Completing Second Year..

Hi everyone,

So this weeks post is going to be exactly as it states in the title, all about how it feels to have completed another year of university, plans for what's to come (i.e. dissertation thoughts) and placements.

I'll start with my thoughts and feelings on finishing the year....

.... and in a nutshell, that picture sums up how it feels.
I didn't really pay much attention to the fact that I have in fact completed my second year of my three year degree, I am over halfway through my degree, I have one year left before I go out into the big wide world of work and I honestly don't know if I'm ready for it all. One thing I do know is how proud I am of myself for actually making it through this past year, it's been difficult and I had a very big knock back in January when I lost someone extremely close to me and had a heart operation, I ended up needing extensions on my assignments etc, which I never thought I'd have to do. I did feel behind at one point but as soon as I was through the worst of it I picked myself with the help of friends, family and my understanding lecturers and got back on track. You can never plan for things like those to happen and it was my luck that I had a double whammy all in the same week, but it's all down to motivation (self and from peers) to get back into the swing of things and I was and still am so determined to do well at university that nothing will stop me. Sorry, I know this went off on a tangent but basically what I'm trying to say it that despite having those hiccups, I made it through the year and I couldn't be happier with how far I've come since starting this university journey.

Now onto plans, now none of these are set in stone, I haven't completely decided on my dissertation title but I do know that I want it to be something to do with university level education, disability and technology. That's about as far as I've got with dissertation planning, I have done a research proposal already for my final Research methods assignment but I'm not completely happy with it. I may end up using it and tweaking it to make sure its suitable and better quality but who knows! There are SO many options for it and it's quite overwhelming, I do know that I will have decided on a title by July, I'll seek approval from my personal tutor and then I'll make sure I've done at least 1,000 words of my dissertation by the time I start my third year (watch this space). I do not want to be going back to uni with no clue of how I'm going to do my biggest assignment of my university career, I want to and will be planned ahead and feeling ready to tackle it. So, yeah that's what next for me education wise.

Placements are at the top of my mind at the moment, I am currently attending one on Friday's with years 5 and 6 and I love it, however because I'm only doing Friday's I'll have only had a weeks worth of experience with this age before I go away in June and I'd like to have more.So, I'll hopefully be able to return to the school in September and rack up a good couple more weeks there before starting back at uni in October. I already have key stage 1 and 2, but it would be nice to have more when it comes to applying for teacher training. I enjoy placement so much, I know all the kids really well considering I only go one day a week. I can truly see myself working in a key stage 1 or 2 environment one day, I guess that's when you know you've picked the right career path!

Well, that's it for this week!

Until next time,

M

Third Year Expectations...

Hi everyone, hope you're all well.

Seeing as I've finished uni and am not quite sure what sort of things you'll be interested in I thought I'd write a bit of an expectations post. So, what I think third year is going to be like and how it will pan out from listening to peers who have gone through it, my own judgement and what my lecturers have been saying...

My first and probably biggest expectation is that it's going to get very real and very serious. I have heard a lot of people say before that first and sometimes second year are complete walks in the park compared to the final year of university and this seems to be a recurring theme no matter what course you're studying. I personally don't think anyone is ever fully prepared for what to expect for the whole dissertation aspect of final year. Me included, I think it's definitely a huge shock to our systems from what I've heard and I wish I could know what to expect fully but obviously I never will because it's definitely one of those things that if you don't ever experience it, you'll never really understand what it's like. So, yeah dissertation is most probably going to shock me into wanting to be a complete uni nerd and do everything by the book, having said that I don't think anyone ever does every little thing we're supposed to.

I thought this image represented expectations brilliantly. 

Secondly, I definitely think the social side of uni will die down completely, especially in those crucial 'diss' months. This is another reason I know third years going to be the biggest struggle of my uni career, because third year students are barely out on student nights throughout those key dissertation writing months and then all of a sudden they all start appearing again when they've submitted and finished them. I don't think this will affect me as much as others because I'm commuting again and that means less nights out anyway because the thought of a home cooked meal and a bath often outweighs the thought of going out in the freezing cold and waking up feeling horrendous, this makes me sound like I don't like going out, I DO! I have just learnt over the years I have been going out that it doesn't need to be every night because I found myself getting bored of the same old thing every week.

