Life in the wide world goes on

Study Abroad
They're many issues you have to consider when thinking to study aboard, I think my main issues are what will my grades be like which I find out by the end of this week and the accomodation for when I come home. I have already signed a contract for a year so I can either find someone to sublet my room to for 6 months which I don't see as being very likely or I could transfer tentants with a guy in my Block.
Difficult things to think about. for study abroad as well I have to complete a 12 page documents half on completing questions about my destination country things like politics and heritage, the other half which I haven't completed yet is a SWOT Analysis which i'm fairly clueless on.

 Biology
Right now the modules are really interesting in Human we are learning about the blood and the Immune system which I find very interesting!, I did a pratical yesterday where we had to prick our fingers and examine the blood under a microscope which was interesting as we could examiine each of the type of cells one we administered a stain. In Genetics we're learning all about how every trait is inherited we are conducting an experiment on the Drosophila melanogaster (Fruit Fly), where we use genetically altered flys combined with various mutated ones mate them and see what the outcome is.  I'm loving the Biology modules at this point I am finding them ever so more interesting then last semester.

Events

Keele student union always has events on, last wednesday I was attending a mixed Disney social (Dress up as a disney character) with womens and mens lacrosse, on valentines day I went to a traffic light party and yesterday I went to the night where it was a pound a pint but unlike my block mates I only went to play Pool and after that went home prettty early, I had a 9am lecture the next day, we also had a fire drill at 5am today interupting my sleep further so I'm certainly not the most awake person in the world right now.

Burton

Last weekend I went back to burton for my sisters Birthday which was Niice, we had a take away on the friday, then on the saturday I went to the millhouse with a group of friends from my secondary school and later on went into town with friends from sixth form and on the sunday I believe I went town with my 13 year old brother. I like the fact that even though time passes between each time I see my friends we are all still pretty close, we certainly haven't losst as much contact as I thought we would had.

Thanks for reading I'll try to post more periodically I hope i will be posting next week, hope you enjoyed it! 

Exams and Being back

Exam revison
I had 4 different exams, 2 exams from Human Biology: Cell and molecular biology and introduction to human physiology. 2 from Mathematics Calculus I and Algebra I.

First came Algebra I, I thought this would be the hardest exam so I overly revised for that and that turned out very nicely suprisingly I could answer every single question, 60% of my mark came out of this (40% from in class tests and assignments).

Second came Cell and Molecular Biology, this was all multiple choice but suprisingly still very hard unlike A Level where the multiple choice questions were pretty obvious. I think I revised enough for this but I think i slightly underestimated it as I only used the slides where I had forgot about the module handbook which contained all the Praticals. This was 75% of the mark (25% from a scientific paper).

Third came Calculus I, this was suprisingly hard I thought the majority of it would be A Level I still revised the hell out of it but they were about 2 questions I was unsure about, this was like algebra: 
60% of my mark came out of this (40% from in class tests and assignments).

Lastly today was Introduction to human physiology, 50% of the exam mark was through an Essay, I chose to do one on the GI System i did 4 pages (Hopefully enough!), and the other 50% was multichoice. The exam was 75% of the mark and the other 25% was from an Assessed Pratical.

Being Back

After the first semester I think I have learnt some pretty valuable lessons which I could hhave only learnt from experience, I have started writing up everyone of the Biology presentations at the end of every week in order for me to have a running knowledge of the content as well as this for Maths i'm going to rewrite the examples so i can master the method of everything i've learnt so far. Semester 1 was quite expensive so I've learnt not to go out on every instance to spend money and more budget myself with food and everything. So far i've been to 3 out of the 5 events I've had an oppurtunity to go to and have managed to save myself money by restraining myself :).

New Modules

 I have 5 new modules!, I have one for study abroad and I managed to get my first choice university which I am extremely happy about as it was quite a popular choice Guelph!. I have 2 new modules for Biology both of which seem very interesting compared to last years which I found the content reasonably dull, This semester we are learning more about genetics related to disease and get a conduct experiments on fruit flys. In my other module I get to learn about the Lungs, Heart and Blood which is going to be very interesting and cannot wait for that to progress throughout the year. 

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!