10 tips for choosing the right university

So, now that your AS exams have finished (phew), you might be starting to think about uni.  If not, then your school will be on your back about UCAS forms and personal statements before you know it.  Are you one of the lucky ones, who has already decided what subject you want to study?  If so, here are my top ten tips for making sure that you choose the university that is best for you.  Maybe you're not even sure that you want to stay in education for another three years- if this is you, then take a look at my previous blog post: Thinking about going to university?. 

1. Do your research- Whether this is done online, or by looking at university prospectuses (which can be ordered online for free, or picked up at uni fairs), this is really the first step.  There might not be much point getting a prospectus, especially if you've decided on your subject, as the majority of the book will be irrelevant to you.  Pretty much everything in there will be online, but maybe you'd prefer to have something physical to flick through and highlight, in which case, having a few would be a good idea. Remember- prospectuses and university websites are methods of advertisement!  They are trying to sell themselves to you, which is why you'll find blue skies and sunshine on almost every page.  If you bear this is mind when doing your research, then you should be able to consider the different options a bit more objectively.
   
   
2. Look at the league tables, but DON'T get bogged down by them- There are various online university ranking tables, for example this one from The Guardian and this one from the Complete University Guide.  While it is interesting to have a look at the overall ranking lists, the most important thing is the specific table for your chosen subject.  For example, if you hope to study English, here is the list of universities ranked by the Complete University Guide.  These tables are far more relevant than the overall lists, as employers will be aware of which unis are renowned for certain subjects. However- don't let the rankings affect your decision too much.  Speaking from personal experience, choosing a university just because it's 'the best' or the most prestigious is not a good idea if you aren't actually particularly drawn to it.
   
   
3. Book some open days- While you can go to post-offer open days, it's probably not a good idea to apply to five universities that you've never even been to.  Don't feel as though you have to go to loads though, just pick a few of your favourites.  Also, if you're not sure whether you want a campus, city or collegiate uni, try to visit one of each, as this should give you a good feel of which you might prefer. Remember- try not to be influenced by the weather! If you visit Warwick in the bright sunshine, but Birmingham in the pouring rain, it won't be surprising if you take a disliking to the latter.  Keep in mind the fact that wherever you go (in the UK anyway), you're going to get your (un)fair share of rainy days.
   
   
4. Think about distance from home- You may be of the opinion that the further away the better.  But, before you head off to Edinburgh, give this some serious consideration.  Although you might feel more than ready to get away from your family and your boring old hometown, being a 5 (or more) hour drive from the comfort and reassurance of your parents, may not be so great after all.  Personally, I'd say that being able to jump on the train from uni and be snuggled up with my cat and a cup of tea within 2 hours, would be the right sort of balance.
   
   
5. Do some digging-  If you simply rely on glossy prospectuses and selectively-edited websites for your information, then you'll find yourself peering through rose-tinted glasses.  Unsurprisingly, the uni itself isn't going to tell you that in second year, you'll probably have to leave campus and move to a town a half-hour bus journey away, for example (Warwick, in case you're wondering).  Between you, your parents and your friends, you'll probably know a lot of people who are either currently at, or have just left, the universities that you're considering.  Ask them for their honest opinion about the drawbacks and make sure you keep a note of anything that might be of concern to you.
   
   
6. Work out what's important to you-  Is your main priority the content of the course? Or are you more bothered by the town or city you'll be living in?  Maybe the nightlife is your number one concern.  Or, perhaps you're a keen athlete and will be most influenced by the quality of the sports facilities and athletics team.  Whatever it is, you need to be aware of it when you're choosing your university.
   
   
7. Find out which societies are on offer- If you're really looking forward to taking up rowing/ joining the orchestra/ checking out the hide-and-seek society, it would be a shame to turn up at your chosen university only to find that you lugged your cello all that way for nothing.  This might not seem particularly important, but if you have a hobby that you want to carry on with at uni, it's worth just checking what's offered where.  (Worst case scenario, you'll just have to set up your own tea-drinking society).
   
