Christmas Holidays

Hey Readers!, Sorry I haven't updated my blog in like 2 weeks, I've been enjoying the holidays and just now have found the time to update you all on what the holidays have been like

Christmas
Christmas was fairly much like a normal day for my family, most families all watch TV together or all open presents together but by the time I woke up all the presents were opened but mine my 16 year old sister returned to her room and my 13 year old brother was preoccupied playing his new football game (FIFA 14), My Father was preparing dinner a beef wellington and my mother was just busy watching TV downstairs which just left me on my own, So what did I do on christmas day? I read up on Biology, I bought myself a present a biology book best present I could have asked for.

Interactions
 Now originally when I went university I expected all the people I considered close enough to be class mates but not so close i'd see them outside of school would just drift away not expecting to speak to them ever again. This however is not the case I encountered a load of them in Burton Nightclub on the various occassions i've been there over the holidays and they seem suprisigly more friendly and I even got hugs of alot of them :P. Infact about 3 of them wanted to come down to Keele some day and stay with me for a day or two which I didn't expect whether this will actually happen or they are just drunken ramblings we will see. 

My close friends that have returned for the first time since going originally, 2 from portsmouth uni and 1 from bangor uni, I've been reunited with and have seen them a reasonable amount over the holidays, on friday we had a meal with them before they went back as they go back much earlier than us at Keele.

Revision

 Really the overall objective of this holiday was to revise what I have been taught in lectures, which has been going reasonably well for biology but for maths I could definitley get more in i'm not confident in maths at the moment!, I've done half of the algebra but i should definitley concentrate more on the harder parts. I need to keep reminding myself I'm at uni level so I should buckle down more than A level but that is not the case. During the holidays I also met up with my Biology lab partner who's from Derby which is reasonbly near by and we had a nice revision session which helped loads!

That's all for now I'll post probably next week depending on how concentrated I am on my exams!

Last Days

All my assessment over coursework is done, PCR Report submitted, Feedback from Intro to human bio pratical i've recieved at a 67% which I am very happy with and all my maths tests and assignments are done so that my Algebra is on an overall 62% and my calculus is on a 67%. 

Although all my coursework is done and dusted, I still have the fear of Janurary exams so there is no resting just revision! and it is very important I do well first time as I have plans to study abroad next year so need to achieve above 40%

Weekend

Last weekend I was just proof reading coursework, finishing my study abroad application and generally having a pretty damn boring time!. I haven't been to a single Lacrosse session in about a week due it all being optional and me priortising coursework. 

Tuesday night to thursday

I had to go home to burton to collect my A Level certificates, I achieved a B in Maths, B in Biology, B in ICT and an E in Critical Thinking a really boring day, although why home I find time goes alot faster and I know I need to come up with a study plan as I will just be lazy if i don't make a plan and stick to it!

How I will organise myself

I find time tables never work for me, I find just always revising a different subject everytime I do choose to revise works best for me and as well as that I find watching a very mediocre programme at the same time as revising will always keep me more interested as i don't get sleepy/bored and I remain interested thanks to the programme

Well everyone has there own unique method of revision, sorry about the lack of exciting stuff but My life isn't very exciting at the moment hopefully it will get better! I should post next week some time peace out loyal fans.

Still Tired!

 Why do people in my block hate sleep?
Well after the last post of the blog I was in a pretty tired state and I vowed to myself that this week I would not go out as much in order to get some much needed revision in for a maths test on this thursday, a presentation for biology on the golgi appratus on next monday, sorting out the study abroad statement bursarys and universities i can actually apply to and of course a PCR pratical essay that is due in for next wednesday

I did manage to show some self control to the peer pressure of my block asking me to go out!, so that was good I revised complex numbers that night in mathematics and went to bed at a reasonable time, but then of course the drunken rable of my block got back at about 3 in the morning naturally when i was first awoken i figured i could just sleep it off they'll probably be gone to sleep in about 10 minutes, but no there was them banging on doors of my neighbours which i could hear, them singing/screaming to crappy songs at that time in the morning waking up the whole block and even playing music through the speaker at that hour!!. I did manage to just stay in my bed awake without going out to tell them to shut up but after an hour and a half they still hadn't gone bed at that point someone else in our block came out of his room shouted at them and they all disbanded to their respective rooms so it was half 4 and I was basically just struggling to get back to sleep.

