One Month Into University & Tips

    Following on from my previous post on A-Level results nerves, a month (or just over) has passed and I'm no longer living at home with my family, surrounded by everything that has been familiar to me over the last 18 years. Those of you who're readers of mine won't know that on results day I was actually put through clearing, this is when you don't get the required grades for the course. This resulted in me choosing another university (thankfully they were my backup uni) and got onto my desired course as well, two weeks later and one of my grades had risen but I was still going to my clearing option.

    I'm now located at the University of Huddersfield doing Broadcast Journalism, which is just under two hours away from home. I will admit, I am extremely happy that fate played out so that I ended up in Huddersfield because so far I've made a lovely group of friends and had some really fun experiences. A month into university, and I'm in classes Monday to Thursday as well as being part of a 2 hour radio show on Fridays called 'The Friday Warm-Up Show'. Whether you go to a town, city, small or large university I honestly think university life is what you make of it as I've had a cracking time so far! Obviously I'm sure a third year student could give more valuable advice than me, but these are the things I've picked up on over the last few weeks. If anyone reading has recently started university or returned to the next year, why not leave your experiences or tips below in the comments section to help those who're gonna be freshers next year. 

• Make friends with your flat mates, course students and with others across your accommodation.

• Keep on top of your readings, no matter what course you study there's gonna be extensive reading behind it.

• Don't do your main shop at a chain supermarket unless its Lidl or Aldi if you wanna be money savvy. 

• Speak to your family, although you want to revel on your newly found freedom, don't shut out your life from back home, you'll need them again.

• If you go drinking the night before an early class, be home and in bed by 3am (latest!) so you can at least catch 5 hours to sober up (or you risk falling asleep in class or even missing it altogether).

How To Reduce A-Level Result Nerves

If, like myself you finished your A2 year at college this summer and are anticipating collecting your results next week, to move onto the next stage of your life this post might help those nerves. Whether or not you're going onto university in September, I'd like to think everyone finishing their A-Levels is quite anxious to find out how well they did. I'll admit now, I'm rather anxious myself purely because I'm hoping to go onto a rather prestigious university for the subject I'm studying. I thought I'd put together a little list of tips that can help you calm down that stress, as the days get closer and closer more people are gonna be feeling the pressure.  

1. Don't look back at your class notes now

I'm guilty of this. As a precaution of having to redo any of my exams from this year (hopefully not!) I've stored away all of my class notes for each topic and put them into a huge box until it's actually results day. As the day comes closer, more people start to go over the exam questions and if you've got your notes to hand, it's tempting to notice things you've missed out or not explained fully. This is a one way ticket to unnecessary stress, there's no way for you to change your answers now so please don't start uprooting your notes.

2. Surround yourself with your college friends

By now most people have finished their holiday breaks, due to the fact that results day is so close. Now is the time to start rekindling with your college friends, the likelihood is after results people are going to be extremely busy sorting out university bits and bobs. I've already started the process of throwing away old things and slowly started to make mental notes of things I'll be taking for my halls room, but some people wouldn't of started this yet which can be quite lengthly. Try and squeeze in a few days with various friends you've made from the two years (and your high school friends)  and do exciting activities together, to ensure you've got some good memories left together before you all depart. 

3. Finish that book you've had for months

After being a huge English Literature nerd throughout high school and especially during my two years of college, I've naturally adapted myself into a book worm. For that same fact, I think it's going to be quite a shock to my system when I transition into university and won't be studying/reading period texts anymore. I have quite a few physical books to hand as well as on my kindle, that I've never had time to fully enjoy so why not read them now. We all know the abilities a good story line can hold over people and if the pressures are too much you can always distract yourself with a new book. So far this summer I've managed to read two books completely, I'm half way through another and just last night started one other too.

4. Figure out who you want to be

I'd like to clear up first, that I'm not talking about completely abandoning everything your stand for and embody to become fake but instead try and fine tune yourself. I am a strong believer in figuring out who you want to be, in aid to better your life and those who you meet. Obviously the older you get, the more opportunities you're faced with that help you grow and develop as a person. But I think the transition from living in your hometown to a new town/city is the perfect time to start asking yourself who you are. Personally over the last two years I've changed not only in appearance but how I portray myself to others along with my personality and I tend to push myself to perfect this 'new way' the best I can. The easiest and most distracting way to start this off is to clear your wardrobe and room out, figure out what best represents you and run with it.

I hope these little tips can help you all distract yourself for a couple of hours in the build up to the biggest day in your lives so far. I'd like to remind anybody reading that no matter what grades you get on the day, that they do not define you as a person and there is plenty of time to experience the student lifestyle at university. If you've got any other tips then don't hesitate to leave them down below in the comments, good luck everybody! 

Update || College, University, Leaving Home, Blogging etc

    For those of you who follow me on Instagram and Twitter or watch my Youtube videos (click the words for direct links) then you'll know in the past month and a half I've been worked off my feet revising for my A-Level exams. And I'm glad to say that I sat my final exam on June 16th, therefore I'm now a free agent for three and a half months! I'm possibly going to be going down London for two weeks of work experience but it's still in the consideration process, but besides that I have a completely free summer which I'm hoping to dedicate to blogging more regularly. I'm really happy about this, and to show my excitement here's a picture of me with loads of pigeons in Manchester hah!

