First University Open Day

Last Saturday I went to my first University open day at Warwick University. Initially I was not excited about the open day, or any open day at all. I thought that it would add to the confusion, the confusion being WHAT ON EARTH DO I DO WITH MY LIFE and that it would be an all-round scary experience; but I loved it. The open day was wonderfully organised, the student guides were friendly and the whole atmosphere was really relaxed and homely.

 

Once dropped off by the pick-up bus the first thing I realised was, if I choose to attend Warwick, to attend this strange, huge place, it is going to be my home for the next few years and some of these strangers are going to share the whole experience with me, now that was frightening. I felt like I was in Year 7 all over again, with the butterflies and overwhelming feeling of being in an unknown place for a significant part of my life. Once the butterflies had settled and I had soaked up the surroundings it was time to attend the talks about the degrees on offer.

I had the opportunity to attend the Politics and International Studies (PAIS) and English Literature talks. Right now, my major battle is which path to pursue, Politics which I am really interested in and seemed to provide a much clearer pathway career wise, or English which I am completely obsessed with and would miss dearly if I leave it after Year 13. A little bit of me wanted to hate the English talk just so that PAIS ,which seemed like the course that provided the clearer path, would become more attractive to me. Unfortunately (ahh who am I kidding it wasn't unfortunate at all) I loved the English talk, the degree sounds incredibly flexible at Warwick and as you progress with the degree you gain a lot more freedom on what you want to study. There are also various opportunities to meet with experts in the different areas of English, whether it’s poets or authors. The English and Creative Writing talk blew me away, in that you are immersed in the whole English world but there is also the focus on the creative aspect and how to develop it.

After realising that dumping English (I have a strong emotional attachment to the subject if you haven't already guessed) would be harder than I thought it was time for the PAIS talk. The quirky professor, the cool students and the encouragement of debate within the audience made the whole degree seem amazing. With a focus on both British and American politics, PAIS seems like the wonderful degree to expand my limited knowledge of politics and gain a deeper understanding of the world and how it works. The political buzz in the room was intimidating especially for someone who pledges no severely strong allegiance to any political party or leader, however, the debate, disagreements and different viewpoints served to show just how challenging and interesting PAIS would be as a course. I also realised that just like English, the course does not offer a straightforward career path, both subjects are equally flexible and can lead you to a variety of careers in the future.

I left Warwick with a fresh outlook on the future and prospect of leaving my little town for the strange world of University. I am still scared and not entirely sure what I want to do, but pursuing what I love seems like a starting point, so we'll see where it goes from there.

Have you attended any Uni Open Days yet? How did you find it? Are you still not sure what course to pick or are you the complete opposite? Feel free to comment below :)

Third Week Back, Head Girl Duties and Year 6s

Third week back in school and yep we're still doing work. I've finished one book for English which makes me so happy. On Beauty by Zadie Smith is a great book and the way Smith writes is unlike any author I have ever read. She is able to present the emotions of multiple characters with equal depth all the while maintaining a great storyline. I was pretty distraught after finishing the book, not because it was sad but because I wasn't reading it anymore; it was over, no sequel, no movie, just over. If you've ever become completely engrossed in a TV series or movie you'll understand the horrible emptiness of knowing that it's over. But I'll find another book to become obsessed with soon.

Now back to school.

School has been full of group presentations- History is all about America pre Civil War, I'm in the American South group focusing on the economic and social developments up to the 18th century. In English we are working on presentations for both the prose and poetry lessons. For prose we're looking at House of Spirits by Isabel Allende and Victoria by Knut Hamsun, and our poetry ranges from Pablo Neruda to Simon Armitage. For both sections we get to select a song of our choice that best encapsulates our given extract or poem, which has been very fun so far.

Head Girl duties have also begun to kick in, we have been working on establishing what we want to represent and be advocates for (I say we because we have two head girls at my school) and also planning for and being part of different school events. I reckon my organisational skills will improve tremendously having this role, and that was not just a pretty comment for UCAS, that is a genuine life achievement for me considering that I have spent 5 years getting made fun of for having a bottomless pit of a bag and losing my phone every day. It's really exciting to have this role and represent my school community and still be my normal goofy self.