Another big change I think I'll notice is my personal time spent in the library. I thought this year I'd spend more time in the library but I actually barely did, apart from when I had a massive three hour break between lectures. I find it so hard to concentrate in there but I know it will be essential for dissertation work next year so I think I'll be forcing myself to spend many hours in there. I work so well from home, I have my own office and everything gets done so much quicker, eBooks are literally my savior. Although, I much prefer having a book in print as I find it so much easier to find what I'm looking for, so library books are going to have to be my new thing.

Other than these three main things, I don't think much else will change. I mean obviously my lecturers, timetable and all of those things will but the way second year has gone, I really want to keep the approach to uni I have as it's very positive at the moment and just get through this final year of my degree.

It's so weird to think I'm so close to graduating and that massive step closer to my dream job. University was honestly the best decision I ever made. I think my current placement has made me realise how much teaching will suit me and I know I'll be good at it. I have had cold feet about teaching as my career path but my love for it has been restored, all I needed was to get into a setting and remember everything I love about it!

Graduation can't come quick enough! 

Until next time,

M.

FINISHED!

Hi Everyone, I hope you've all had a brilliant week... I certainly have!

I finally finished my final assignment which was my webfolio for my digital age unit, it's not due till the 25 of this month but I feel so relieved to have it done and submitted now, weight off my shoulders! Now all I have to think about is placement and going on holiday next month, yay!

Its scary to think that I am basically a third and final year student now (bearing in mind I get decent grades back). I have a lot of grades that I'm waiting for, as does everyone around this time of year I guess!

This year has been so different to my first year, for some reason I've felt less stressed out about deadlines, felt confident about what I'm handing in assignment wise pretty much every time and just in general been happier in the way I'm experiencing university life. I mean I guess this is all mainly down to the fact that I'm not commuting, going home to my own bed, a bath, my family and a home cooked dinner is bliss to me after last year which seemed like I was away for a lifetime. I appreciate everything so much more and university has stayed interesting for me as I'm not living and working in this same environment constantly. I love that I go to uni, have a good number of nights out with friends per term but am not obliged to have to go out every week if I don't want to, I'm lucky I've got good friends who let me crash at theirs otherwise I'd of missed out on a lot socially I reckon. I honestly enjoy going to my lectures this year because I travel about 35-40 minutes to get there I find myself engaging more and actually wanting to learn, whereas last year I missed a lot of lectures and found myself not listening more often than I should of.
Thursday's were quite tough at the start of this year as I had a three hour gap between lectures which isn't enough to go home but also long enough to get bored, but once the workload kicked in I was so grateful for these three hours in the library, I managed a good load of assignment work throughout the months.

Third year I know is going to be tough, I got my grade back for my research proposal assignment which I want to use for my dissertation but I didn't get as good as I'd hoped so I need to make sure I tweak this over the summer to make it a more worthy piece of work and a good starting point for my dissertation to go off. Although I've got a lot of work to do next year (well October) I am still so excited and I know I'll be more than ready to start back in October after having such a long summer break. In terms of blogging this week I will try and make a list of topics to post about as these weekly posts wont exactly be relevant any more, so maybe I'll post more about A-level life and exams as I know you're all going through this stage in your lives at the moment.

Well this was an interesting image to find, third year... yay?!

Revision was never my strong point so I truly feel for all of you taking exams, all I can say is I hope you're not too stressed and keep thinking about that post exam party! Ha!

GOOD LUCK!!!

Until next time,


M.

Finshed... Already?

Hi everyone,

So, I know by the sounds of last weeks post it seems I had a full term left of university... well I think I judged that wrong because I've basically finished for the WHOLE year! Yes I said whole year.

