My Top 10 Films you need to see before University

Hi There!

      So over the past week or so I've been putting together a list (in order) of My Top 10 Films I think you need to see before you go off to University. It's kind of a cover all bases, so you've seen the worst that can happen, before you're sat on the curbside of an unfamiliar city. They probably tend towards the more girly end of the spectrum, but that can't be a surprise? After all, I am a girl! Enjoy...

 

1. Pitch Perfect (2012)

• This is probably my all-time favourite film, and although it gives some pretty odd ideas about how uni life is going to be, it teaches a seriously good lesson about putting yourself out there, joining a random new club and meeting new people. Oh, and there are some gorgeous harmonies in the mashups…
2. The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
• Be prepared for the level of awkwardness of their clubbing experiences – and for everyone to end up doing the dance when they have no idea what else to do. Everyone ends up knowing someone like each of the 4, probably not good to tell someone if they’re a Neil though!
3. Clueless (1995)
• Fun fact about this, it’s the basis for Iggy Azaleas music video for Fancy! Not gonna lie, I don’t miss quite a few of the fashion trends in this, but then again, we’ll probably say the same thing in ten years time. Forever glad my driving test didn’t go the same way hers did. I need a Josh.
4. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
• If you can watch Heath Ledger sing without breaking into a grin, I frankly don’t believe you. Another moral story hidden behind a chick flick, but it’s great fun all the same.
5. Mean Girls (2004)
• Every school has girls like these, or at least that think they are. But you’re done with all that petty politics (at least in theory) so take the time to celebrate the lack of people like this in your life anymore.
6. St Trinians (2007)
• St Trinians is everyone’s dream of what boarding school would be like, but oh wait, we’re going to uni, which is basically boarding school with no rules, alcohol, and more parties!! When the back to school themed club night comes around, you know what’s in store.
7. 21 Jump Street (2012)
• Pretty good way to learn how to party, and it’s not exactly like Channing Tatum or Dave Franco aren’t easy on the eyes. If you enjoy this, Bad Neighbors is a must.
8. The Breakfast Club (1985)
• It’s a classic. Quoted all over, even in Pitch Perfect.
9. Legally Blonde (2001)
• Just because people don’t think your smart enough, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Elle Woods proves this. Oh and yet another moral story, chasing boys doesn’t mean they’ll like you, sorry, it’s the truth.
10. Accepted (2006)
•  For those of you who were bricking it for results, I’m sure at one point you even considered making a fake acceptance letter so you could just leave and your parents would never know. Well this guy did it, in an amazing way.

       I hope you enjoyed this, let me know if you did and there might be more film/recommendation lists in the future!

All the best,

Bea x

17 Days to go...

As the title suggests, I have 17 days until my first exam, resitting Statistics 1. This post is all about
how I prepare for an exam...

Past Papers: doing whole papers gives you a good representation of your final grade in that paper, by looking up the grade boundaries you can get even more clarification. Also by doing past papers you can learn how the examiner will be reading your work and what points they will be looking for, using this knowledge you can learn how to set out your work in the easiest way for them to see you have done the work for each mark.

Posters: any formulae you need to learn that are struggling with, write the formulae on a piece of paper, clearly and large, and put it in an obvious place in the house, every time you go past, read it and gradually it will sink into your brain.

Flash Cards: Again with tricky formulae, writing them onto flash cards means you can carry them with you to revise on the go, such as the bus to school or college. Key facts or grammar points also fit nicely onto flash cards, try not to make them too full though or it becomes a chore to read them through.

Write it out: This is kinda included in the points above but writing out the key phrases over and over really cements them into your brain. It's just like learning spellings in primary school, the muscle memory in your hand will know what to put as soon as you see that awful question that comes up in every paper.

Eat: Many people forget to eat properly and regularly when they are concentrating on revision. Without proper nutrition, your body is gonna have to work overtime to function. Feed your brain, a great revision snack is a chopped up carrot, or a pot of raisins. Both are full of vitamins to help you power through.

Water: Your brain is 75% water! The average person doing light exercise should be drinking about 2.5L a day. Keeping yourself hydrated makes you feel better and focus better.

But most importantly of all...
Relax: Find your way of unwinding, sudoku, jigsaw, read a book, colouring, working out, minesweeper, or going for a walk. A way away from Wifi is the best, think about why you're really scrolling through Facebook, getting away from notifications is not only good for your eyes from staring at screens but I find it also reduces my stress levels.

Take a deep breath, and smash that exam!

All the best,

Bea x

Student Loans - Not so scary after all!

So I just finished applying for my student loan, it’s very early I know, haven’t even accepted offers yet but from the scare stories of people not getting their maintenance money through until mid-October, I was determined to get it done early on.

From how it was presented to us in college, I thought it was going to be far more complicated and scary to do than it actually was. With the option to save and continue, it’s easy to do sections at a time rather than all in one go, and gives you time to think about it. I found the hardest section to answer was who to put as my extra contacts! They've clearly put a lot of thought into how they've set out the website, making it truly accessible for people. Even reading through the terms and conditions (which I actually did for a change) was clear and understandable, not using overly complex language, designed to confuse as is so often the case. Explaining how we repay it and when is reasonable and again, easy to understand.

