Sophie's Column: Course deadlines looming - and everyone's exhausted!

We were warned the jump from second to third year would be brutal but I don’t think any amount of warning could have prepared me for the amount we’ve had to deal with in the past six months.

On top of exams, we’ve been thrown a 3000 word literary review in preparation for our dissertation, an intense mock press conference with a politician, several news stories and, to top it all off, a four day-long newsweek where we’ll have to source, produce and present exclusive material.

To say I’m exhausted would be an understatement.

I think matters would be worse if I didn’t enjoy what I was doing. I’ve said plenty of times that I’m lucky to be able to study a course which I love so much.

In terms of the newsweek and writing original content, it’s pretty standard practice for a full time journalist.

The problem is when all of the workload and the deadlines come in at once.

People can only juggle a few intense situations at once and I’ve noticed that our whole class is starting to exhaust ourselves under the pressure.

Trying to balance everything at once might cause a few of us to crack!

None of us are short of passion – our situation would be a whole lot different if that was the opposite.

But I think there comes a time in every student’s life when they need to take a moment to pull away from the madness of deadline time and take a breather.

Yes, journalism is enjoyable but multiple deadlines all hitting you at once?

That’s something I’m looking forward to getting out the way!