Let me explain...

1. Both of the essays I spoke abut last week have been handed in which therefore means no more lectures for those two particular units.
2. My Lifelong unit there is just a poster presentation to be handed in which needs working on today and tomorrow ready to be printed on Monday for handing in on Wednesday next week, the presentation of the poster will be the Wednesday after for an hour... pretty much finished that unit.
3. Finally, Digital Age is the one I have the most work left for, including an audio presentation and the rest of my webfolio to finish off for handing in on the 25th May, this unit can all be prepared from home and if necessary I can attend drop-in sessions on Thursday's between my normal lecture slots of 10am-12pm, however, I feel well prepped for this unit and probably will not feel this is necessary to my webfolio.

I am pretty much telling you that I won't be at uni after the 6th May until October when I begin my third and final year of my Education Studies degree. This certainly does not mean I won't have things to talk about as I already have some exciting news to fill you all in on.

I don't know if I mentioned in any previous posts, but I was stressing a couple of weeks back about redoing my Science GCSE. Mainly because I really do not have the focus to redo a GCSE subject seeing as I'm not working at degree level education and it just really seemed ridiculous. It was also mega expensive to do. I dug out my old GCSE certificates and realised that I did in fact get a C at GCSE Additional Science and a D at core Science. Now additional is actually harder than core so it is bizarre how I managed these grades but that's what happened, I spoke to my personal tutor who also happens to know his stuff when it comes to education, teaching and applying for PGCE's and he enlightened me by telling me that it is of course an accepted Science GCSE qualification which I really did know but I had just worked myself up about redoing it and forgot about the simple answer to this problem. So, all is good in the world, I do not have to think about my GCSE's again and I can focus on finding the perfect teacher training course for me over the summer months, ready to apply before Christmas this year.



Another amazing piece of news is that I GOT A PLACEMENT. I have been ringing round different schools trying to get a placement for a good month now and I have managed to bag myself a placement with years 5&6 at a brilliant little primary school where I have actually worked with younger years before. I am so excited about this, I start today and can't wait to tell you all about it in next weeks post so be sure to look out for that one!

Other than that, I had a hilarious night on Monday with so many of my lovely friends and am completely buzzed about heading to London tomorrow to watch the London marathon. London is one of my favourite places in the world, I love how the city never sleeps and there's always something to do there. I can't wait to live and work there one day, but for now home is where I want to be.



Until next time,

M.

A Week into Easter...

Hi everyone...

So its already been a week into my three week Easter break :-(! I'm not going to lie little university work has been done this week, however the plan is to get motivated for next week.

I have realised I only have FIVE assignments left of the year which was so exciting to find out, the best part is only two of those are essays, the rest are presentations and poster presentations which are my favourite type of assignments to do.

The two essays I have left are long ones too, the worst kind. I find long assignments so draining which is a bit worrying for my dissertation, ha! I also have a 7,000 word essay due for one of my modules next year so I've nearly got two dissertations to do next year, one due for November!

The majority of this week was spent down in Cheltenham where my boyfriend goes to university, catching up with friends and having a relaxing break before driving back home (which is a two hour journey) with him for Easter, he only gets two weeks for his Easter break!

I've had a bit more of a think about work experience and I'm hoping to do it in a local school which only caters for students who have social and behavioural problems, I think this will link quite nicely to my psychology route I've got in my head at the moment and will hopefully be an eye opening and decision making experience. I've also got a few links to some professionals and have been told it might be an idea to get in touch with them and see if I can have some sort of mentoring a it's tricky to get experience within certain job roles as they are often confidential.

It's going to be a work filled couple of months but soon enough summer will be here and I'll be getting ready for my holidays. I can't remember if I have mentioned but I'm off to Turkey in June, Spain in July and Rome in August, so it's not all that bad being a student you know haha, but no seriously, the only way I can afford this is due to commuting and having a part time job.

Here's a few snaps of my summer, also will include my 20th birthday and at the end of April a trip to London to watch the marathon.