My first lecture was at 9am and my lecturers ended at 5pm and i did have a tiring day the night before as i'll explain below, but by the end of the lectures towards the end of the day I was just getting so tired i may have nodded off in one of the algebra lectures towards the end which isn't good! 
 Going Home
This weekend I went home to Burton my home town, I didn't spend much time resting as most of the time I was out with my family or friends so I never seem to get much time for rest! That's the one thing I'm looking forward to at christmas vacation being able to rest at home!. 
While at home I went to a pub on the night i got home with my family for a meal then Maths revision when I got home, On the saturday I went town with my brother, to try and repair some snapped glasses which failed as they told me I had to buy a new pair :( so i've decided to leave that and i'll cope with my back up pair for a bit as if i got a new pair from burton I would be unable to pick them up by the time they would be ready. Later on the saturday I went out with some friends to a pub for a meal, due to a very' bright' friend though they decided they wanted to go to mcdonalds by the time i've got there which i'm not keen on at all! but after that we went to another pub and played Pool for a bit. On the sunday was playing football with friends and in the afternoon i did actually manage to go on my xbox for the first time since september which was very nice!.
Monday
On the monday I woke up at 7.30 to get dropped off at keele for my 11am lectures which i had on straight till 5, when i got home I made myself something to eat and then i set off to the libary to get my biology essay finished so as you imagine by the time I got home I was so tired anyway!, so at the moment I am feeling very sleep deprived!

Although that was the first time I used keele libary really other than to take out a book and it's a very nice place!, open 24/7 and it's very peaceful and away from the distractions of my block :) 

Current situation

At the moment i'm going to further revise for my maths test this thursday and try and get an early night! I have a day off tomorrow as the lacrosse season has ended which means no games so I won't be as tired!.

I'm sleepy

One of the first things I heard before coming Keele was this: "At university you can pick only 2 of these: Sleep, Good Grades or Good Social Life" Of course there's the chance of balancing social life and good grades but soon as I seem to get a good social life it's going out on the nights before my 9am lectures and getting about 4 hours sleep to attend my 9am lectures!. Of course this method is extremely painful and I would not recommend it to anyone as obviously it appeared today that I sacrificed sleep!.

Maths
A happy day for me was that I submitted the last maths assignment of the year yesterday, overall my assignments have come to a percentage like 70% which should give me a boost for the janurary exams (The exams count for 60%), although for maths they're going to include a class test on the last week before christmas vacation which will go towards our degree to stop us from slacking!
 Biology
For Biology, They have set a scientific paper on the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) (Used to amplify DNA/RNA) last week which will be due in for the 19th and there will be a our 6 minute presentations due in for that last week as well so dead lines are fast approaching!.

AU Ball
This saturday as well I had the AU (Athletic Union) Ball which was amazing, it was basically a ball just for the sports teams (I was with Lacrosse) so we all came dressed cleverly and enjoyed a 3 course meal, the dancing on the Keele Hall dance floor and the after party in K2 afterwards. It was a pretty amazing night despite me spending quite a bit!, £35 on the ticket, £9.50 on a bottle of wine, £5 on other various alcholic beverages but despite the massive hole it has put in my wallet it will be a night I will remember for ever! and by far the best night out so far at Keele

Study Abroad

Application to study abroad

Keele give all students the chance to take a semester out during the second year to go to an International University to Study Abroad for one semester a completely unique experience that would look brilliant on a CV

I've started begining my application, I've been doing loads of research into the 7 Universities I have availible to me and I have managed to limit these down just to 4, for my application however I  need to limit it down to 3 so to make that descision as the 4 universitites I have now I like alot I have to look at each universities courses they are offering and ensure that they more or less match the modules I would be taking in the First Semester of the second year