   
8. Consider a range of entry requirements- This may seem pretty obvious, but be sure to look at some universities that you could pick for your insurance choice.  This is the uni that you'll fall back on if you don't make the grades for your first choice.  Whether your insurance grades are CCC or AAB, remember that you'll probably be putting one of these universities down as your second choice, meaning that there is a possibility that you'll end up there.  Therefore, it's important that you actually like this place and would be happy to go there if things don't quite go to plan on results day.
   
   
9. Make a shortlist- Once you've done your research and are ready to start making some real decisions, write a list of the universities that you are going to seriously consider.  For subjects that are offered almost everywhere, your shortlist might include up to 10 options, whereas for a more unusual or specialist subject, you'll have less choice and may have already narrowed it down to 4 or 5.  This should help give any further research you do a bit more focus and might give an indication of which open days you should book.
   
   
10. Draw up a table- Now that you've got your shortlist, a table (like the example below), will help you distinguish between the universities that you have in mind.  If you've already narrowed it down to 5, then you might want to hold up on the table-drawing until you've received your offers and/or rejections.  You could rank the headings, such as 'university life', out of 5 or 10 and then give each uni a total score. However, this might be a bit vague and you may prefer to fill the table in with details and information that you've found as you've been researching.  The headings below are only suggestions; you could add one for 'Sport's facilities' or 'Accommodation', if these things are important to you.  

University	Entry Grades	Method of Assessment	Contact Hours	University Life	Open day	Campus/ City	Extra Info

Hopefully you'll now be slightly more equipped to return to school and face the inevitable bombardment of information about 'The Next Step' in the 'wonderful' journey that is your education... I wish you good luck!

(http://nedhardy.com/)

The Ultimate Student Magazine

You'll probably be coming to the end of your exams around about now. Or if not, you're nearly there and you've got a few more minutes spare each day! Maybe you feel as though you've been living in a cave for the last month or two and are totally clueless about what's going on in the world. Or, perhaps you just fancy a good read. Well, your solution comes in the form of Kettle Mag!

Kettle Mag, as I've very recently discovered, is an online magazine for students. This in itself is great, but it's also written by university students, meaning that the articles are even more relevant to you. Of course, this does mean that not all the pieces are prime examples of top-quality journalism, but I think that just adds to their readability! 

The magazine covers a range of topics, including, music, sport, style, current affairs, student life and of course, the appropriately named 'stuff'. This means, that whatever your interests, you'll probably find something to read.

Kettle Mag is also a brilliant place to find out a student's take on what's going on in the news. Whether you agree or disagree with their opinion, you've got the opportunity to comment on and debate some of today's hot topics.  

If you are an aspiring journalist, or just love to write, then Kettle Mag seems like a great place to start.  After getting in touch, I quickly received a friendly and helpful reply from the team and now I can't wait to get involved!

Hopefully you're now feeling reasonably intrigued and you'd quite like to take a look.  If so, click here. 

Before you rush off, take a moment to appreciate this cat:

(http://imgfave.com/)

Harriet

Thinking about going to university?

Now that the exam season is coming to an end, many of you will be starting to put your mind to life after sixth-form.  When you go back to school, the focus will suddenly switch from revision and exams, to personal statements and UCAS applications.  While this is very exciting, here are some things to bear in mind:

• Try and start by working out what subject you might like to study further, rather than beginning by deciding whether or not you want to go to uni. Hopefully this will help you to avoid picking a subject just for the sake of it, purely because you've got your heart set on going to university.
  
  
• If you know what career you're interested in, do some research and find out about the different pathways you could take to get there. For example, some fields may recommend a degree, while others may suggest apprenticeships or internships.
  
   
• If there's not a specific subject that is needed for your chosen career, but you know that having a degree would be useful, you should think very carefully.  If you're really interested in a particular area, then great; you know which direction to look in. But, if you're unsure of your interests and strengths, having a year out to discover these may be beneficial.
  
  
• Many of you will be like I was; completely clueless as to what career you want, or what subject you want to study for 3 or 4 years.  In fact, I think the majority of people actually feel like this.  In most cases, people just pick something they found bearable at school and go on to have a fantastic time at university, thanks to the many social opportunities. But you have to ask yourself this: is it really worth £9,000 tuition fees per year? If all you want to do is move away from home and have a lot of fun, then you could find yourself a job, or go travelling. Do you really want to be spending that amount of money on lectures and seminars that you may not even attend?
  
