Daily Diary: 25th February

I lay in bed this morning debating whether to drag myself out of bed to go to a 9am lecture or get the extra couple of hours sleep I really wanted. I got up. I went to the lecture. It was definitely not worth it!
When pretty much all a lecturer does is to read out what is written on the presentation slides you just think what was the point. I could quite easily sit at home and read a presentation, I don't need them to do that for me.
Then had to go for another blood test this morning. Fourth one in three weeks, starting to get fed up of them.
Made myself a very nice toasted cheese and ham sandwich for lunch, so good I wanted another, before heading out to the next lecture.
After the lecture a couple of my class mates were talking about the various states of falling asleep during a lecture. I could totally relate as very often it's me who feels like that, but for some reason I was quite awake and actually paying attention today. I even made some decent lecture notes for a change!
We then had a lab, which seemed to go on forever but in fact only lasted 3 hours.
Now my feet ache and I really can't be bothered to do any more work. I have to though.

My Day

Right...so I've been so bad at writing on my blog since I've moved to Uni. But I would like that to change that as I do actually enjoy writing these posts. And no time better than the present so I'm gonna get back into writing by talking about my day.

I hate 9am starts. I know it's far better than when I was at college as don't have to travel for an hour and a half beforehand, but I am simply not a morning person! I meant to get up at 7:45 this morning but ended up pressing the snooze button for the next 20 minutes before finally surfacing. After that, getting dressed, doing my make-up and trying to eat breakfast was a complete rush. I left my bedroom at 8:50 and got to the lecture theater just in time.
It was Human Physiology, a lecture on the endocrine system and muscular system. During that lecture I just felt so tired though, so found it hard to concentrate. I don't even know why as I survived at college with a lot less sleep than I got last night.
After that we had a Human Physiology lab on histology. We were looking at tissues taken from organs of a rat, such as kidney, lungs or small intestine slides. I don't mind using a microscope to look at the slides and identify structures, but I hate drawing them. The unlucky thing about it though is this lab is assessed and we need to hand in 5 drawings showing appropriate level of detail and answer various questions about the tissues. We have two lab sessions to complete this in but I only managed to get 1 of the drawings finished on this first session. I found it so hard to draw a representation of what I could see. Also they expected more detail to be drawn than what I have previously had to when drawing from a microscope.
Finally for today I had a tutorial session. For this we had to prepare answers to questions based on DNA structure and discussed DNA replication. We have this session in a small group of 6 people, so everyone has to be involved in the discussions and can't go unnoticed. I think it's also a great way to show how much you know compared to everyone else. It certainly made me think that I need to do a bit more reading on the subject.
I made lunch when I got home, pesto pasta. Then I tried to get some work done but wanted something sweet to eat so I made some doughnut muffins instead. I'm now going to re attempt getting the work done!

Driving: taking the test!

On the 14th of August I took my driving theory test, and passed it! I was so happy when I found out I'd passed, as I honestly thought I'd failed it. There was a couple of questions on the multiple choice part where I didn't have a clue, but in the hazard perception part of the test I got a message come up on the screen saying that I had scored 0 on a video clip due to an inappropriate number of clicks. So after that I didn't have much hope. I walked up to the desk to collect my results. He said to me "Smile" and pointed to the words on the certificate saying 'Congratulations, you've passed!'. I was so happy with that!

After that I waited until after I'd got my A Level results and found out when and which University I'll be starting at, before I attempted booking my practical driving test. And I mean attempted, as when I came to book it there were no dates before the 24th September, and I was starting Uni on the 15th. That left me no choice but to book the earliest date possible and keep checking for cancellations to change it. I thought I wasn't going to be able to take the test before I go, and would have to continue learning and take the test another time or another place. But luckily a couple of days ago a cancellation came up and I managed to get my test booked for the 12th September, just three days before I will be moving away. I'm not sure that I feel ready to take the test but my driving instructor seems to think that I'll be OK, so I guess I'll have to trust him. I will so happy if I pass the test on Wednesday, to have got it out the way and having my driving license to use when I may need it in the future.

I'm Going To University!

Last Thursday I received my A Level results. They weren't the best grades but I was extremely happy as I also found out that I've got into my first choice of University, The University of Sussex. That day I could not stop smiling I was so happy! First thing I did was call all my family to let them know, and my Dad took me out for a meal that evening to celebrate. The following day I saw my Mum and she gave me a present for getting into Uni.