As well as all of that I need to get an Academic Reference, I am going to find this difficult as my academic interaction so far has been very limited due too the fact that mainly I have been doing Lectures which is simply just listening to the lecturers. My personal tutor however is the head of the Cell and Molecular biology module and we have had some interaction in lab classes when he's been going over pratical questions so I'm going to send an email off to him later today and we will see how it will go from there!
Maths
In maths I have got back my Assignment 2 marks, there has been a massive improvement from the assignment 1 marks I think this is due to the fact that I put more effrot and managed to take the assignement much more seriously this time, In my Maths assignement 2 I achieved an overall average of about 75% on my assignment 1 the overall average was about 45% so a massive overall improvement I've been set an Assignment 3 now (Last of the year finally!) to be due in for next monday hopefully that will see good marks as well although it may be harder due to the fact complex numbers are included which I really need to do more revision into as I do not understand them that well!
Biology
In Biology Cell and Molecular as well, we've been set a paper on a PCR Practical we did in class, me and my partners pratical did not successfully work, so didn't most peoples to be fair! but it was familiarising me with the pippette and giving me some much needed pratical lab skills, That lab paper is due in for about the 19th so 2 days before we break up so I have a fair amount of time too write it, although I don't like leaving things till last minute so i'll probably start tomorrow. As well as that I need to organise my 6 minute presentation to a small group on the Golgi Appratus luckily it is not assessed but i'd imagien we'd get into alot of trouble if we didn't put our all into it!

In Introduction to Human Physiology, we've been set no work so far really it's just been hard lectures which i really need to put more revision into as there is so much content in that module!

Going Home

 Home Life

So far I've been home twice in the month and a half period I have been at university, it seems too me it is becoming evidently clear that all the people I considered friends while in Burton, are now slowly growing apart. Which to be fair is not at all that suprising as prolonged periods apart and everyone is now busy after sixth form with their jobs or university life.
Of course there will always be online interactions over skype and the occasional text but I suppose it's not as close. I'm sure at christmas though there will be alot more interaction time.

After the first two weeks at Keele I went home, where we all decided too come home from our universities too go to a local pub and meet with one and other, which was a nice way too catch up, a month after that i came home again with my friends at university deciding not too come home and lead their lifes, I went out with a different set of friends too the burton nightclubs which was nice too catch up with different friends but there is still the feeling that we are all growing apart

Assessment

So far in Biology we've been set no work, no homework or anything that could be moderated. It's just been lectures refreshing us from A level, then practicals on the lectures we've had which is a nice technique too help us learn the Biology. At the end of each Lab Class we have questions on the experiment which we can hand too the lecturer too tell us ways we could improve our answers.
In Maths I've had one class test, one Assignment and have been set another assignment that's due in for next week. These tests and assignments count towards 40% of the module while the other 60% will be decided by class tests in the Janurary which i'm fearing!, as the content is pretty harder than A Level which means I will have too revise harder!, The bad thing about the Biology side is that I've not seen much example questions that could come up on the Janurary test.

Halloween



Our whole Block decided too go as zombies too the Haloween event at the student union where a band called Theme Park (Amazingg) was playing and after that a seperate DJ played for the rest of the night, my costume is in the picture below:

As you can see my facepaint went prettttty wrong, I decided too go as a trangender zombie, what you cannot see in that picture is I'm wearing tights with a suit, and torn shirt as I thought I may as well add a bit of variety too the costume, It was a pretty fun night and everyone looked awesome, there were even some people in the student union on stilts!

LacrosseThere was a tourtament last week called a freshers tourtament which was pretty fun as everyone had the same level of talent really there were no very good people playing, I played in all 7 games without getting subbed off which is a pretty good achievement we played birmingham city uni, Nottingham trent uni, coventry uni, warwick uni & loughbrough uni, some of these unis at both first and second teams as Lacrosse was more popular in other unis compared too ours, we placed forth which is a pretty good achievement and we had loads of fun while playing in the tourtament but were so tired on the way back!.


Current Situation


At this moment in time i'm currently watching batman, the dark knight, while looking puzzled at this assignment that I'm trying too make some good progress with, my first assignment went pretty poorly so i'm going to put my all into this one too ensure I get the result a actually want!.

