Sunday, 16 March 2014

Varsity & Deadlines

I have a Mathematics test on what we've learnt recently on Thursday, that needs to be revised for pretty soon, I may start after this Article. Currently tired from training today and going gym!.

In about 2 weeks as well, I have a Lab Report due in which is worth 25% of the module, I need to start that very soon as well so i can be happy with it!. That's going to require alot of research i may go library a few times to get a load of sources and concentrate without distractions around!.

I also have a group presentation due in at the end of the holidays, which means we have to work on doing it before the holidays, that's going to require doing loads of extra work as well!, so i've got a few busy days ahead.

In other news I've been aiming to get onto the varsity team, (Varsity is a big event in terms of sport, Keele vs Staffs. Rivals. Each sport plays the university the one with the most wins, wins varsity. Biggest game of the year and hopefully with some luck i'll be in the squad. I just need to attend every training and i should be fine!, so i've postponed going home for the weekend. and with all that i need to keep up to deadlines!.

So what else have I been up to?

I've volunteered to be a mentor, my mentor was brilliant so thought i would volunteer for the programme to help other people. I've completed the modules i'm going to take at Guelph. Submitted an assignment for maths. Currently watching Sherlock. Went out on Friday night at the union. In Biology we've been continued learning about inheritance and in Human we're learning about the hearts relation to the Central Nervous System.

I have 2-3 weeks left, Month holiday and then 2 weeks more of learning, after that it's the Exam Period which will determine if i get into next year and if I will end up studying abroad.

Saturday, 8 March 2014

Going so fast!

Semester 2 is going so fast!, it's scary to think that i'm already half way through it. I'm just reflecting on my experiences here while being at university and it's amazing what I've learnt.

I think socially I am a better person, I am more confident, I enjoy myself much more and university has opened up much more oppurtunities for me to develop my skills in the job world.

Sports

Recently I've been getting much more times getting chosen for the first team of Lacrosse, although Study Abroad lectures often conflict with the game time so I cannot go, which is annoying but I suppose it's a nescary sacrifice!.

I've been going gym much more often and am beginning to enjoy it, I always thought it was superfacial but there really is a good feeling going with friends to lift weights and you get a feeling of self betterment

Next month i'm entering the Born Survivor which is a 10km run for Cystic Fibrosis, that probably will be hard as i'm not much of a long distance runner!, so I may get training myself up for that soon!.

Academics

My maths assignments are producing high marks, my Human Biology course i'm doing well in. It's just the Genetics and Evolution module I think I am struggling most in at the moment and there is another examination for that this thursday which I'm not looking forward for! But I will be revising loads for it. I may hold off going out until thursday to make sure I'm in shape for it!.

In Human Biology in my lab this week we got to perform a blood test to determine blood types which was interesting and we also performed a urinalysis.

My study abroad module I am finding a bit easy and boring in lectures but I am enjoying researching the Canadian culture and progressing through my application. I have chosen my modules for Mathematics and Human Biology at Guelph now. (Second year we get optional modules! :D, so I feel like i'm making my degree) I am taking Applied Differential Equations & Linear Algebra for Mathematics and for Human Biology I'll be taking Population Genetics and a Neuroscience module, Which I had to consult my subject tutors about and get them to approve it, I've enjoyed the process as it's helped me learn more about my next modules and helped me look more at the Canadian education system.

So there will be plenty to look forward to in the future!

Thanks for reading!, I'll upload another one next week.

Saturday, 1 March 2014

Pressure

Academics
I don't know what much too tell you, In Maths i'm learning about vectors and 
series tests. In biology i'm learning about inheitance and immunology, I do love immunology it's so interesting but sadly it's coming to the end and we're looking at the anatomy of the biliary system. Alot of terms to learn for that!. 
In Biology we had an exam that was a small percentage of our overall mark I got a mediocre 8/15 which is still a pass so i suppose I cannot complain. I found the test had little biology in and more like your ability to comprehend long questions. In my latest maths assignment I got 88% which is outstanding for me! and counts for a larger percentage of my overall degree. At the end of the day as long as i get higher than 60% at the end i'll be over the moon!.

I'm a student academic representative for my course and had a meeting this week, i'm enjoying volunteering for this i feel like i'm making a difference to my course and also get to communicate to the friendly admin staff who are so helpful!.

Recreation
I've been having a nice sobeur week and concentrating on my studies, I played for the first team of lacrosse and Leeds Met we sadly lost but the journey and the experience was great!. 
I'm home this weekend due to my dads birthday, I went ice skating for the first time with my brother and did suprisingly well, I want to learn skating fr when i go canada as Guelph my international university has a ice rink so figured i may need to learn it there.

Next week
Next week is a busy week, loads of lacrosse trainings, people wanting me to go out 3 times next week, another biology exam and maths assignments I need to control all that and not let my education pay for it as much as possible. The skill of balance is a skill i need to obtain!.

Thanks for reading i'll post again next week hopefully!! 

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

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! 

Saturday, 1 February 2014

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. 

Monday, 6 January 2014

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!

Thursday, 19 December 2013

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.