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Posted Aug. 13, 2014

Revitalising Your Student Social Life After Exams

While it may have been possible as an undergraduate to maintain the delicate balance between socialising and studying even during the most hectic of exam periods, once you become a postgraduate student this is usually an impossible task due to the sheer difficulty and volume of the work involved. As such, for many PhD and Masters students, time for socialising with friends goes completely out the window until the final exam is completed or the last page of the dissertation completed. Even though maintaining some sort of a student social life throughout the whole duration of your time spent studying has a great number of advantages, for many postgrads it seems that giving up socialising to a large degree is almost unavoidable. With such intense focus placed on studying during the duration of the exam and dissertation hand-in deadline period, the time immediately after can be challenging in its own way, especially for many graduates who suddenly find themselves with free time on their hands but, having gotten out of the habit of socialising with other students, not knowing what to do with it. Fear not, however, because here are some helpful tips that will have your student social life rebuilt to what it was before faster than you thought possible!

Leverage Social Networks During the exam period, many postgraduate students sensibly decide to avoid social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, to stop themselves being distracted from their revision. As soon as you’ve finished your exams, you should jump straight back onto these various sites and start reconnecting with your fellow students. You will quickly discover that many other students are experiencing the same slightly strange feeling of being happy to have their exams over but not knowing how to fill their now plentiful free time. By communicating with fellow students you will likely quickly get invites to go round for a meal, meet up for a few beers and hit the town to unwind from all the hard work and sacrifice you’ve put in to do well in your exams.

Pick Up The Phone Using Facebook or Twitter to reconnect with friends is incredibly convenient. However, there is no denying that they can’t compete with a making a plain old phone call when it comes to rebuilding your social life as short as possible. There’s just something tangible and deeply personable about phoning someone directly and hearing their voice compared with messaging via social media and networks. Go through your smartphone contact list, jot down your 10 best friends at university and then commit to calling them over the next couple of days. This one step will Throw A Celebration Party There’s no easier way to reconnect with friends than throwing an exam completion party after everyone’s finished studying for the academic session. Create an event on Facebook and then get in touch with all your university friends to let them know when it’s taking place. Not only will you find this a fantastic way of reconnecting with old friends, but, you will also see that it’s an awesome way for meeting new friends, too. Make it clear on the invite page that friends can bring along other postgraduates to the party, to guarantee the numbers attending will be high and an awesome time will be had by all!

Keep Some Social Contact Throughout The Exam Period It’s easier said than done, however, one of the best ways to avoid losing contact with friends over the exam period is to limit the time you spend socialising rather than stopping it completely. The key is in finding a balance . Limiting yourself to only going out once or twice a week will allow you to enjoy the benefits of socialising without having too much of an effect on your exam or dissertation progress. Throughout the study period there are many other non-study activities you have to carry out, possibly including events such as Careers Fair , and so there is a strong case for limiting socialising rather than completely avoiding it.
 

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