Adapting to University

Hey Guys sorry about the lack of activity it's just I've just been really busy with social life and education mixed, at the beginning they talked about balance of studying and social life and it's just dawning on me how important that is going to become

Mathematics

Now this is going reasonably OK, I feel like what i hear in lectures I get it breifly but most of the time i'm just taking down notes to review later in the day so i can actually fully understand what is said!, as well as lectures Maths consists of 2 'Problems classes' where a lecturer will go over the problems we have heard in the lectures with example with a small group (about 13) students,  So far we had one practise test on the first week so we could see how much we would need to revise from A Level, I achieved 11/20 which is OK I suppose motivated me to revise more of my past A level but really from the lecturers i've had so far i've not really needed too revise from A Level.
We have had one class test as well that counts towards 10%  of the first year, I achieved abvout 60% in that and as I needed 40% I think that is a pretty good achievement.
So far there are two modules in the semester i'm in now for maths the cleverly named: Algrebra 1 and Calculus 1, Algebra oddly enough seems to be more about how to write down the obvious and seems more like English at the moment! and Calculus is pretty much just a similar extension to A Level

Human Biology

At the moment i'm finding this verrry interesting, it's similar too A level work in the "Cell and Molecular Biology" module I'm doing in this semester, we have lectures about the organelles of the cells, and then have a about 2-3 lab session to go over what we learnt in our lectures with a pratical, such as  observing the organelles we learnt through a microscope which is actually pretty interesting. The other module I'm doing this semester is entitled "Introduction to human physiology" Which is again enjoyable at the moment what we are doing in that module in neureoscience which is interesting we actually went to the medical school the other day and looked at some interesting stuff (Which can't be explained due to laws and me not wanting to get into trouble) :)

Original Questions

When I first started this blog I listed my main worries I will now answer each of them to tell you what uni is like compared to my worries: 

Will I be able to make friends at university?- Yes. there will be loads of ways to meet new people your halls of resisdence will pretty much become your second family, you'll meet people on the course who you can relate too as you are studying the same subject and of course socities which I would say is the best way to meet new people fast.
 Will the course be too hard for me?- No. First year is pretty much just a small extension from A Level so the Second and third years tell me it's just a year too make as much mistakes as you want and enjoy yourself!, I do of course still revise but there is nothing that I find so hard I cannot do and at the same time I do manage to balance out my social life
Will I be able to cook myself meals? - What I'm eating at the moment is just literally loads of fried food, such as fried chips, bacon, sausage and the occasional pizza all fast food that fair enough is easy to live on but I have a feeling I should probably improve my diet so in the near future I'll be looking onto how to improve myself
Will I be able to keep track of my finances?- this is difficult I am a frivilous spender I will spend alot of money on things I want, most people I'm sure have control but at the moment I have not kept in good control of my finances mainly due to a massive chunk took out in the first accomodation payment leaving me about £800 for the 3 months then there is lacrosse which so far has cost me about £300 in membership, insurance and kit, (I predict more as i still need to get my own stick!), but I do have a large overdraft thanks to Santander and I'm not that worried
Will I lose contact with my friends?- Well about 2 weeks ago I went back to Burton for the first time and met up with my friends, all the people who went university all came back to burton for that weekend which was nice but obviously there  isn't as frequent socilisation as everyone is normally busy but when we do meet up it's very nice!

Current Situation

At the moment I've got back from newcastle with some of my block mates, we all went to newcastle to buy a Halloween costume and we purchased a white shirt (to tear up), fake blood, white face paint and tights, so we've decided to go as transgender zombie

I am also recovering from a bad hang over, I played a game with the Lacrosse society called pub golf, where we got tied to a member of the girls lacrosse team (couldn't unbind for any reason other than toilet) had to go to the bars around campus and down about 2 pints at each in the amount of gulps taken recorded on a sheet so least score wins!, as you can guess it did not end well as it just ended in a bunch of drunk people

Now at the moment I'm currently listening to The Fray and will probably go upstairs to the kitchen soon to talk to my block mates or either just get some rest! or in an unlikely circumstance revise!. Thanks for reading guys, I will post again not every week but I'll post when I have interesting things to say.