  
• Alternatively, you may know that you want to get a good degree, but just not be sure on the subject.  If this is you, I would personally advise taking a year off to get some experiences and find out what it is that you want to do in life.  This is what I've ended up doing (after leaving university 5 weeks into the first term!) and I'm now thinking I might like to study English Literature, with the intention of going into journalism. Before I went to uni the first time, I had no idea what I was interested in and just chose French and Italian because I was quite good at languages. That was a huge mistake!!
  
  
• Don't feel as though you have to go to university! Because of the rise in fees, there are so many intelligent and successful people who are choosing to take a more direct route into their future.  Being smart doesn't necessarily mean that uni life is for you. And in the same way, not being 'academic' doesn't mean you shouldn't go.
  
  
• If you've decided on a subject and you plan on going to university, have a think about the following things: the distance you want to be from home, whether you want a campus, city, or collegiate uni, which facilities are important to you (e.g. nearby running track or pool), whether you want to be catered or self-catered, the price you're willing to pay for accommodation and whether or not you're bothered by the league tables. When looking at these table, such as this one, it's important to remember that the rankings are different depending on the subject; while one uni may be high up overall, it may be quite low down for Business, for example. 

I hope this brief list has given you a few things to think about when you come to planning your future! You may feel more than ready to move away and get on with things, but never underestimate the value of taking some time out and stepping back for a moment; you might discover new and exciting things about yourself.

Keep smiling! 

(http://ilovefunnyanimal.blogspot.co.uk/)

Harriet 

Give your revision a makeover!

Variety is key when it comes to revision. It's no wonder you're getting bored, if all you're doing is making pages and pages of notes, or hundreds of mind-maps. Of course, you may find some methods more useful than others and that's fine; just as long as you're using a few different techniques. Hopefully, you'll find that this variety not only breaks up the monotony, but also makes it easier to remember the things you're trying to learn. This is because you should be able to visualise the poster/flashcard/colours for that specific topic.  If you're not a visual learner, then you might remember making a poster better than writing a page of notes, just as long as you don't solely rely on posters! 

Here are a few examples of some of the different methods you could try: 

Simply just adding some highlighting to your notes will draw your attention to the important parts. It's so easy to end up highlighting the entire page though, so be selective!

Mind-maps are useful for lists of things, such as these key words for the French topic 'Science et Technologie'. You can use different branches for different sub-topics, which is a good way of getting quite a lot of information onto one page.

If you've got sheets from class that you want to use, instead of spending ages copying out whole chunks into your own notes, just highlight the useful bits. You could even pick out the really important parts and put them on a mind-map.

Flashcards are great if you want to condense lots of information. It feels a lot more manageable trying to learn something from a small card, rather than pages of notes!

Posters on coloured (or just white) card/paper are a good idea if you want to have each topic clearly presented on one side of A4- you can fit so much more on a poster than you can on a piece of lined notepaper. 

This is just another example of a mind-map. You might find this amount of information a bit overwhelming, but I personally like knowing it's all in one place!

If you have to learn case studies (Geography, for example), then making a poster for each one can be quite useful, especially if you use different colours and draw tables for facts or figures.

By the time I got to my final exam, I couldn't bear the thought of having to do any more writing, so I used the computer to type up my notes. This was good because I could quickly make tables and I could easily highlight things in different colours.

So, as you can see, there is quite a big variety of methods you can try in your revision. You probably won't want to do all of them, but using just a few different techniques might hold your interest and attention for a little bit longer! But not as long as this: 

(http://ilovefunnyanimal.blogspot.co.uk/)

 Harriet

 

To cram, or not to cram, that is the question

And this (in my opinion) is the answer...

There are a couple of hours left before the exam... If you're feeling well-prepared (or even if you're not), last-minute cramming probably isn't the most productive way to spend your time. Why not try some of these ideas instead?

