13 things I learnt from my Honours year...

... and some things I wish I’d known beforehand!  

(written in partnership with the MAVE lab)

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I recently completed my Honours degree, a fourth year of study after finishing my Bachelor of Marine Science last year. It involved a research project with a final thesis under the guidance of my supervisors Dr Katharina Peters, Dr Frédérik Saltré, and Dr Adelaide Dedden.

It has truly been a learning experience in every sense of the word, and here I’m happy to share thirteen tips, reflections, and lessons I picked up along the way! 

1) Before even starting...

... think about how you work best and what you will need from your supervisors. I find regular progress meetings helpful, and, despite a strong motivation, I still need external accountability (even if it is self-imposed!).

For example, to avoid procrastinating too much, I would set up a realistic but tight deadline (e.g., the next day or so) with my supervisors to update them on my progress. Take the time to figure out your needs in terms of communication style, meeting regularity, and motivation. Knowing how your brain works best and what it needs to succeed will be immensely helpful. 

2) Be optimistic...

... but realistic in your planning. It is quite unlikely that the grand plans and exact timeline you carefully set out in the beginning will come to fruition (I am laughing at the timeline that “past me” made). This is not a bad thing!

Aiming to follow a set plan but being flexible when it changes was an important and useful skill to learn. 

3) Cultivate community...

... with your peers. The people around you can be sources of comfort, ideas, and feedback, but you need to be open to it. For the first month or so, I barely came to campus (despite living a mere 14-minute walk away), but once I started going, I noticed how much nicer it was to be in a room of people going through the same process together.

Different disciplines bring new perspectives and ideas, but also moments of gratitude for being in a different research field, as some of the things they were doing sounded totally foreign to me (and I am sure they could say the same thing about me!). 

4) Your relationship with your supervisors...

... is a new and different experience from coursework. The supervisor-student relationship is a two-way street: instead of just listening and implementing knowledge, the learning is collaborative, and shaping your project becomes a cooperative effort rather than a test. This is nerve-wracking as you always feel slightly out of your comfort zone, but also really exciting! Communication is key here.

If you’re overwhelmed, stuck, tired, or even just excited, say it! Your supervisors trust you to be open with them, and they can only support you if you tell them what is going on. 

5) Distance yourself...

... from your work. A critique of your research is not a critique of you as a person. Feedback from people who want you to succeed is an opportunity to improve, and you must see it that way! At the beginning I found this difficult, and it sometimes took me more time than it should have to go through feedback, but the more I learnt to separate my self-worth from my work, the more I was able to appreciate the necessity of it. 

Reading my writing from six months ago was a humbling experience, but also a good thing. It is the tangible proof that you have grown as a student and as a researcher. Be proud of the awkward first drafts! 

6) Lean on...

... your support system. This does not just include having people to talk to, make sure that you also have hobbies and routines outside of university! For example, I practiced tai chi every week and scheduled movie nights with my housemates. They have all heard me blabber about my project and let me vent whenever I need it, which has been great (and learning how to explain your research to people outside of science is a necessary skill too)!

It’s important to have activities and sources of joy and grounding that are totally separate from study.  

7) Something. Is. Better. Than...

... Nothing. Repeat this a million times over and then a couple times more! A lot of tasks (especially writing, when you are initially staring at a blank document) can feel insurmountable, but even just one sentence is better than no sentence at all. Sometimes I found it helpful to finish my writing session halfway through a sentence so that it was easier to get back into it next time.

Beating paralysis and starting is the hardest part, but once you have, you will get some momentum. Small steps do add up! 

8) Set a timer...

... for being unsure. There were times when I should have asked for help sooner but didn’t because I was convinced I should/could figure it out myself. This can be a dangerous waste of time! Set yourself a time limit (hours, days, etc.) to reach out for help. Trying to work things out yourself is great, but if it starts coming at the cost of meeting deadlines or milestones on time, then it becomes detrimental in the long run. 

9) You are not feeling...

... anything new (in the nicest way possible). Almost every student or higher degree researcher has felt exactly what you are feeling, or a version of it. This is another benefit of having a community with your peers where, for example, you will quickly realise that you are not the only one suffering from imposter syndrome. 

10) Write down...

...the ‘sparks’. Some days are hard, and it’s easy to lose perspective. Other times, a field day or my code running perfectly gave that little spark of scientific joy. It is important to write down those good moments! Holding onto them when I was in the more challenging times helped my brain to automatically ‘look’ for the good bits. 

11) Not reading without...

... writing. ‘I will remember the idea of the article’ - this is a lie! You will not remember because too many things are going on, so even if it is just a few notes or key points you want to remember, write them down! 

12) Keep coming back to...

...the "why". Your methods, research, questions, hypotheses, interpretations, all of it. At every step of the way, step back and ask yourself ‘why’ you are making certain choices or interpretations. Over time, this is incredibly helpful for deepening your knowledge and staying critically curious!

When the ‘why’ becomes second nature, you will always be able to confidently justify your process.   

13) Immerse yourself...

... in the process! The good, the bad and the ugly! Say “yes” to everything you can: conferences, talks, field opportunities. Say “yes” scared and “yes” tired. This is by no means a call to ignore your boundaries but rather, to push them and choose to take leaps into the unknown before talking yourself out of them. That is where growth lives! 

All in all, this year has been hard… yes! But it has also been incredibly rewarding, and genuinely a lot of fun! I finished this degree with a lot more self-confidence, resilience and direction than when I started and I am endlessly grateful to my supervisors and peers who supported me along the way.  

However, Honours is not necessarily for everyone (there are many ways to reach your goals!), and before I began, I definitely had nervous moments where I wondered whether I was capable of doing it. Now, having come out the other side, I can confidently say this: if you have the interest, and you have thought about what it could give you, take the leap!

It will teach you vastly more than just your research topic, and it will pay off in ways you cannot yet begin to anticipate. 

Hannah Davies

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