So I think it's safe to say summer is looking brill, Easter always makes me think about and get excited for summer holidays because they're just weeks away from our Easter breaks at university, the semesters tend to always finish earlier than predicted so university finishes so early compared to school summers.

It is certainly one of the many perks of being a university student, there are quite a few actually.



Until next week..

M

Last Week Before Easter!

Hi everyone!

As you can all tell by the title of this post, it is in fact my last week of term two! It has absolutely flown by, I can't quite believe I'm heading into my final semester of second year.. kinda scary!

It's all third year discussions at the minute, like what choices are you picking, are you on track for a decent grade, personal tutor meetings, assignments due, beginning our dissertations, work experience.. you name it we have been talking about it.

My lecturers are all trying to stress how vital this last semester is and that during and after Easter things need to be on the ball. So, I have several assignments due in after the Easter holidays, all around the same date so it is crucial for me to get going throughout the holidays and complete as much if not all of them for before I start back. That's my goal anyway, I hate being behind on work.

I had a meeting with my new personal tutor too about where I am in terms of final grade which is about a 2.1 at the moment which I am very happy about. Ideally I'd love a first as everyone would, but my main reason for that is because the University offers a free masters course to those who graduate with first class degrees. I'd be personally extremely happy if I achieved a 2.1.

I went out for student night this week, as it was a big night because everyone's heading home(Well those that don't commute) for Easter break. We have three weeks off this year which is more than some universities but I guess that's just the way our terms have fallen, I'm not complaining!

I am looking forward to not having to drive backwards and forwards to Bedford for three weeks though, sometimes it does get a bit draining I must admit, especially if I have to drive back after a Wednesday night out! Other than that I can't really complain about my choice to commute this year as it really was the right decision, it's not a pain until the very end of each term as university is for most people(lecturers included). I really do love being able to go back to the comfort of my own home and family after a day at university rather than going back to a room in a house, it just isn't for me! I haven't missed out on the social life as my friends are kind enough to let me stay with them and I rarely get to uni and find my lectures are cancelled, it's quite an efficient university in terms of getting information across which is vital for commuters as it would be a massive pain to turn up to uni to find your lectures cancelled! I know some of my friends have this problem at other universities.

I had to reapply for student finance today too, I really don't get the point in having to reapply if your details are the exact same, they should just carry if over but of course they don't. So now my parents have to fill out all their details again and I have to wait for ages to find out what I'm getting even though I know it will be the exact same as my circumstances are the same as last year.
Oh well, I couldn't do university without student finance so I'll do what it takes haha!

I thought this picture was brilliant as it represents student finance! 

For those of you applying for uni's now I'd sort out your student finance as quickly as possible as it's a long old process and takes a bit of getting used to on your first go!

I'll have updates about my work progress next week so keep your eyes peeled!

Oh and I forgot to add, it was varsity this week! Which means a big sporting event that every university takes part in each year! I watched the badminton and the rugby which were really good, rugby won by a mile and badminton lost. Our university is against hertfordshire university.
But it was such a brilliant vibe and if you're into sport definitely look into joining a team!

Until next week,

M!

Second Year Progression

Hi Everyone, hope you all had a lovely week!

This week for me was very general and actually quite productive, which is always good. So, what happened? 

Well the weekend was work work work at my part time job, Monday was a day of joining the gym and not much university related. Tuesday, my first lecture of the week! We, watched a documentary of a man lecturing about Finland's education system, I made a few notes however, I did not go into too much detail as this lecture was not supportive of my assignment but even so it's always interesting to know about other countries education systems and it is not an excuse to miss a lecture.

Tuesday also saw my Comparative Education assignment two guidance being introduced which is an essay, 2000 words, due 21st April(which sounds far away but really isn't). 

" Is education different for girls? Critically explore the cultural or religious tensions underpinning gender inequality with regard to education in Japan OR Afghanistan?" 