On the topic of goofiness we had our Year 6 Transition Evening a few days ago and I decided that it would be appropriate to put my hair up in two buns, like a life size Minnie Mouse despite supposing to represent this cool older girl to all the Year 6s. Instead it was more I never really left primary school, I’m 17 and still consider being Minnie Mouse as a possible career option. Meeting all the Year 6s, however, was an amazing and bizarre experience. It was like a flashback to being the nervous but over-confident Year 6, who was determined to make friends and be amazing. (Making friends, I managed, being amazing, still a work in progress). I got to talk to the Year 6s,and find out what they were looking forward to and what they were nervous about and it was beautiful to have the chance to be a part of, albeit a little part, in  their progression into secondary school.

As I'm going to be making the transition to University next year, it's amazing to see that the fears are still the same as the Year 6s. Will I cope? Will I make friends? Will I get lost? Will I survive this alien place? There is a whole load of progression made between ages 11-17 (apart from hairstyle choices maybe) and in seeing the Year 6s bubbling with enthusiasm about this new journey they are about to embark on makes me think, you know what  maybe just maybe everything is going to be ok.

How has your time back in school been so far? Are you getting nervous about University, or are you the complete opposite? Feel free to comment below :)

My First Week Back

As part of my whole plight to document Year 13 (you can read about that here) I decided to start writing little diary entry type posts- this is the one for my first week back at school after study leave  and I thought I'd share it with all you lovely people :)

I'm back to school, and how do I feel? Erm, well a bit confused. I thought the week would be a chill, sitting down in lessons doing nothing, getting a textbook or two and some sheets, maybe watching a little film. I was so wrong! It's Friday and I have books to start reading, poems to start analysing and presentations to start preparing. I guess when they said we would be starting the Year 13 syllabus, they really meant it. But you know what? It's not all bad. We are starting the most AMAZING topics in English and History. In English we are learning about Love through the ages, which is a big difference from AS The Struggle for Identity in Modern Literature. Initially when I heard the A2 course was Love through the ages, I thought 'eww why? ‘As much as I love English the thought of spending a year talking and reading about love was so unappealing, but now I am literally doing laps about how amazing the  course sounds (because I often do laps around my home whilst typing, that's how talented I am). Basically every novel has a film equivalent, which is a dream come true. I'm planning on reading The Great Gatsby (because the film is stunning), The Virgin Suicides and On Beauty by Zadie Smith. We have to read Jane Eyre and after reading an extract I just know that the language is going to be on another level of WHAT IS SHE SAYING, but it is a challenge that I am completely up for.

Then there's History, oh History, in one half of the course we are learning about Russia, which is always going to be interesting, and in the other half we're learning about 100 years of American History and get to write a huge essay on a question of our choice. I'm planning to write about The Emancipation of the Slaves, and the excitement about that is unreal. What about my other subjects? One half of Psychology is about Research Methods, which is always going to be boring, then the other half is all about addiction and why it occurs, and I'm loving it. Spanish is about technology and in the in the other half we are watching a film, which is going to be the main focus for our writing in Year 13.

So, forgive me for this dorky post but I'm super excited about learning new things in Year 13 and I'm sure you secretly are as well.

Are you still in shock that you are back to school doing actual work? Is there any thing that you are excited about learning in Year 13? Feel free to comment below:)

15 Things Year 12 has taught me

Note: Let me start off by apologising for being away from the blog-o-sphere for so long. I had school, revision, exams the whole shebang but I'm BACK and hope to produce more great content for you all.

This was originally written on my other blog- you can check it out here 

After writing  about 15 things attending an all-girls school taught me (check it out here) , I thought since I’m going back to school tomorrow I should write about the 15 things Year 12 has taught me,so here it goes:

1. Freedom is Sweet

Free periods, are literally a God send. You can sit in the café area, eat and do nothing (oh actually you can revise and do homework because that’s what we all spent our time doing), it’s great. Especially when you need to catch up on sleep, or just don’t feel being in a classroom. (Ok I really don’t understand the concept of attending school) but FREE PERIODS=ETERNAL HAPPINESS.

