A day in the life of a Maths student during exam season

Hi my name is Jaina and as a second year maths student, I have had five exams in May on all of my lecture-based modules from this year. I’ve been trying my best to keep a good work-life balance, so here’s a usual day for me as a Maths student at Birmingham!

I try to aim to be on campus at 9:30 because, for me, I work best in the morning. I live half an hour away which I love because it gives me a chance to wake up on the walk to campus. I particularly like walking along the canal which is so pretty at this time of year. Birmingham has so many different study spaces you can go to, I like finding different places to study, like the Law library, Avon Room, the Arts Building and more! Today was a sunny day so I went to a study space in Muirhead Tower because it has great views of the city!

After working for a few hours by myself, I do get bored and I tend to start loosing concentration, so I have a bit of a break and meet up with a friend for lunch. I like sitting on the Green Heart, outside the Library, looking at Old Joe and admiring the pretty campus! If I didn’t have time to pack lunch in the morning, there are so many great spots to get lunch or a snack on campus (there’s a new bubble tea van that I definitely recommend).

Instead of working by myself after lunch, I like working with my course mates in the Maths building. During exam season there aren’t many lectures on, so we try to find a spare lecture theatre and start doing questions together on the board. I ask about anything that I am struggling with and usually they can help me! If we’re all stuck on a question, we sometimes go to the office hours of our lecturers and ask them directly. I love having the balance of working by yourself and in a group as you can learn so much from teaching others and they teach you loads too!

I had tennis in the evening which is a great way of switching off and relaxing after working all day. Then I usually pick something up from Aldi on the way back for dinner or heat up something I meal-prepped on the weekend. Today I had leftover veggie mince so I picked up some tortilla chips and had nachos whilst talking to some of my housemates in the kitchen. Then just before bed, I watched the Legend of Korra (a comfort show was well deserved after a busy day) and went to sleep at about midnight.

I like my days to be quite varied, sometimes I’ll go to the city centre to work instead (the Waterstones in the Bullring and the Birmingham Library are both great spots for this!) especially on the weekend. I stumbled across quite a few markets around Birmingham just by walking around!

Hopefully this gives you a good idea of what it’s like to be a student during exam season at the University of Birmingham!