This is the question I have chosen, we got to choose from five questions all supporting the past few

months lectures and I chose this one because the Japanese education interested me the most and therefore (in my case) will allow me the best possible chance of doing well on this assignment. I always do better if I am interested and engaged with the topic or essay question. 

Wednesday was Lifelong, which was all about the the value of Higher Education, which I obviously am aware of but it actually made me realise how much HE(higher education) can do for you, there are so many different doors that it opens and I really believe that without some form of extra studying or training after school no matter how long or short it may be, if you do not have it you are at a disadvantage, which all of you reading this will agree with because otherwise why would you be reading a university student's blog. 

Thursday, so far you might all be thinking "she said it was productive, it doesn't sound it" or  something along those lines, well that's because Thursday was the day where it all happened. 9.30am I had a meeting with my new personal tutor, who discussed aims and targets etc and I found out I'm on track for a 2.1 at the moment which was fabulous news! He also said he didn't need to worry about me and also pointed me in the direction of another lecturer who helped me out with finding a career within education and psychology which was helpful and I hope I have found the perfect place for some work experience too, I need to ring up next week! 10-12am Digital age lecture took place, which was where I started another tab of my webfolio the 'Risk' tab and until around 2.30pm I managed to sit in the library after the lecture and complete this section which is such a weight off my shoulders as the deadline is on Monday, I only have one more tab to do as well, yay! 

I used a website called 'Powtoon' for my Digital Age assignment which is brilliant and creates interesting and engaging presentations, I really recommend them to anyone, they're very unique! 

3pm I had my Research Methods lecture which was very useful as it was all about ethics when carrying out research and how to carry out research on children without breaking the rules which was extremely helpful! 

4pm was supposed to be my Research Methods seminar but I didn't have to go because it wasn't relevant to Education Studies, just Early Years. 

I then finished the day off by going out for a lovely meal with my family and a long hot bath! 

Here's a couple of snaps of my meal to make you mouth water! It was so delicious! 
Until next week! 

M

2000 words... DONE!

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all ok!

So I think I mentioned last week that this weeks post would basically be a low down on one of my units called The Lifelong Curriculum, seeing as last weeks was dedicated to the Digital Age unit.

I had to make this image really big so that you can see all of the words, which I hope you can as this is the biggest it will go. This image is one of many that come up when you search lifelong learning online. I personally think it is a brilliant representation of what lifelong learning is. It shows so many different words that contribute to the whole idea of lifelong learning and they are all jumbled together which shows that things may not be in order but they still happen and we still learn. 

As we speak I have just uploaded my 2,000 word essay (well 1,849 to be exact, we are allowed 10 percent either side of 2,000), for my first assignment for Lifelong.

I'm not going to lie to you, this is one of the units I thought I would love. I primarily took it because I wanted to become a teacher which most people on my course want to do (obviously)! However, I'm not sure whether it's because I have had a change of career path or because the unit itself may not suit me as well as I thought it would, but I'm just not loving it,which is a shame I know. One of the main good points about being able to choose two units of your choice in second year is that you are more than likely going to enjoy the two you get to pick.

You are probably wondering now "Change in career....?" Well basically, I still want to work in education, I had just been having cold feet a couple months back about becoming a teacher. I do still like the idea of it, I just don't LOVE it. I'm not upset about it, because I have done a lot of research and am planning to go and see the career adviser's at uni so I  don't want to say anything until I know its definitely possible, I'm sure it is I just want clarification from someone who really knows what they're talking about. A.K.A a career adviser.

So I do still love my course and I know it was the right choice for me, I'm just slightly moving away from the whole 'actual teacher' role.

The course is still completely relevant to my possible career path.

Lifelong curriculum is all about how the current national curriculum supports us throughout our whole lives and is not something we just leave behind at school. You study every subject and complete an assignment and presentation about the subjects of your choice. It is very interesting and has actually opened my eyes to the fact that I do still use such things I learnt in school that I thought would never be relevant in later life.