• Have a look at the mark-scheme for a few past papers- This will remind you of what the examiners are looking for, but doesn't involve panicking and trying to remember loads of facts.
  
  
• If you're about to sit a language exam, do something to get your brain in the zone. For example, before a French listening test, find a French radio station, or even just a clip from a previous exam. This should help with that bit at the start when they might as well be speaking Chinese.
  
  
• For exams that involve learning specific facts/ quotes/ case studies, you could remind yourself of these by looking over some of your notes.  This will probably be most useful if you've got a list of equations (or something similar) that you know you're going to need- there probably isn't much point doing this with pages and pages of notes about the Cold War, for example.
  
  
• If there's a specific thing you're struggling with, you could always refresh your memory by looking over some of your revision notes or flashcards. But, don't try and do this for the entire syllabus- it might just about sink in if you focus your last-minute cramming on just a few targeted topics, but flicking through the whole textbook will probably just confuse you and stress you out.
  
  
• If you're reading this a couple of days/ weeks before an exam, you could start a list of things to look over on the morning of the test. This way, as you revise, you can add to it with facts/ figures/ points that you think will be crucial to remember just before you go in.  Make sure your list doesn't get too long though, otherwise there isn't really much point!
  
  
• For those of you who feel, by the time the exam comes around, you're completely ready to just go in there and get all the information you've learnt down on paper, it might be best just to relax and rest your brain.  You don't want to get yourself all worked up unnecessarily, because if you feel ready, then you probably are and there's no need to be taking notes right down to the last second.
  
  
• When you're waiting outside the exam room, don't be one of those annoying people who starts loudly going through everything they've learnt and all the questions that they think might come up.  This will not only cause everyone else to panic, but it will probably confuse you too, especially when other people join in with different things that they know and you don't.
  
  

Hopefully some of the above will help you in your final hours (!)Try and take comfort in the fact that it will all be over very soon and you'll feel a lot better if you know you did all you could to prepare yourself properly.

(http://www.sprichie.com/)

Harriet

A few last-minute exam tips!

I'm sure you've heard all of this before, but it's very possible that you've forgotten in a moment of pre-exam panic. Fear not! I am here to bring you gently back to sanity (and of course provide you with a customary funny animal pic).

• Before you go in, make sure you know how long the exam is, as well as how much time you should be spending on each question. You don't want to waste time figuring out 75 marks divided by 90 minutes once the clock has started ticking...
• If you do find yourself running out of time, bullet point any key points you can remember, as you may be able to salvage some marks.
  
• If you finish with time to spare, don't sit there feeling smug; go through the paper and edit your answers to try and squeeze out every possible point.
  
• Check that you haven't missed out any pages, especially the back page- some papers seem to have been designed just to catch you out (as though the questions aren't hard enough...)
  
• If you experience The Dreaded Mind-Blank, don't freak out. Remind yourself calmly that if you were sitting at home answering this question, there wouldn't be a problem- it's just the stress of the situation.  Maybe move on to another question and come back to it later.
  
• Read the questions VERY carefully- this is pretty self-explanatory and probably not even worth saying, but you never know.
  
• Make sure you have all the equipment you need with you e.g. pens, pencils, ruler, rubber, calculator, protractor etc. Don't just rely on the invigilators having spares.
  
• Take some tissues with you even if you don't have a cold!!!- Not really a game-changer, but leaning over a desk for 45 minutes or more will probably make your nose run and no one likes a sniffer!
  
• REMEMBER THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN EXAMS! At the time, I know that this couldn't feel less true, but just trust me on this one. Even if you don't get the grades you need to get into university, so what? There's always next year and there are ALWAYS other options for you.

I hope at least one of these points has been vaguely helpful for you! Here's your funny animal, as promised...

