If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. One of these days you will be returning to university after the winter break. It may feel daunting! Take a deep breath and acknowledge how far you’ve come. This isn’t just the start of a new academic term. It’s another milestone in your journey. For many of you, university is … 13 July 2026 – Back to School

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. You’re on holiday at the moment, blissfully free of all the tensions and stresses of campus life, but soon you will be going back and you may once again feel like the poor girl in our picture. Sorry for the reminder! There is an upside, though. You have time … 06 July 2026 – A Recipe for Coping with Stress

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. A reminder: Tomorrow 30 June is the closing date of the GRAD – your guide to university success quiz. Please follow this link to answer the quiz questions and give us honest feedback on the value of the material in the guide and the weekly Thought for the Week. You will stand … 29 June 2026 – With Time to Spare: Clearing a Tangle and Thinking about Goals

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. (This one is slightly different from the usual, more personal and emotional. Try listening.) It’s holiday time, and many of you are going home for the first time since leaving to come to university. As you pack your bags, take a moment to pause and breathe. In this year, starting your … 22 June 2026 – Going Home

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. You’re halfway through your exams, and you’re exhausted. You must find the strength and the energy – the GRIT – to keep going in the last stretch. How does one do that?! Prof Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania in America wrote a book called “GRIT: The Power … 15 June 2026 – GRIT

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. It’s exam time, often a time of stress and tension. Next week we’ll give you some support in dealing with that stress and finding the grit you need to get you through, but for now it’s about the practical stuff: how to give your absolute best when you sit … 08 June 2026 – Writing Exams with Confidence

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. With the mid-year exams upon you, sleep is probably the last on your list of priorities at the moment. Let’s talk about that. Brain Science teaches us that physical changes occur in the brain when we learn. It is similar to when you work out in the gym – your muscles … 01 June 2026 – Sleep in Order to Learn

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. How’s it going with your studies? Have you been keeping to your schedule and using the pomodoro technique, as we discussed last week? Good for you! Here’s another reminder of one the great tools we have introduced before, to help you use your study time as effectively as possible. … 25 May 2026 – Effective Study: Spaced Repetition

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. Last week we talked about that big dark shadow, fear of failure. The first step to overcoming it, we said, is to face it. Name it to tame it. What exactly are you afraid of? Define it. Then, secondly, focus on what you can control, and thirdly, take action. This week we pick … 18 May 2026 – Beating Procrastination

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. This week we’re talking deep stuff that few of us will acknowledge, even to ourselves, but most of us have experienced: fear of failure. That paralysing conviction that you’ll never be able to do this, whatever “this” is. You’ll never understand calculus, or the Middle English poem you have … 11 May 2026 – Fear of Failure