As far as the assignments go, I've only completed the essay so far but I know the presentation will be the nicer of the two for me because I am quite a relaxed presenter and writing essays is not exactly a walk in the park for me, especially long ones like this one!!!

For this assignment, I chose the English National curriculum for key stage 2, mainly because I enjoyed English the most at school. It was difficult, I won't lie, and I found it hard to start off, but once I was into it, it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't say it was the best essay I've ever written though; I'm not the most confident about this one.

If you want to be a teacher, take this unit as it is recommended by the University that you do so, and I do see the relevance to a teaching career.

I'd also like to say that it really doesn't matter if you don't know what you exactly want to be. I was getting stressed that I had changed my mind and tried to convince myself teaching was what I was doing; I had made up my mind and I just had to stick with it. But I just flipped one day, and realised that I can be whatever I want, and began researching and found something I'm truly interested in. So, basically don't worry if you are taking or thinking about taking a degree but haven't yet figured out your career path or ideas of what you want to do.

I thought this was an interesting image as it represents exactly what this post discuss... the fact that even if you go off track and change your mind, you're still learning no matter what path you choose, and that is what lifelong learning is all about. 

Until next time,

M

I got a puppy!!

Yep, this is a picture of my new puppy, bit of a different way to start the blog this week! She is the cutest thing I think I have ever seen! Four days before my birthday as well, is there anything better?!

Add caption

At this point I am waiting on a lot of things. Timetable for next year, whether or not I've been given the choices I like and just an insight into what second year is going to bring!
I've got an update for you all this week;

• I am going to be posting my last ever blog post for the year on the 4th August 2014 so look out for that one.

I can't believe I've already finished my first year of university. It has gone so so quickly it's untrue I feel as though it's flown by and I can barely remember back to my moving in day...scary! 

Everyone always said uni goes quick but I guess you never really know exactly what somethings like until you try it! 

I'd like to encourage all of you to start your own blogs just for your own benefit as I have spent the day reading over all of my posts and it's so interesting to read back on, it's like a diary of my whole first year which is so interesting! 

If you enjoy writing and using your imaginations definitely give it a go and maybe this time next year you'll all be in my shoes reminiscing over your first years at university! 

Need to get motivated!!!

I have got plans to do some university work soon as I am feeling like I have neglected it a little up until now, so I shall tell you all about those!

Now, I don't want you all to think that I'm being lazy and not doing anything...I just haven't had time. We got our reading lists through for second year a couple of weeks back but I've barely had the time to even look at it I've been working so much! However, it's not as though I've left it months and months to start planning for my second year, I'm very dedicated to university and that is why I am working so much, so that I can save my money for petrol as I am commuting next year.

I got a new job about a month ago and even though it's only a small contract I have been given hours nearly every day which is great, I can't complain about extra money especially as I would hate to be sitting around at home all summer.

My plan is to get all of my reading done before I go back to university because we have been given the reading list for next year so I definitely think I should get a good head start and be ready for university this time. I honestly did not feel ready for uni last year and I don't know whether that's something that all freshers feel but anyway.. I did!
So, I'm going to get my head into the books and hopefully then I will feel ready to start my second year and as I have most probably mentioned before do better than I did last year, because although I was happy with my results last year I do still think if I hadn't been as wrapped up in nights out I would have done that bit better, even though they weren't every night I admit I got talked into going out sometimes when I really didn't want to!

I doubt you'll get to hear about what I'm going to by studying next year as I'm not sure if the blogging will be carrying on. I will let you all know as I would love to carry on posting as much for you guys as for myself.
At first I didn't think doing this blog would benefit me that much however, I was very wrong. As much as I hope it gives you all a good idea of university life and studying teaching etc, it allows me to reflect back on my weeks at university and I am really excited to finish my blogs for the year and then read back over them all, I have stopped myself from doing so and I have mainly been posting and not looking back because I want to leave it all for afterwards so I can look back and remember my first year.

I will let you know before I finish blogging if I will be carrying on next year, fingers crossed!

That's all for now, next week you will have my video post so look out for that!

