Health Science Reviews

by Muhammad Adeeb Fakier

Before starting the Honours Programme, my expectation was that it would be just another extra year of sacrifice and that it would be relatively straight forward. This idea was especially brought on since lockdown regulations prevents student from going to campus and therefore everything is online. I was basically picturing the ideal life of sitting by a computer with a cup of coffee and working through the courses materials, stress free. This was definitely not the case.

This year has presented itself as waves of deadly deadlines, with the durations getting shorter and workload getting more intense. For example; completing a module within a month that entails different content including assignments, project proposals, presentations, and worse… Exams. I have always felt that I coped well under pressure and that my organisational skills have allowed me to adapt to uncomfortable situations at a reasonable rate. However, having done my undergraduate three years ago, I completely forgot the feeling of exams and was genuinely reminded of its horror.

Despite my misjudgement of the process for furthering my education to Honours level, I found the challenges to be truly fulfilling as I have learned a lot within this year. The content within each of the modules are extremely interesting, with some of them also being super intensive that completing the module just immediately leaves a sense of satisfaction.

During this year, I have become especially appreciative of the contribution that articles have on the science community. A specific moment that comes to light was where in one of my modules, I was required to prepare a presentation of any choice relating to a high throughput biology article. The people in the module all presented incredibly interesting articles and could present the article as if it was written by them. At that point I realized how embedded science has become with us.