(http://ilovefunnyanimal.blogspot.co.uk/)

How to make your point in an English Lit essay

When I began the A Level English Literature course, I was daunted by the prospect of having to bring the thoughts and ideas in my head together on one page as a clear, concise, well-explained essay.  Each title we were set for homework seemed utterly overwhelming and I dreaded Sunday afternoons, most of which I had to dedicate entirely to sitting at the computer, agonising for hours over every word.  I struggled on through the AS, but by the time I came to the final A2 exams, I felt I had pretty much mastered the essay-writing technique and I could sit down and write one, without almost having a break-down.  I found that the key to a 'good essay' is choosing a few points (that answer the question) and then explaining them with coherence and clarity, whilst also including relevant quotations and critics (if required by your exam board).  Easier said than done, of course, so I'm going to try and give you an example of the general principle, using one of my essays about the Gothic novel Frankenstein.

The title of this essay is 'Society makes its own monsters'. How far do you agree with this as an assessment of Frankenstein? 
Although you may not be studying Frankenstein, or even the Gothic, the techniques should hopefully be transferable to other texts/genres.

In the introduction, it is important to outline to the reader the points you are going to cover in your essay.  This will give your essay a clear structure and each paragraph that follows should focus on a different one of these points.  In this example, the first paragraph of my essay focuses on the creature (the being created by Dr Victor Frankenstein) and the ways in which he is shown to have become monstrous due to the influence of society.  In order to do this, I firstly need to show the change in his character and link this to the actions of society:

Firstly, when the creature was 'born' into the world, he was of a kind nature and a good heart.  This is shown by the 'joy' and 'pleasure' he experienced when discovering the natural world around him.  As the critic Jane Bathard-Smith said, 'He is a passive, grateful absorber of nature's offerings'. Furthermore, he says 'the girl enticed my love', meaning that he was once capable of producing caring feelings towards humans.

Here, in the opening section of my first paragraph, all I am saying is that the creature is portrayed as having a good character when he first comes into the world.  I have backed this up with quotation from the text, as well as a critical viewpoint.  Next, I need to explain how the creature's character is shown to change, remembering to link this directly to society:

However, after he was 'attacked' and made 'miserable...from the barbarity of man', he began to realise 'the fatal effects of this miserable deformity'.  He is rejected by society due to his monstrous appearance, which implies a criticism of society's shallow values.  A quote that truly sums up the creature's feelings of rejection and change in character is, 'I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?'

In order to access the maximum number of marks in my exam, I need to link every point I make back to the Gothic, because that is the overarching focus of this particular paper. I go on to do this, as well as exploring some linguistic and grammatical features in the text, which is also vital if I want to achieve a good mark:

This introduces the Gothic feature of isolation, as the creature was forced to isolate himself due to man's prejudice towards him.  This sentence is split into past and present and it is interesting to note that the creature says that his 'soul glowed with...humanity'.  He uses the word in the same way that he uses 'love', as though 'humanity' is a strong, positive emotion that is able to be felt.  However, he has learnt that humanity is almost the opposite of that, as it has produced such negative emotions of 'sorrow' in the creature. Therefore, perhaps this sentence emphasises the destruction of his past naivety and innocence by society.

This final sentence brings my point back to the question and shows the reader that I haven't wandered off in another direction with my answer.  These three sections make up the first paragraph of my essay, in which I state, develop and give evidence for a clear point.  In the remainder of my essay, I go on to introduce another point about the effect of society on the creature and then three points about society's impact on Victor Frankenstein.  I split my essay in this way because I decided to explore the idea that both these characters can be described as 'monsters', which I discuss in my introduction.

Hopefully this example has demonstrated how to make and develop your points in an essay.  It's all very well having the ideas, but getting them down on paper in a way that will get you the marks is often a lot trickier!

Please feel free to ask me any questions by commenting below.  But first, check out this squirrel: 

(http://cute-animals.vidzshare.net/)

Need a revision break? These cookies are so easy they'll be out of the oven in time for your next slog...

To make one batch of cookies, you will need:

• 100g of self-raising flour
• 75g of butter/margarine
• 75g of caster sugar

These 3 ingredients will make plain cookies, but you can add any flavouring you like really. 

Try these:

• 50g (or less) of cocoa powder
• Chocolate chips (or just a chopped up bar)
• Raisins
• 2 teaspoons (or less) of dried cinnamon/ ginger
• 50g (or less) of desiccated coconut
• Smarties
• Chopped glacé cherries
• Anything else you fancy!

