First time studying since school & I'm completely lost

Hi Marie,

I too am new to this world of studying and I’m also new to HR. It’s a complete career change for me and although I’m doing a different course to you, I can safely say you are not alone!
I submitted my first assignment a few weeks ago and got caught up in the tornado of worry and stress. Being my first written document in over 20 years, it felt very daunting. I also had the added stress of changing the organisation I was writing about as the one I picked initially just wasn’t a true fit for the areas I needed to focus on. I literally gave myself less than two weeks to do the assignment and that just made my stress even worse.

I would suggest you start writing something for each section of your assignment. At this stage, what you write won’t need to be pretty or be within word allowance, but treat it as your template. Look at the assignment questions - do they ask you to identify or perhaps describe? It could be that you need more in depth answer for the ‘describe’ than what you may need to answer for an ‘identify’ question so really understand what it is they are asking.

You may also need to do some research for each section which can take some time so prepare to work for a certain amount of time, but give yourself some natural breaks to grab a cup of tea or lunch.
I really benefited from some examples that my tutor gave which allowed me to understand what they were visually looking for. That helped me shape the style of document, adding graphics and tables where necessary. Have you got similar tutor support or examples?

When you have your template as such, read over it and see if you have room for improvement. Can a long sentence be reduced perhaps?

Look at the questions the other students are asking and can you too benefit from the replies others are offering?

You will also need to consider the referencing for level 5 - we have to ensure Harvard referencing is done within the document within my course and maybe that’s the same for yours? There are websites out there that can help you understand how to do this.

Get someone to review your work, they maybe able to streamline your document or give you extra areas for consideration. Do you have someone you can go to for this?

Finally, I put the usual day to day chores off for a bit so I allowed myself to fully focus on the assignment. It was a week of chaos trying to source children’s school uniforms from a mountain of ironing but it’s a small price to pay for that moment where you get to press submit on that assignment. That Marie, feels very good indeed ;-)

Good luck, don’t give up and I promise you the next one will mentally feel a little bit easier!

Hi Marie,

I too am new to this world of studying and I’m also new to HR. It’s a complete career change for me and although I’m doing a different course to you, I can safely say you are not alone!
I submitted my first assignment a few weeks ago and got caught up in the tornado of worry and stress. Being my first written document in over 20 years, it felt very daunting. I also had the added stress of changing the organisation I was writing about as the one I picked initially just wasn’t a true fit for the areas I needed to focus on. I literally gave myself less than two weeks to do the assignment and that just made my stress even worse.

I would suggest you start writing something for each section of your assignment. At this stage, what you write won’t need to be pretty or be within word allowance, but treat it as your template. Look at the assignment questions - do they ask you to identify or perhaps describe? It could be that you need more in depth answer for the ‘describe’ than what you may need to answer for an ‘identify’ question so really understand what it is they are asking.

You may also need to do some research for each section which can take some time so prepare to work for a certain amount of time, but give yourself some natural breaks to grab a cup of tea or lunch.
I really benefited from some examples that my tutor gave which allowed me to understand what they were visually looking for. That helped me shape the style of document, adding graphics and tables where necessary. Have you got similar tutor support or examples?

When you have your template as such, read over it and see if you have room for improvement. Can a long sentence be reduced perhaps?

Look at the questions the other students are asking and can you too benefit from the replies others are offering?

You will also need to consider the referencing for level 5 - we have to ensure Harvard referencing is done within the document within my course and maybe that’s the same for yours? There are websites out there that can help you understand how to do this.

Get someone to review your work, they maybe able to streamline your document or give you extra areas for consideration. Do you have someone you can go to for this?

Finally, I put the usual day to day chores off for a bit so I allowed myself to fully focus on the assignment. It was a week of chaos trying to source children’s school uniforms from a mountain of ironing but it’s a small price to pay for that moment where you get to press submit on that assignment. That Marie, feels very good indeed ;-)

Good luck, don’t give up and I promise you the next one will mentally feel a little bit easier!