Course reading: enjoyable?

It’s the summer holidays; the end of another academic year at university, and being away from the chaos of student life can often cause us to reflect on what has happened over the past year. Making new friends, joining new societies, turning up to that 9am lecture even though you didn’t get to bed until 4am and have an awful hangover. Our degrees are a large part of this, so two Warwick students shared their thoughts on how much they actually enjoy the reading they have to do for essays and revision. 

“You should find your course material fascinating”

Sure, a couple of the books I have read for my degree so far have been a bit dull. On the whole though, you should find your course material fascinating. The whole point of coming to university is to study something you enjoy, and that you are interested in, so how can reading more around the subject possibly be a bad thing?

I’m of the opinion that a lot of literary criticism is nonsense, and I find having to read theory fairly dry and tenuous. However, I find that subjects like history (one of my optional modules) are captivating, and getting to learn more about it is a treat. What is university but a place to expand your mind, to indulge in ideas, to look at things that interest and puzzle you and discover more about them? Course reading helps you do that, and if you enjoy your course, it should be a joy to read and re-read for exams and essays.

Reece Goodall

Reading for revision is “forced, strenuous and aggravating”

As an English student and lover of Literature, it pains my bookish heart to admit that I don’t always find reading for exams enjoyable. In fact, I don’t think I’m alone in finding reading for revision forced, strenuous and aggravating.

It’s often our favourites that hurt the most. You might think books that inspire and captivate, the ones that play with our emotions, would be a pleasure to delve into for an exam. However, being told to mechanically pull apart a personal favourite can destroy everything we once treasured in the piece.

Strange angles from past papers can force you to explore aspects and secondary material you find uninteresting, and carry you further and further from the actual text; a book you might have enjoyed if not for the simultaneous revision-induced breakdowns and the looming pressure of grades. Maybe I should separate work from pleasure, and dream about after exams when I can read for myself, rather than for a mark scheme.

Beth Hurst

Image Credits: Header (Flickr/Janet Lindenmuth), Image 1 (commons.wikimedia.org), Image 2 (www.flickr.com)