Through to second year!

Hello there!

So I got some extremely exciting and weightlifting news yesterday....

I PASSED MY FIRST YEAR!!!

I got the results back for my two exams, they were average results , which means I have now passed all four of my modules for my first year of university and I can continue into second year. 

I am so thankful I passed, realistically I think I probably could have done better than I have during my first year, although I'm not disappointed with my results I know if I had been just that bit more focused I would have done better. Not that it matters overall at the end of my degree. First year only counts to get into second year and has no input into the score of my full degree. I think this may have been a factor in why I decided to rush a couple of assignments that were due in for the next day and go out when I had finished. 

I'm not saying I was a party animal or anything...cause I am so not one of those...I just probably could have planned my time better so that I didn't have to decide whether to go out or finish my assignment. 

However, saying all of this, I do think that freshers should allow themselves to have the 'fresher experience', all be it I decided not to go crazy and get drunk every single night but I certainly allowed myself to go out and have a good time when I felt like it. I was never the person that went out even if I didn't feel like I wanted to. University for me was never and is never going to be about the party. My mindset is that I'm there to get my degree and achieve the career that I desire, but there's nothing wrong with a night out every week or two(that is part of being a fresher at the end of the day). 

Evidence of a good fresher night out!

I am now waiting for the conformation of whether I get the choices I picked for next year and fingers crossed I do because passing my first year has given me such a buzz about my second year. I am so ready to knuckle down and get my head stuck into some placements at some schools. 

This year has gone so quickly in some ways but in others it has dragged on, it dragged because I had to move flats as my first flat mates were all girls and I am sure you all know how nasty girls can get especially if you don't 'fit' into their crowd, and in others it flew by because after moving flats I had a much better experience living at uni.

It's all a learning curve is all I can say! 

Exam advice!

I've decided to write this post to try and give you all some advice on how to prepare yourself for you exams, and what to expect. I think this is important for you all to know because I went into one of my exams this week thinking I knew everything about the topics that were going to come up and ended up panicking slightly when the question wasn't as straight forward as I'd expected it to be.

First of all, and this is the ONE piece of advice I stress you all to take in if you take in at least one thing from this post, and it's to expect the unexpected. The only problem I found when I opened up that question paper was that the question was so difficult to understand and I struggled to read between the lines as to what it wanted me to answer. Luckily, when I came out of the exam I spoke to some friends and it seems as though we all got the same thing from the question and therefore wrote about similar things, but in all honesty I was not one hundred percent sure when writing it that I had chosen the right theories and topics to discuss. 

So here's my advice and tips for you all:

- read the question, and I know what you're all going to think, everyone tells you this and it's obvious, but trust me I panicked and confused myself even more. Everyone was expecting that a significant name of a theory would be written within the question and it turns out it wasn't and therefore we all worried ourselves. What the question actually wanted from us was to think outside the box a little bit and understand what theory the question was actually talking about. 

- plan your time, this is vital. This particular piece of advice was a godsend to me when I was writing my exam answers. As soon as I opened my exam papers and read over the questions until I understood them completely(or as much as I possibly could), I then wrote down every last piece of information that I knew about the topic in question and then went from there and began to write whichever question I had decided to write first. 

-re-read your answer as you write, most people tel you to read over your answer at the end of your exam, however I think it is a much more beneficial idea to read as you write. I think this solves a lot of babbling and going off of topic which is unfixable when you have five minutes left of your exam. 

So, I hope this post gives you all some confidence in how to prepare and plan yourselves for your exams now and in the future, I will certainly be sticking to these rules from now on. 

Third term has begun!

I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post, yes it's official the last few weeks of my first year of university began on Monday and I am definitely the most worried about this term...might have something to do with my two exams at the end of this month? Yes, it certainly does... I'd love to go into more detail but I'm afraid that will have to come after I have actually sat the exams. A word of advice though.. START REVISING EARLY!
I know that everyone used to say this to me at school and I was never overly bothered and dare I say it..didn't care that I wasn't revising as much as was expected, but I have definitely learnt my lesson with these two exams and am revising because you have to pass these exams to carry on into your second year and it would be such a waste to ruin it all with failing your exams at the end of the year.. so yeah REVISE!