2. Freedom can turn Sour

So you are sitting there in the common room, you know that you have coursework due in a week, you have to give in your EPQ and you’ve only written the intro and you have 5 million tests to revise for, but are you going to do anything? OF COURSE NOT. It is in those very moments that having deep discussions about religion and politics, painting your nails, watching vines and buying all the food in the café area seem like much more pressing issues.

3. Looking nice becomes the least of your worries

You start off every term fleeky; eyebrows on fleek, outfit on fleek, life on fleek BUT by the end of it, you’ve worn the same shirt 3 days in a row, you haven’t brushed your hair and resemble a wild animal, and you generally look like hot mess. But, fear not young ones, because everyone else looks like a mess too (apart from that one person, who always looks great, but as every science and maths student knows we forget about the anomalies because they ruin the data… or something like that, ahhh GCSEs were so long ago).

4. You make friends with the most unexpected people

In my case pretty much all my friends take science, so whilst they laughed about some Chemistry related joke, I could only watch and die a little inside because come on guys I dropped science for a reason, and this sucked for a while , but then I made friends with people who did my subjects, were in my frees and my lessons and they are fab. And for the record we have much better conversations than your conversations about covalent bonds and hydrogen, so there!

5. Class discussions give you headaches

I’m tired, I’m hungry and we are spending 30 minutes having a debate about whether or not Freud is the Darwin of Psychology and you know what I just want to crawl into a hole and never hear the words ‘opinion’, ‘discussion’ or ‘Freud’ EVER AGAIN.

6. After mocks, you have heard pretty much every failure related quote known to man                                                    

Mocks in January are not fun, but once you finish them things start to feel alright – that’s until you get your results back. Knowing that many people are gutted about some of their grades, teachers find it necessary to do the whole, ‘try, try and try again’, ‘the real failure is when you stop trying’, ‘failure is the opportunity to try again more intelligently’ and then there’s my absolute favourite- YOU ARE NOT YOUR GRADES ( Yeah, that’s uplifting, unless I get an A, then sorry I am an A).

7. The closer you get to exams, the more dramatic everyone becomes

I include myself in this tbh. I cried, felt like Carol Ann Duffy despised me and thought that life was pretty much over and although it was sad at the time, looking back on all the conversations where people would say ‘you know what I can’t deal, I’m just going to become a slug’ it was actually hilarious.

8. You realise just how hard learning a language is

Just because you were an avid Dora the Explorer fan as a child, and have been studying Spanish since Year 7 doesn’t make it any easier. Subjunctive, preposition, past participle- Bye Felicia. (but s/o to my Spanish teachers for keeping me sane this year).

9. You have a closer relationship with food

Ahh, how could I not have a point dedicated to food? The 6th form common room is basically food paradise. You have about three lunches every day; one during your free, one at break and one at lunch and in year 13 you have more free periods so I’m really excited about that (might have to turn my locker into a makeshift food store hmm…),

10. ‘Why am I here?’ becomes a regular thought

You sit there in your frees, break and lunchtime and you have one of these weird feelings where everyone’s noise merges into one and you think, of all the places in the world why on earth am I here?

11. Assemblies are used to  remind you exactly why you are there

To thrive, to succeed, to get rich so you can go on holiday to Bora Bora (this has to be one of the best things a teacher has ever said). It’s like teachers know that you are silently pondering why you should attend school the next day, so assemblies become mini Ted Talks/ Inspirational speeches.

12. There’s always that deception person

Let me explain, this scenario has probably happened to you at least once

You: ‘ I don’t really get this topic, doubt I’ll do well in the test’

Deception: ‘You don’t get it, I have NEVER got it. It’s so hard, you’re lucky you will probably get it eventually, I’m screwed. I might as well not even sit the test. I might as well never come to school ever again. I might as well just move to another country. So sure I’m getting a U’

*Gets tests results back*

Deception: What did you get?

You: D, what about you?