    So like I said before, I've completed my two years at college studying English Language, Sociology and English Literature (if you was interested) and now the next step for me in getting into University. Results day in the UK is around mid-end of August, which is something silly like 180 days away so until then I won't know whether or not I've got into my firm and insurance University (fingers crossed!). But until then I'd like to make a conscious effort of blogging more regularly because I really take pride in my writing, and it'll just get me into the swing of things again in time for University considering I'm studying Journalism.

    Even though it's a couple of months away, I'm considering doing either a mini Youtube series or just blogging about it (or maybe even both if you're lucky) regarding leaving home and going to University, because for everybody it's a new experience and I think it'd be quite interesting to watch. If you're interested in something similar like that in the future, then just let me know in the comment section, or just tweet me! But yeah, I hope that little update has covered all the bases for you all, I'm going watching The Fault In Our Stars tomorrow (Thursday) so I'll have a little review up of that on Friday.

Exploring Future Universities || Lincoln University

   Hi guys! So as I promised here's another installment from my Exploring Future Universities series that I've started and this time its at Lincoln University. Now for those of you who are unaware, I hope to be studying Journalism during my time at university participating in any extracurricular possible and I feel Lincoln really opens those doors for me. It roughly takes 2 and a half hours driving (with clear roads) to get to the university as I live just outside of Manchester, although the journey is enjoyable as it's mostly green areas so you get some sheep or cows every couple of miles. One thing I must point out while it's fresh in my memory and at the start of this post is that, there is a toll right outside of Lincoln (literally 20 steps before the welcome to Lincoln sign). The toll itself was only a couple of pennies, however I was completely unaware of this when planning the journey, so make sure you have some spare change in your car.

    Anyway onto the university itself, situated just outside are a few useful shops such as Lidl/Aldi (they're practically the same right?) and a holiday inn, now I found this really considerant close to the university as those of you who have been students or had siblings in that situation know you scrap every penny together for food etc. So cheap shops that do supply quality food, household items is essential and the holiday inn allows family members to come visit if they wish without a 20 minute drive in the morning from their hotel.

    The campus is absolutely stunning, because I was struck for time as we arrived slightly later than originally planned I was unable to take photographs but instead absorbed the scenery, but you can take my word for it as being remarkably stunning for a campus. The campus is divided into two sections, with a railway running through the middle (there's high stairs/lift to let you get to the other side) the far side of the campus contains the media building and lecture rooms along with the main administrations building alongside a canal with some cute boats floating about. On the opposite side of this canal is a variation of restaurants such as Nandos, Chiquitos, Harvester along with a large cinema. In contrast to this the other side of campus holds the SU bar, business/law building, some accommodation along with the Engine Shed (their concert venue). So you're not stuck of places to go out to at night. 

    As for the course I'm doing, student life, finance I went to all of these talks missing the accommodation talk/tour and a few other tours around the city of Lincoln. Due to living quite a distance away and due to some other personal issues around the time, I was unable to attend the full open day which ran from 9:00 till 16:00 so I'm planning on attending another while visiting my cousin who's in a university about 40 minutes away. Like I said previously, I hope to do journalism, my course talk covered journalism, along with their other subjects in that field such as investigative journalism and public relations. The talk was outstanding, explaining reasons for committing to the course, previous student experience  awards the university have won and a short introduction to some of the lecturers and professors. 

    Overall from what I've already seen from the couple of hours I was there, I'm all hands on deck to attend Lincoln university, although I still have to take the next open days into consideration. Did you visit Lincoln university over the weekend? What course did you look at and did it live up to your expectations? Comment below as I'd love to hear other peoples opinions.

Exploring Future Universities || Chester University

    So today, I went on an organised trip through my college with Chester University a couple of weeks ago we listed three universities within an hours drive which we'd like to have a look around and I got put into the Chester group. I infact places Huddersfield down as my first choice but not enough students applied so it was sadly cancelled. I partially knew one girl in my group who I got to speak to more over the course of the day, as well as her friend.

    I live in the Greater Manchester area and it took me  approximately 40 minutes on each journey there and back, which is rather convenient if I wanted to visit home over the weekend or when I have to temporarily move out over the Christmas holidays. I've never really explored Chester, but I did go once to a killer Chinese all you can eat buffet so that is a plus if it's close by. When we arrived the university looked very traditionalist, besides the construction work which will be finished by 2014, introducing (if I remember correctly) semi-catered halls for first year students.

    We had two student touring us around the campus, which consisted of a girl in her second year I believe studying nutrition and on of their mature students (this is when adults over 21 decide to start uni at a later age) who was studying combined English Language and education (again if I remember that correctly). Both of them were very friendly and informative and I in fact sat with them during our dinner break along with a few other students, to talk about their experiences with coursework, exams etc.

Cheese and ham panini & salad £2.30 with Strawberries and cream starbucks (large) £2.98

    One thing that I loved about the university was they had their own Starbucks inside the university, which was roughly 50p cheaper than in the high street next door to their own SU shop that stocked makeup, toiletries and snacks like chocolate or sausage rolls (the lads were rather dashing too). We went around some of the accommodations but because their students still have exams, we weren't able to look inside any rooms which was quite disappointing.

    Another aspect that I found really good was that their gym membership only cost £20 for an entire year! You would normally pay that every month or even more in regular gyms so that really gave me the kick to think of starting their gym (if I went the university), they also provide free personal trainers for x amount of time every week along with a swimming pool that is free and sport classes.

    I'm going to be visiting a couple of universities over these next 5 months or so, I hope to make these posts every time I visit one uni, to help give those in the year below me some advice for when they get around to picking universities. I'm visiting Lincoln university tomorrow so I should have another one of these posts up tomorrow evening, hope you enjoyed!