I asked myself how we have (so far) avoided an implosion.

Ledes, nutgrafs and exam questions

I’m not exactly panicking… With just eight weeks to my first exam, I’m on a pretty tight deadline with revision and scanning past exam papers. But a priority right now is outlining exam questions and being sure that I can stitch together a coherent argument on exam day.

As I’ve said before on this blog, my course in Politics and International Relations isn’t exactly related to my full-time job playing clarinet in an orchestra, so it’s not like my day-to-day working life intersects with and enriches my studies. Study time is a separate part of my day, hours snatched in the evening or – if I’m performing – in afternoons before concerts. However, my parallel career as a part-time journalist and writer is helping me no end.