Where is the best place to study? Exploring the secret study spaces in Stourbridge
College is a remarkably busy environment, with students milling around practically everywhere, both on campus and in the surrounding high streets. You may find yourself at times struggling to find somewhere to study, or perhaps still figuring out the best place where you can sit down and focus. Whatever the situation, everyone has their favourite place to study. In this article, I’m going to explore the range of study spaces in Stourbridge and give my conclusion on which one I think is best.
College Library
The college library is a conveniently placed study space, accessible to all students on campus. Filled with a variety of useful and interesting books and textbooks, the college library is a great place to get settled down and do some hard work. Most of the time, the library has an ambient silence, perfect for cracking down on challenging A-Level tasks. Dividers between the desks create a private and focused area for you to study, even with charging ports dotted around, allowing you to use your devices! Furthermore, the college library is open for a period before college commences and after it ends, providing students a wider window of time to stay focused whilst at college. This is useful for students who like to create a clear barrier between free time at home and focused study time at college.
However, with so many students, it’s not surprising how busy the college library can get. Finding a space at lunch in the library is close to impossible, with limited spaces for students. This is a slight issue as this study space doesn’t always have the capacity to support the required number of students. Furthermore, the library can get a little noisy during lesson changeover times, with the history classrooms located directly above, which can prove distracting for some students. Despite this, many people are socialising and eating at lunch, so this issue is minimalised.
Study Hub
If you’ve been sticking to your timetable, you’ll definitely have experienced spending time revising in study hub. Each week, students have a dedicated hour period of studying in this space, supervised by their personal tutors. For students who find it difficult to make themselves revise, Study Hub is a great idea, encouraging students to be productive and get their work done. Alongside this, study hub is open to students at lunch times, providing a social study space, where students can chat with their friends, whilst also getting some work done.
On the other hand, Study Hub can induce limited productivity. With large numbers of students in tutorial groups, Study Hub can get slightly noisy, making it difficult to get your head down and focus on the work in front of you. With the distractions of friends to catch up with, Study Hub might not be the best place for you if you prefer a quiet, focused environment when you study. In comparison to the college library, Study Hub is much louder and therefore might not be the ideal place to study, within college grounds.
Local Cafes
Stourbridge is bursting with a wonderful range of authentic cafes down every high street. There’s Costa, CUP, Caffè Nero, Starbucks, Coffee #1, and that’s only naming a few! These cozy cafes certainly have the atmosphere that students are looking for. With trendy music and interior designs, the cafes in Stourbridge are certainly a great place to get in the mood to study. And what better reward than a nice warm cup of coffee to go alongside your studying? You could even experience a romanticised study life, by testing out all the different cafes in Stourbridge! With customers coming and going, the local cafés have a relatively busy ambience, whilst still maintaining a nicely quiet environment.
Unfortunately, the downside to this is that if your budget is slim, studying in a cafe might not be your cup of tea! Whilst the idea of studying in these trendy spaces is very eye-catching, the blatant reality is the accumulating cost of purchasing drinks or food. As students, we already have the constant stress of watching over our grades, we can’t top it off with having to worry about money too! Therefore, these study spaces are not a daily possibility for most students.
Public Library
Located adjacent to Tesco, the town library is accessibly positioned in the centre of Stourbridge town, only a two-minute walk from college. This study space is open to all students and any members of the public. The public library is an ideal place to study, with a special quiet study room for people to settle down and work in. This study space is great, as you can really focus on important assignments without getting disrupted.