As deadline season approaches, you may find it difficult and distracting to work at home or in your usual spot. Mix it up a bit and try out some of my suggestions!
1. Queens Café
As a humanities student, I spend most days working in the Queens café on campus. In my opinion, this is the best place to work on campus. The space offers a perfect balance between working hard and socialising. I always find friends working here and the work benches are perfect if you need to concentrate. The cakes are also very yummy which is a bonus and a nice treat for the deadlines! Be warned, you need to get here early to get a seat as by lunchtime the café is pretty busy.
2. The Library (Streatham campus)
When you really need to focus and have no distractions, the library is the perfect place to study. I personally love to work in the law library by the big windows or upstairs in the quiet space. The library is a perfect spot for writing an essay or an important piece of work. In deadline season, I recommend getting a space early before they all get taken – stressed third years will take them all, trust me!
3. Amory
Similar to Queens, Amory has a big open space to work, which is great for preparing for seminars. If you’re a second or third year, it is also a great building as you don’t have to climb Forum Hill! There is a cafĂ© near the study space so you can keep up your caffeine intake whilst doing those readings too.
4. Peter Chalk
This is a lovely quiet space for reading and concentrating, if you can bare walking up the hill! There is also a cafĂ© space if you want to study with coffee and a friend. Peter Chalk is also a great place to study as a first year as you feel like you’re on campus without being too overwhelmed with stressed second and third years in the library, especially in deadline season.
5. Northcott Café
A more hidden spot on campus which not many people know about. A lovely space for working or grabbing coffee with a friend, especially if you don’t want to be bombarded by the business of the forum or queue for Pret (why is it always such a long queue?!).
6. Grow Coffee House
Now onto the best study spots in town! Grow is the perfect place for a chilled study session with friends. The café has delicious coffee and chilled background music. This is the perfect place for seminar prep or committee meetings, and even dissertation reading if you like a bit of background noise. That said, it might be a bit too noisy for essay writing.
7. Sacred Grouds
A lovely vegan café down Fore Street. Sacred Grounds is very relaxing, with a great open space and a beautiful setting to study in. The staff are very friendly and the drinks and food are amazing!
8. Town Library
The local library in town is a lovely open space! I really love to mix up my studying and take a day off campus to work here. It’s a lovely space to feel connected to the people in the city and a great place to work. I recommend going upstairs into the quiet study area if you need to concentrate or to work downstairs by the sofas if you want a more chill time.
9. Pura Vida
This café has a great, vibey, atmosphere! Their coffee and food are really reasonably priced, with student discount too! It can be quite loud so I would come here for committee and group meetings.
10. Exploding Bakery
If you haven’t been already, the exploding bakery has some of the best cakes and brownies in Exeter… and some great vegan options too! This is a lovely cafĂ© and a nice space to work too.