5 Things You’ll Realise During a Masters

Approaching postgraduate study can be daunting and the experience may not always be exactly what you expect. But that won’t necessarily be a bad thing.

A Masters is a learning process in more ways than one, but a lot of what you realise during your degree will be positive. You’ll learn more about your capabilities, and your capacity for academic (and personal) growth.

The things you’ll discover won’t be limited to the few points I have made here. Nevertheless, this post should provide an insight into some of the experiences you’ll potentially face – for the better.

Learning about the about different possibilities involved in postgraduate study may also be useful to you more generally– and your fellow students.

For some of you, this may be stating the obvious.

However, in the world of academia it’s easy to get caught up in the belief that you must know everything there is to know about your subject.

This isn’t the case.

You may also find the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study difficult – particularly if you’re coming to a Masters having recently succeeded in a Bachelors.

Starting from the beginning with more advanced material might seem disorientating. Do you have to ‘Master’ all of it? Not necessarily.

Postgraduate study is often more focussed and courses are usually shorter.

This means that your Masters actually gives you a rather limited amount of time to specialise in a particular area of your field.

So, you’ll need to focus on the aspects of your topic that are most important to you and resonate most with you as a researcher. This can mean developing expertise in a specific branch (or branches) of your topic, but it doesn’t essentially mean being an expert in all of it.

And when it comes to specialisation, you won’t always know where your focus should be. Sometimes you’ll require help from those who know just that little bit more than you do about which is the right path to take.

But that’s okay.

Lecturers, tutors and other experts can help you to be selective with your research methods and show you how to make the most of your university’s resources.

With this in mind, it’s also important to remember that knowledge can be found in many places.

If you’ve previously studied as an undergraduate, you'll be familiar with the university library. As a Masters student you’ll probably need to get more familiar with it: moving from core textbooks to cutting edge research in journal articles and new studies.

However, ‘conventional’ research isn't always the best source of information or data in some postgraduate subjects. If this is the case for your Masters, don't be afraid to be adventurous!

Consider asking to join a fieldtrip that isn’t part of your course, or look into using interlibrary loans to broaden your research scope.

You may also have the potential to meet individuals that you wouldn’t normally come across – like activists, politicians, inventors – and gain insights into a topic which are far more revealing than any information found in a book or on a website.

For example, you could interview members of a friends group, or meet with a lecturer at a different university who specialises in your field.

Networking opportunities can also arise through email, attending focus groups and general public meetings, or even volunteering with an external organisation.

Having the ability to seek out new research methods will show your originality, resilience and dedication to your degree.

As above, finding new ways of researching and presenting your material is always beneficial as a postgraduate.

One way to do so is through public engagement. This can mean different things in different contexts, but is essentially about making your research more accessible to wider, non-academic audiences.

And this is useful whether you choose to opt for a career in academia or not.

As an academic, you will be expected to publish your research and findings on a regular basis, and assess the impact your work is having in your field.

Therefore, holding events where the public can come and learn about your work provides the opportunity for you to gain feedback about its effect on a given community. It is also a means of building your academic reputation.

Alternatively, if you opt for a non-academic career after your Masters, you will have gained excellent experience and transferrable skills to utilise as a professional.

You will have improved your interpersonal communication skills, as well as your ability to tailor information to a variety of audiences.

Though a Masters is more academically challenging, it is also an opportunity for you to achieve more than you ever have before. This was certainly the case for me.

When I started my Masters, I’d come from an undergraduate degree in a completely different subject. Having received a 2:1 I had by no means failed, but I never really felt I’d fully excelled either.

This wasn’t because I didn’t achieve a first class mark. I also felt that much of my undergraduate course hadn’t really ‘gelled’ with me. I never really understood why some things had gone well and some things hadn’t.

But all of this changed when I started my Masters.

I’d gone from receiving lots of criticism during my Bachelors, to being commended for my ideas and encouraged to progress with them. It was a strange feeling to get used to. I had been allowed to flourish, gaining personal recognition rather than just a good grade.

And I found this to be true for others as well.

I also consistently received marks far higher than I’d ever received during my Bachelors studies. I found that the subject I was now studying better suited my personal style as a researcher and an individual.

This could be the case for you, too. With opportunities to specialise in your field, you can find exactly the right course for you.

We all know that undertaking research, carrying out projects, and writing essays can be stressful.

Accepting when things aren’t going well is something else which also takes a lot of confidence.

As you progress through your studies, you learn from your mistakes. You begin to better understand your strengths and weaknesses.

You also learn how to seek proper support when you need it and to utilise your university’s services more effectively.

And you ultimately realise that it’s all a learning process. It’s okay if things don’t work out sometimes.

What matters is how you develop as a researcher: you can either work with those obstacles, or work around them.

Either way, just remember: you can do this!

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