Deception: Oh, 100%

You: *cries all the way home*

IF YOU SAY THAT YOU’RE RUBBISH AT A TOPIC AND MAKE ME THINK THAT WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER, IN TERMS OF FLOPPING THE EXAM, THEN DON’T COME AND TELL ME YOU GOT 100%, LIKE THAT IS COMPLETELY DEFEATING THE OBJECTIVE OF FAILING TOGETHER. WHY DON’T PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THIS?

13. If you start the year loving a subject. You’ll hate it by the end

Ah, my friend sent me this one, and although I can’t testify to it personally, it was tear worthy and a tiny bit funny sometimes, to see people who previously loved their subjects give you the look of death when you ask them about it three months down the line.

14. The jump from GCSE to A levels/IB is lethal

Right let me tell you a story: During P.E in Year 9/10 we did high jump and only God knows what was wrong with me that day, I jumped over the poll and instead of landing on the mat, I landed at the very edge, rolled over and crashed on to the floor, that’s what the jump from GCSE to A levels and IB is. But you know, we laugh to hide the pain.

15. You realise just how much will-power you have

Year 12 is basically over and we are still alive, and operating (although, you may have broken a few cogs along the way) but yeah we are still alive! Year 12 shows you just how strong you are, because there are so many times when giving up seemed like the best option but you still hung in there. So to all my fellow Year 12s I’m so proud of you and I hope we all go on to BOSS Year 13.

Is there any point that you can really relate to?

What has Year 12 taught you?

Feel free to comment and share :)

REVISION TIPS FOR NIGHT OWLS

So I had a little moment at  about 1am one morning and decided to tweet The Student Room urging them to write something about how to approach revision when you are a night owl. In case you don't know what that is, a night owl is someone who prefers to work (and is most productive) at night time and sometimes until the early hours of the morning. They (The Student Room) suggested that I start a discussion thread, which I did and, alongside my own research, I was able to get a few useful tips for all my fellow night owls about revising. 

 

1. After school go home and have a nap

The worst thing about being a night owl is that you are literally awake for the whole day and although night time is when you're most productive, you still feel a bit drained. Sleeping when you get home from school for a couple of hours will help you to feel refreshed and have energy to make the most of your night time revision.

 

2. Don't tell yourself you can only revise at night

I am 100% guilty of this. I can feel mentally prepared to revise in broad daylight but convince myself that until the sky is black, work will not be done. DON'T DO THIS! If you are ready to work, WORK or else you're just wasting your time and end up being even less productive.

 

3. Have a set time you finish revising everyday

During school time doing work until 3am is not a good idea because sleep is necessary. You may think that you can hack it the next day, but not being able to concentrate or feeling like walking dead in school is not a good idea. Having a set time you finish revising everyday, perhaps 11pm on school days, is key to ensure that you are working hard and sleeping well.

 

4. Don't revise at night just because you want to put more hours in 

If nothing is going in, if your notes are a blur and you find yourself thinking about how comfortable your bed would feel, it's time to stop. A few more hours of sleep is much better than a few hours spent writing notes that you don't understand and won’t remember.

All in all, it's possible to be a night owl and revise effectively. Just make sure you work smart and remember beauty sleep is essential.

GOOD LUCK WITH REVISION!

Itunu :)

 

 

5 TIPS FOR GCSE REVISION

In a few months you will be doing your GCSEs, well done me for stating the obvious. I'm sure that you have heard a million tips on how to revise effectively for your exams but please let me add the extra one as someone who went through the whole process just last year. Below are my five tips to approaching your GCSE exams:

1. START REVISING

Just start. Not next week, not even tomorrow, RIGHT NOW (after you finish reading this of course) REVISE!!! The trap that a lot of us fall into is both procrastination and convincing ourselves that we need a clear cut plan before we start doing anything. Planning is good; but don't spend more time making a revision plan than actually revising.

