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I have spent the last two or so weeks marking undergraduate politics essays. As PhD students, it’s a great way to earn some extra dollars, while adding to our resumes and gaining experience in skills crucial to being an academic.

I was somewhat surprised by how rewarding I found the experience. Not only did I learn a lot about the topics covered – I was marking politics essays but almost none were in the field I focus on – I was reminded of many of the absolute basics of essay and paper writing that I think can sometimes become obscured by spending too long planning, and undertaking, your own research.

I learnt about new concepts of cyberpolitics, whether that be social media related or cyberterrorism threats, as well as about topics relating to South Australia that were as varied as the economic recovery from COVID-19 to the decriminalisation of sex work.

Even more than that, I learnt some valuable skills in time management. While lockdown helped provide be with a few less distractions than anticipated, I learnt that I had to eat right, sleep well and exercise, or I simply couldn’t concentrate at the level required for very long each day. It is a big task to mark over 100 essays in that relatively short time period, so I needed to make sure I wasn’t wasting even parts of days.

I developed a routine or aiming to mark two essays and hour, and then having at least 20 minutes off in between. This was necessary to allow my mind to continue function properly throughout the long days. If I hadn’t I think I would have struggled to mark all the papers to the standard each student deserves.

These are valuable skills I will be sure to try and implement as I return to my boring old regular job or writing my PhD thesis.