To make the cookies, it's simple:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (160 if using fan oven) and line a baking tray with baking parchment or grease it using a paper towel and a little bit of butter.
2. Mix the sugar, butter and flavourings in a mixing bowl (make sure the butter is quite soft, otherwise it won’t mix very well- maybe stick it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds).
3. Once the sugar and butter are combined (i.e. you have ‘creamed’ them), sieve the flour into the bowl too.  Mix until you have a dough.
4. Divide your cookie dough evenly into blobs- you can make them whatever size you’d like, but if they’re tiny then they might burn, and if they’re huge then they’ll probably need a bit longer in the oven.
5. Place them on the baking tray and press down lightly with your fingers so that they’re not completely round.
6. Bake the cookies in the oven for 10-15 minutes.  When you take them out they will probably look uncooked, but if you leave them on the tray for about 5 minutes then they will harden up a bit.  If you prefer crunchy cookies, you might want to bake them for a little bit longer.
7. Put the cookies on a cooling rack.  Or, just throw them on a plate and stick the kettle on!

Now, get back to that revision!!

But first, look at this cat:

(http://funnyanimalz.com/)

Six Revision Tips to Release Your Inner-Geek

Just thinking about revision probably makes you want to crawl into a dark hole and stay there.  Hold off on that for just a moment.  Take a look at these tried and tested practical (if a little geeky) revision tips to help you make the most of your time during the exam season.

1) Make a timetable.  Probably one of the most over-used pieces of revision advice out there, but possibly a game-changer.  And no, ‘a timetable’ doesn't mean scribbling out which subjects you’re going to do each day; I promise you that you’ll feel better if you allocate topics too. This will leave you with a clear goal for each day and gives every revision slot an obvious end-point, meaning you don’t have to feel guilty about stopping and relaxing.  Better still, you’ll be confident that you’re going to cover everything in time.  Be flexible though; one topic might take longer than you thought, or you might need to spend longer getting to grips with something.  Don’t worry about this; just do a bit of rearranging.

2) Make flashcards.  These are useful for those annoying 45 minute slots between lessons or before dinner.  When you have such little time, you really don’t want to be making notes, or doing some random highlighting, because chances are, nothing will go in.  Instead, have some pre-prepared cards ready to pick up as and when.  If you study Geography, for example, you may have key terms on one side and the definitions on the other.  Or for Psychology, you could do the same with case studies.  Then, just settle down with a cup of tea and test yourself!

3) Keep your notes organised.  The thought of revision is much worse when you've got twenty things to learn, all on different pieces of paper, all in different folders.  Having one piece of paper entitled ‘Quotes to learn to show the supernatural in Macbeth’, for example, will make your life a lot easier.  At first, all this labelling and listing may seem like a waste of time; but I guarantee that this keen organisation will be worth it in the long run.

4) Plan revision breaks.  Not even the geekiest geek can study continuously from the moment they wake to the moment they flop back into bed.  Sadly, there will always be those who love to brag about the endless number of hours they spent at their desk last night, revising solidly.  I can tell you now, it’s pretty much certain that their stint of ‘solid’ slogging went something like this: open a textbook, check Facebook, make some notes, send a text, highlight a couple of pages, make a coffee, flick through a past paper, and so on.  In other words, an hour or two of concentrated, uninterrupted revision will be more productive.

5) Put your phone/ Ipod/ Ipad in another room.  As tempting as it is to ‘just quickly check Twitter’, it will be far more enjoyable in a planned revision break, as you won’t need to feel guilty for procrastinating.   

6) Use past papers wisely.  For essay-based exams, don’t try and write full answers for every single past paper you can find: there just isn't time.  Instead, plan your answers to the longer essay questions, trying to include only very key points.  It is unlikely that the same question will come up again, so there isn't much point spending hours writing endless essays on topics that might not even be in your paper.  Of course, essay practice is crucial, but just do a select few and make sure you've planned a wide range of answers so you've got every base covered in the exam.


And now that's all sorted, let this owl lighten the mood:

 (http://funnyanimalz.com/)