Springtime

The sun is out and I am enjoying the spring. It’s lovely to see the spring flowers and to have longer days. I have been celebrating my granddaughters 4^th birthday. It was lovely event with my family and friends of my daughter. Some of them are in their first year at university so it was good to compare stories.

My 2^nd year is nearly over. I can’t believe that the time has gone so quickly. I have just one piece of written work to submit then I can get down to revision. This stage of university is really about consolidating your knowledge. I have realised how much I learnt in year one and that knowledge has helped me to success n year 2.

 Spring is about new beginnings which usually gives me hope that I will have more opportunity to experience different things. I am beginning to see the first signs that I have learnt things in psychology and about studying which has improved my self-confidence.

Being at university gives you so many different things, it’s not just about the academic achievements. Learning to motivate yourself and learn independently are important skills which contributes towards success in making the transitions into higher Education.

So If you are considering go to university why not come to an open day where you get to speak to students who are living the experience.

studying in the sun

Easter Break and Preparing for Final Term

Hello all!

Easter break seems to be going past far too fast for my liking, there is not much time of it left at all! Time seems to
have escaped me and each day that brings me closer to term 3 makes it seem so much daunting. Term 3 will be my final term of being an undergraduate student. When I go back to uni I will have around a week or two at most of lectures and tutorials, and then I will have just exams to go after May the 1st when my dissertation and a couple of other assessments are due in.

This week I have been working on my dissertation and have finally got my first draft ready to show my supervisor! I've also started my other assessments which are due on the same day as my dissertation and have even managed to fit in some time to see my friends and spend time with my family, so it has been a busy week! The next week is going to be about preparing to go back and start my final term! As well as trying to fit in lots of uni work and packing ready to go back to uni, the next week I'm planning to spend some more time with friends and family over the next week.

It was around this time three years ago that I was receiving my offers for university courses at the five university choices I had put down. The task of choosing the offers I wanted as my first choice and as my insurance was a very difficult task. What mainly helped to aid my decisions was thinking back to the open days I had been to and deciding which of the universities I felt would best suit me. I also spoke to my family about the decisions to see what their opinions were on the universities I was thinking of making as my first choice and insurance choice. 

Speaking to friends who were also going through making uni decisions also helped a lot to see what they were using to prioritise their choices. For me making the choice of my first choice was to base the university on my predicted grades and how much I enjoyed the open day and the facilities I had seen. Making my insurance choice I chose a university  with grade boundaries slightly lower than my predicted grades in case I did not manage to get the grades I had wanted, and based on my visit on the open day and the facilities I had seen. I knew quite quickly the choices I wanted to make but the thought of rejecting conditional offers just terrified me and I must have put it off for at least a week before typing it in on my UCAS. 

To anyone who is currently choosing between their offers, good luck! It's a scary time but it is one step closer to starting university!! The advice I would give would be to choose the offers which you feel are right for you. Uni will be a huge part of your life for at least the next 3 years, so choose somewhere that is right for you! 

See you next week!

Robyn

Open Days

Hi guys

The UCAS deadline has gone, and now anybody who has applied for university this year is nervously awaiting to hear whether they have got offers or interviews with the universities they wish to go to. Today I am going to write about open days, and personally I think open days are the most useful way to decide whether a university is right for you.

There is only so much that can be shown in a prospectus or on a university website, and being given the opportunity to look around a university and hear from students what the university is like for them is something of great value when trying to decide if it is right for you.

I visited open days for the universities I was most interested in going to, and I felt that I got a better understanding of the universities and which I wanted to choose when I had to narrow down my choices later on. Visiting the open days allowed me the chance to look at potential accommodation that the universities had to offer which was very important to me as it was going to be my first time living away from my family home and so I wanted to see for myself exactly where I might be living. 

Another thing that the open days allowed was for students to talk honestly about their experience at the university and we were able to ask questions which was very helpful and had an advantage over the prospectus. As someone potentially going to the universities, it was very exciting to be shown around the psychology departments and to learn about how I would be studying and the modules, it all made it seem very real. Visiting the open days of the universities I had applied to also gave me the chance to look around at the towns and cities I would potentially be living in for the next three years which I think is an important factor to take into consideration.

Although undoubtedly the open days are very useful for potential students, if you live too far away for a day visit to an open day there will be lots of information in the prospectus and online on the universities websites to help you make up your decisions when you have to start narrowing down your university choices. So although I would recommend going to open days if you are able to, if you are not there are still other ways to get relevant information which may help you.  

So good luck to anybody who has sent off their UCAS and is waiting for offers! And good luck to anyone who is still working hard towards their January exams and January deadlines.

For anybody who is interested in going to an open day, here is the information below for upcoming open days at the University Of Bedfordshire. 

https://www.beds.ac.uk/howtoapply/oe/ug

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Robyn