My friends stayed over that night too and we went out for a night in Truro to celebrate. Tried a couple of different drinks that evening. I think we all agreed the drinking aspect of the night was more fun than dancing in the club as the music wasn't as good this time and it was so crowded we were constantly being bumped into. We got the drinks in Wetherspoons first as it's cheaper in there, and we shared cocktail pitchers and shots between us.

Yesterday I received an email from the University of Sussex informing me of the room I have been allocated in the halls of residence. It wasn't my first choice of accommodation but it still looks pretty good. There was also a lot of other information sent with the email, such as I didn't know that our rent covered insurance too. I can move into my room at Uni on the 15th of September and that following week is Freshers Week. There's also a Facebook group for each residence run by the University for people to talk and find out who will be in their flat before we get there or who will be on the same course. I think I've found one person who will be in my flat so far and it's a five person flat.

Exams/Revision

It's exam time again at college, but these are the last before Uni, which is the reason why there's been so few posts over the last couple of weeks, as I've been busying trying to revise and not get distracted by anything! I've got 8 exams this time round as I'm retaking 3. It's a lot of exams and a lot to learn for them. It's only been the last year or so that I've realised that I actually have to put some work in and revise in order to get a good grade. And also before that, I didn't really know how to revise so I would sit staring at textbooks and hope that that would help! Now I have my own "method" of revising which seems to be working, although my revision does differ for each of the subjects.

For Maths I revise simply by doing past papers, and I think this is the best way to revise maths at any level. Just keep practicing the questions, asking for help when you get stuck. For all my other subjects I have my own "method" of revising. I use exercise books (similar to the ones used in schools, A5 size, but they were very hard to get hold of) and make my own notes, using the specification (so I know what I need to know), and comparing between my notes taken in class, revision guides and textbooks. I find this way works as I'm not just copying out my notes but thinking about what I'm writing down by comparing and thinking about what's the best information to write down. E.g. if I need to be able to label a diagram of the heart I would look at and compare my notes and the textbook to find the best diagram and I would copy that out into my revision notes.

I do find that the hardest part of revision is actually getting started and being motivated to do it. Because I like to use all my notes and textbooks and spread out using a whole table it's not really possible to to this at college. The only problem with being at home is that there are so many distractions, and it's amazing all the things you will do when what you should really be doing is revision! Usually once I have got started I get quite stuck into it and the time flies. That's one reason why I don't like the idea of a revision timetable. I wouldn't want to get into the flow of revising for a particular subject and then have to stop to change and start something else at a certain time, as then I would have the getting started problem all over again. I find it more useful to spend most of a day revising one subject and switch to a different one the next day.

Everyone has different methods which work for them when revising, as we all learn in different ways. Although it is important that when your revising you are actually thinking about what your doing, so simply reading through a revision guide is most likely not going to work! So keep trying until you find a method which works for you. Good luck to anyone taking exams at the moment.

University Decisions

It's come to the time when I need to make my decision as to where I would most want to go to University. I've applied for 5 courses at 4 different Universities and luckily I have received conditional offers for all 5 of these. I have applied for 3 Biomedical Science courses and Healthcare Science at Nottingham and Plymouth also.

I have been to visit all of them except The University of Nottingham. I think I have ruled this one out though. I applied there because the course looked OK and I thought it wouldn't be too bad living there as I have some family that live close by. But after thinking about it, I really don't want to live there!
Plymouth had always been pretty high on my list as I know the place fairly well, it's very close, the course looks good and I know a couple of people who have been there and enjoyed it. But I did want to keep my options open, compare them all and not just go for Plymouth because it was the easy option. So I went to visit The University of Southampton and The University of Sussex, at least so I had something to compare Plymouth University to. I am very glad I was able to do this because it has definatley affected my decisions. They are both much further away so it would be harder to come back to visit often but I don't think I would be doing that much anyway, wherever I was, as I wouldn't want to be missing out on anything at Uni. I want to go to somewhere where I am going to enjoy my time at best at; somewhere where there are good lecturers (because a good/bad teacher can completely change how much you enjoy studying a subject), somewhere where there are lots of things going on, and somewhere that's in a nice location where I would enjoy living.
After comparing them all I think I can quite easily see myself living and studying at the University of Sussex best. Although, I am thinking about whether the Healthcare Science or Biomedical Science course would be best for what I want to do after I have completed the degree. I think the course content of both is very similar but the main difference is that the Healthcare Science course is designed for those that want to be working as a Healthcare Scientist in the NHS and so the course includes a lot of work experience and practical skills. If this is what I wanted to do I was wondering if it would also be possible to do this after completing the Biomedical Science course. I have emailed The University of Sussex to find out more about this. I suppose either way, what I'm thinking of doing for my decision is to have the University of Sussex (Biomedical Science) as my firm (first) choice and Plymouth University (Healthcare Science) as my insurance choice. I have about two weeks to send my decision to UCAS, but the sooner the better.