Overall, I’d give the .gov website a big thumbs up! Maybe I won’t end up broke after all!

All the best,

Bea x

Personal Statements - PS are BS

Personal statements are horrific.

That is the truth through and through. Nobody enjoys writing them, I highly doubt anyone enjoys reading them, and more often than not, they seem to be ignored. My personal statement took around 8 drafts, being sent back and forth between my tutor, secondary school tutor, parents, and biology mentor, as well as myself. Even after all of this, there are still whole sections I’d love to change but I think that’s a common feeling about a piece. I worked on it for MONTHS!

And yet, one of my universities gave me an offer within 18 hours… factoring in that this was over night and even admissions staff need to sleep, I find it hard to believe that they actually looked through all of my references, attendance and personal statement, rather than just predicted grades and going on that.

However, I have heard it said that admissions tutors can tell a lot from someone’s PS. If you’re applying for medicine but have a biology based subject as a backup, but all through your PS you talk about your love for medicine, helping people and interest of the human body, it’s not a very subtle hint to the AT that their course isn't your top choice, and will often be rejected simply due to your lack of interest for their subject. In the long scheme of things, I see this as pretty justified, no teacher wants to teach a classroom full of students who don’t want to be there!

One of the hardest bit of the PS is 4000 characters, and the nightmare that is the inconsistency between how word processors count characters, versus how the UCAS website counts characters. I can recommend doing some background research googling the dos and don’ts of writing your PS. The one major point I will emphasise here (so as not to just repeat everyone else entirely) is that I find it hard to believe that you “have had a passion for chemical engineering from a young age” or “as long as I can remember”. It’s just not true, and we all know it!

Get your friends to help you, those who have known you for several years or so are likely to be aware of what work experience you've done, or what skills you have which make you perfect for the course which you simply wouldn't think of! Don’t be scared to print it off now and then and annotate it, absolutely pick it apart, rearrange it even, aim to get that page as colourful as the revision that you would be doing, if you didn't have to do this, would be.

Keep your head up, and try not to repeat the same word too many times (I'm a sucker for doing that so sorry in advance!)

All the best,

Bea x

To Oxbridge, or not to Oxbridge

Growing up, watching a lot of University Challenge, and believing what the media had told me, I had been given the impression that going to one of the Oxbridge universities should be a goal in life. When I began looking at universities in the autumn of AS (first year of college) I was instantly disappointed that simple due to getting 2 too few A* grades at GCSE (needed 5), I had no chance of applying to Oxford to study Biology. Later, looking through the course content, my dismay soon went as the areas covered are not, in my opinion, the best bits! During this year, I applied for a Sutton Trust Summer School, although I did not get in, I was offered a place on the Experience Cambridge programme, which ran as two days, a month apart where we were to research a question in our groups, communicating through their online portal.

Visiting Cambridge really gave me an insight into what I wanted out of a university. Yes, the buildings are beautiful, however when we moved between buildings, I did not like the masses of tourists - being stared at as though we were attractions, and having grumpy professors try and barge pass thinking that we too (as we were a group of 3 girls clinging together in the busy street) were also tourists. I am aware that many other city based universities, are not nearly as full of tourists, however from this, I chose to only apply to campus based universities. Having grown up visiting Southampton University almost every year, I am definitely biased towards campus based!

At Cambridge, I was looking at studying Natural Sciences, which there is a very broad course. At my college, you have to decide in the summer (even before results) which college you want to apply to, and for what course - I didn’t enjoy this added pressure at all. Another thing to consider with universities that my Cambridge experience flagged up to me, was the possibility of cooking for yourself. All of the accommodation at Cambridge is catered, it really reminded me of a posh boarding school, which I think is why it becomes such a cliché. As someone who went to a big secondary school (300 per year) and a massive college (2000 per year) the idea of going into a college where there are only 200 people in total I found quite daunting, especially seeing as much of the socialising is done within these colleges. When I was there I visited Kings College (image below) and Corpus Christi, both of them beautiful architecture and gardening. I must add though, that we all agreed that it was as though you could feel the pressure already on you, before we had even looked at applying.

From this event, I am still friends with several of the people I met here, however none of them are going to be heading there in the Autumn. Seeing friends who did choose to apply for Oxbridge, has in truth made me thankful that I did not go through that process. All of the extra forms, extra paperwork, separate application and so on, as well as an earlier UCAS entry date. This is without even factoring in the nightmare of entrance exams.

If you think you can take the stress, let alone get the grades, go for it! At the end of the day they are brilliant universities and I know of several people who have loved both. A really important thing though is to not apply just because it’s Oxbridge, and if you’re lucky enough to get an offer, don’t feel obliged to go just because it Oxbridge.

At the end of the day, you need to choose somewhere you’ll be happy!

All the best,

Bea x