So it has been revision revision oh and more revision...urgh. Well I say 'urgh' but it's actually going really well and I feel extremely organised, which is a first for me because I was never the 'organised one' when I was in school and sixth form. Oh well, I think I've changed for the better in that respect.
After my two revision lectures on Monday I am most worried about the Social Constructions of Childhood exam..purely because I have been given a number of questions that will definitely come up in my Understanding education exam..so I'm most prepared for that one for sure.
I'm not saying these exams are easy, but I certainly feel more confident about these than I did about any of my A-Level exams...which is not what I was expecting at all.

Here's a picture of my revision..how exciting!

As far as contact time with university is going, I have actually finished all of my lectures for the year..so I'm actually back at home now for the summer basically. So I am having to motivate myself from home which in some ways I find easier and in others..more difficult. I would say I had more distractions at uni because I lived with flatmates and went out during the week..whereas at home I've not got many distractions
during the day as everyone is either at work or school..and then I have my little part-time job which sometimes gets in the way but I suppose that's the price you have to pay if you want to run a car and live a comfortable lifestyle.

Sorry to bore you with revision talk all the time but I'm afraid that is what my life consists of at the minute...I can't wait to tell you all about how the exams went and my grade(preferably if it's a good one)!

Organisation skills.....

This post is going to be all about organising your time, things, work and everything else that comes into being a university student.

I thought I was quite an organised person if I'm being honest but that all seemed to go majorly downhill after being at uni. I didn't really think about organising my work and notes beforehand and focused more on making my room as homely and nice as possible..which it did haha...here's a picture!




However my notes from lectures etc looked a little something like this...yes it's an over exaggeration but they were pretty all over the place!




I've been trying to think of ways I can make sure my works not all over the place next year and I've made a pact that I'm going to keep everything in order so that I can find anything from any lecture within seconds rather than having to sift through hundreds of unorganised pieces of paper.
Its getting really annoying not being able to find anything to revise from and I've even been thinking of using my iPad next year but I can't find the right software to be able to edit slideshows on and add notes. I need to think of something before second year as I can't be having this next year as well!

Another thing I've realised I'm not a pro at is organising my time efficiently and to my best advantage... I often find myself rushed for time when writing assignments or even just getting ready to go out so I need to start giving myself extra time before completing tasks even just ten minutes to have a breather.. so that's going to be another pact of mine for second year...I feel like I'm writing new year's resolutions again which I kind of am, new year of university, new resolutions and goals.

Speak to you next week!

Megan

New Year!

So as you can all tell by the title of this post it is officially 2014 and I am looking forward to this year for a number of reasons:

1. A fresh start in my new flat at uni. I don't know if I've already mentioned to you all that I have moved flats due to nastiness in my old one and I am so excited to live with nice people after having to live with a flat full of girls who talk nothing but horrible things about each other. Plus I'm moving to the complete opposite side to where my old flat was so I will hopefully not have to bump into those girls again, or not very often anyway! 

   

   This image shows where I used to live and where I live now, couldn't be further away from the bad flat which is so good!
2. I have a lot of exciting things planned in terms of summer holidays etc.I know the summer is far away but at least it's 2014 now so my holiday doesn't 'seem' as far as it did when it was still 2013. Oh how the mind works haha!  

   

   Hopefully somewhere like this...Probably not though, student problems!

   3.  I am looking forward to being exam free after April, and I am also really excited for post exam celebrations back home with my friends!
   4.  I am excited to see what October brings in terms of starting my second year and getting a bit more stuck into teaching with placements and being able to choose subjects for myself rather than having them chosen for you, which is what happened in my first year. Second year sounds exciting although I can't quite believe how quick first year is going! I need more time to revise for my exams ahhhhh!

Until next week!