Last Thursday, a small group of Year 12 students were lucky enough to attend a major event at the University of Bath called 'Spotlight on Social Sciences'. The day was aimed at students who are considering careers in social sciences, focusing on psychology, politics, sociology, criminology and economics. When we arrived at the event in the morning, we were given bags containing information on all the social science courses the University offered and a very complicated map of the campus! Our first talk of the day was about why social sciences are so important in today's society and how social problems are the most challenging to tackle. I was very surprised at the large number of social science courses that Bath offered.

Everybody then split off into groups for their first workshops. Mine was psychology; the lecturer Claire Forrest focused on illusions and how we can't trust our senses to give us a 'true' picture of reality because they can be tricked so easily. As an IB student, I study Theory of Knowledge, and it was very interesting to find out more about exactly how illusions trick our brains and that what we know as 'reality' may not actually exist.

After lunch, we were given a short tour of the university's campus by a student ambassador. I found this one of the most useful parts of the day because we got to see all the amazing facilities there are and we could ask questions about life at uni in general - it was extremely insightful.

My second workshop was about education in psychology which focused on some very relevant and urgent issues. There are fewer and fewer university graduates going into teacher training and about 30% of teachers quit within the first five years of their profession. We also looked at why high-stakes testing and results are the main focus of the education system, and how teaching is generally becoming less and less enjoyable as a result of this.

To finish off the day, we had a useful talk on careers and employability which helped us to think beyond the degree course and about the wide range of things we could do after graduation. Overall, the event was very a worthwhile experience and what I learnt will definitely help me make choices as I enter into Year 13.

Isobel Kirkwood 12LHE