2. MAKE A REVISION PLAN

Revision plans are quite fun to make; that is until you realise how much you have to do, but fear not my young friends there is hope. Revision plans are there as a guideline and they should be realistic. Make sure you have some sort of list of all the topics that are going to be in your exam for each subject; then work your way through, ticking them off as you go. Focus on the topics that you find hardest first and do a few hours of revision every day (2 to 3 hours)  then do a lot more revision at the weekend. Oh and take breaks. Snack breaks, walking breaks, sitting down and feeling proud of how hard you're working breaks, just make sure you treat yourself and don't burn yourself out.

3. DO PAST PAPERS

This is a point all on its own because I avoided past papers like the plague. I did not like sitting down and timing myself and feeling all pressured when I got things wrong, but after a while I realised that past papers are extremely useful. A lot of the time, especially in science papers, questions are repeated so it is likely a similar question will be asked in your real paper. You also get the hang of exam technique and realise the sort of things that the examiner wants you to write. If you haven't already, spend this week printing off tons of past papers, or ask an older friend if they have any spare and start working on them.

4. DON’T BE SCARED OF EXAMS

GCSE prep is very much a psychological thing as well as a school requirement. You are going to hear many people say 'I'm going to fail anyway' and you might be saying that as well. Now is the time to STOP! The 'I'm going to fail’ mentality is enough to throw you off track, so stop thinking and saying it and stay away from anyone or anything that reinforces that negative way of thinking. When preparing for exams it is so important that you do all you can to channel happy vibes because sometimes it gets hard.  Everyone gets stressed during this period, which is normal, some people's stress, however, is just not what you need so stay away from any negativity.

5. RELAX

Right now you are worrying because the teachers are saying that you may not finish the syllabus in time, you have tons of homework to do and you are worried that there is not enough time for you to revise. Take a deep breath and relax. Everything falls into place. It feels stressful now but don't let things get to you. It's all about putting in effort. What you put in is what you will get out.

Hopefully these tips have helped you feel more at ease about your exams. For more advice feel free to drop any questions in the comment section below.

Have a lovely week

Itunu :)

Back to School, Dividers and the E-Word

 Back to school!!! 'Why the exclamation marks?' I hear you scream. School was actually really good last week. Such a plot twist, I know. After a much needed break I was totally ready to get back to work. Folders organised, pencil case with pens that worked. I was pretty much prepared for world domination from first lesson Monday morning. At least that's what I thought; I mean I had folders with dividers. DIVIDERS!!!

 

Once I got back to school the one thing on everyone’s mind was the e word- EXAMS. I couldn't even pretend that exams weren't going to happen with everyone giving me a countdown. Exams are soon, that's all I am going to say, and it seems that now is the perfect time to start preparing for them. According to Student Room 60% of students say that the best time to start revising for A-Levels (and GCSEs I would add) is in February. Student Room has some fantastic advice and resources for you to prepare for exams (check out the link below) but here is my advice on exam preparation:

 

GCSE: Make a proper revision plan. When I say proper, I mean proper. Make a really specific plan with the subjects you are going to revise every day (you could even do sub topics if you want to be really detailed).  I got through GCSEs by spending my evenings revising. I would get home and relax,watch TV listen to music , and just forget about everything for a while, then a few hours before I went to sleep I would revise. It means that you are always revising in a practical way without burning yourself out. Of course, everyone is different but I would say that during the school week revise for about 2 (maybe even 3) hours a day. That way you leave time for homework and relaxation. Then go all out at the weekend. With food, coloured pens and a snazzy notebook revision becomes a bit more bearable-trust me. Don't beat yourself up if you don't follow your plan exactly either; sometimes other things will get in the way of your plans but just make sure you are working frequently and effectively. (I’ll do a really detailed post for all of you doing GCSEs next week)

 

A-Level: I am in Year 12 so I can't really give advice based on experience because I am too busy EXPERIENCING it all. I had a read through Student Room discussion threads however and it seems 2-3 extra revision a day is advised. The importance of consolidating your knowledge is also stressed, so looking back on your notes frequently and making absolutely sure that you understand everything is really important.  For more detailed advice, past exam papers and to make your own online study plan  check out this link on the Student Room website.

 

Have a lovely week

Itunu :)