University Visit

At the end of last week I went to visit 2 of the Universities I'd had offers from: University of Southampton and University of Sussex. I was specifically going to the admissions day I'd booked a place at at the University of Sussex, but soon as though Southampton was on the way we briefly stopped there to have a look too.
We only stayed at the University of Southampton for an hour or two. All the people we met there were nice. We wandered around the campus and had a look inside the new building which would be where the course I'd applied for would be studied. I don't know much about Southampton or what it what be like to live there, but although the Uni campus wasn't near the city centre it was very much in the city.
After staying one night in a terrible Travelodge in Brighton (which we decided not to stay another night at!) we spent the day at the University of Sussex. The campus there was completely different to the other ones I'd seen. It was outside the city of Brighton and was surrounded by countryside, right next to a national park. All the buildings were very spread out compared to other campuses.

Library Square and the Library building at the University of Sussex

The library there was the biggest one I'd ever seen, and they have enough accommodation on campus to guarantee all first years a place in them. We had a look around two different halls of residence. They had some new accommodation that had all en-suite rooms, which I really liked but is the most expensive.

Northfield accommodation at the University of Sussex

 I think it's very much a campus life university, it's like a little student village with everything you'd need.
After looking for somewhere else to stay we ended up staying in a hotel on the seafront in Brighton. There was no comparison between the two places we stayed, there was nothing to complain about at the hotel. We walked around Brighton for a while and had dinner in an Italian restaurant, before going back to the hotel.

Me outside Brighton Pavilions

I don't think Brighton would be a bad place to live if I ended up going to University there. I actually started to like the idea as I spent some time there; it's right by the sea, next to the countryside and a national park, got a lot more shops than we're used to in Cornwall and plenty of things to do.

Get up and go!

I hate having lazy days, spending half the day in bed and not getting anything done. It feels like such a waste of time! I'd rather get up and ready for the day, and go out to do something, or at least do something productive.
It's the Easter holidays at the moment (two weeks off college), and it's great to have a break. Although I find that when I'm not busy, I just get very lazy, where as if I'm doing lots of things I will continue to be busy - once I get going I carry on going. Kinda goes in circles. Right now though, I feel pretty bad 'cause I've been very lazy! The time seems to be going so quickly and I just haven't really done anything. I really need to get motivated and doing things; like revising for my exams that are coming up (need to get the grades to get into Uni!), getting stuff ready to go away at the end of this week (going to visit a Uni) and getting more organised.

Results Day!

We got our results for our January exams today at college. Obviously I hope for the best but I don't worry about what I'll get. I'll accept whatever results I get, and if they're not good then so be it, I can only improve in the future. (I take this attitude to most things in life: what's done is done, I can only move on and improve.) Turns out that my results ranged from very good...to very bad!
Basically my whole class (except one) got a U (failed) on our Physics exam! Our physics lecturer wasn't too pleased, but what can he say if we all fail - does that say something about how well the subject was taught to us? Or how much effort we put in to revising for the exam? Personally I think neither were great. I've not been putting so much effort into Physics lately because I don't think that it's important for what I want to do anymore. But needless to say, we're all retaking the exam as good grades are needed for Uni.

Anyway, that was the worst part. Maths was OK-ish. I got a C. I would've liked a higher grade, so I might retake, but it's a grade I can live with. Chemistry and Biology however, I am rather pleased with. (A's in both!) I know for these two subjects, especially Biology, I put a lot of effort into revising for and was focused on getting good grades in these as I know they're the subjects I need for the Uni courses I've applied for.
Overall the day was really good. Even the bad results in Physics didn't put a downer on the day. Didn't get much work done but had great fun at lunch with my friends!