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Do you need to brush up on your maths skills?

Perhaps you’ve finished your GCSEs, A levels or even university and have managed to get through your formal maths studies. You probably want to just move on and never look back. After all, who needs maths after secondary school?

First off, you’ll probably use maths a lot more in your ‘real life’ than you think. Organising your finances throughout your life is an obvious example of when you’ll use maths. What about leaving a tip in a restaurant? Or working out whether you’re actually saving any money on that ‘deal’ at the supermarket (sidenote: often times, a 2-for-set-price deal isn’t actually saving you any money!). So maths skills are going to be important and helpful in your future.

Additionally, a lot of jobs or higher education programmes may ask for you to have a certain level of numeracy skills. If you don’t feel confident about these skills, you may think that you shouldn’t bother applying for these opportunities, or that you can get by based on all of your other skills. But if a job asks you to have a certain level of numeracy, it’s probably a good idea to try to meet that to be sure that you can carry out the job requirements efficiently.

Don’t despair if you’re a little lacking in this department. There are ways that you can upgrade your numeracy skills to ensure that you’re ready for those opportunities. For example, LearnDirect offers maths programmes online. You can talk to someone from the company to find out what level and programme is most appropriate for you based on your needs and existing skills.

Checking out the National Careers Service website can also give you lots of great information about classes in your area. You can search by subject (maths, or if there’s something else want to brush up on), and postcode. You can also filter the classes depending on whether you want to learn in a classroom, online or by distance education. While some classes are free, others may not be. But the National Careers Service can talk to you about whether you’d be eligible to have to government sort out the costs for you.

Another option is to check in with your local public library. Some libraries will have numeracy support programmes where volunteers will come in once a week or so to work one-on-one with learners. If your nearest library doesn’t have such a programme, it’s likely that they can help put you in touch with an organisation that does. This is a great opportunity as tutors can focus on your weaknesses in a no-pressure environment.

So don’t feel like you’re stuck with the numeracy skills that you’ve got and it’s game over. If you want to upgrade for the sake of getting a good job or getting into higher education, there are lots of programmes available to help support you.

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Are you ready for the UCAS October 15th deadline?

The first round of UCAS application deadlines is coming up in less than a week, so if you’re considering applying for medicine, dentistry, veterinary sciences, Oxford or Cambridge then this blog post is for you. Hopefully you’ve already considered where you want to go to university and what programme you want to take and whether you fit into this category or not. If you haven’t yet decided and are still considering whether one of these is the right choice for you, it’s time to make that decision now! Talk to your parents, your teachers and/or a good friend. Look at the course outlines. If you know anyone on a similar course or at Oxbridge, ask them about it. And think about what you really want to do. If it makes you feel all panicky and like you want to crawl into a cave away from it all, then just maybe it’s not the right choice for you. If it makes you feel excited and motivated, then make sure you have your application under way.

A big, important part of the UCAS application process is the personal statement. You can probably get the rest of the application together fairly quickly, although references can take a bit longer as you’re waiting on someone else, so make sure you get those together ASAP! If you have someone who you think would give you a good reference but doesn’t respond to emails or phone calls for weeks or months, consider getting someone else.

In spite of the fear that UCAS personal statements inspire in people, it is possible to get a great one put together in just a couple of days. Look at the course outlines and think about what they’re looking for in prospective students. Make a list of previous experiences you have (educational, work and extracurricular) and what skills you developed from each of these. Consider your motivation for doing the programme. Then break these into paragraphs and start writing. Start with motivation, your previous educational experience, previous work experience and then extracurricular activities. You want to write about what how each of these experiences has helped you develop into the capable, ready-for-university person that you are now. In doing this you’re demonstrating to the admissions teams that you have thought about what is going to be asked of you in the programme and how you are able to meet those requirements. Lastly, be sure to check out last month’s blog post on UCAS personal statement opening lines to avoid. If you’ve added one of these in already, delete it and find a new line.

If you get started now, you should be able to have your UCAS personal statement ready in few days, giving you enough time to get your parents or a teacher to check it over for you. So if you’re considering a programme where the UCAS deadline is next week, you can get an application done in time, but you should get started now!

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Developing Time Management Skills

One of the key skills you should think about whether you’re studying GCSEs, A levels or have started university is that of time management. This is something that a lot of job listings ask for in their skill requirements, and something you’re probably picking up along the way whether you realise it or not. That being said, it can be really helpful to think about what you know about your own time management habits. Considering this early on in the semester is especially beneficial, as you won’t be too overwhelmed with work yet to think about implementing some new strategies.

It’s a great idea to keep a schedule of when assignments are due, when you have meetings etc. This can be done using a calendar, planner, whiteboard or intricate system of post-its. Think about how much information you want to put in this and what format will fit that best, as well as whether you want to plan things out week by week or day by day. There are lots of great printouts that you can find that are designed to help you create this schedule. Using colours and visual elements can help stimulate the brain and make it easier to organise.

When your coursework starts to be assigned, it’s a good idea to give yourself due dates for a first or second draft to be done, or for how many chapters you expect to have revised by a certain point, or how many assigned readings to complete day-by-day. Be realistic with this and really try to stick to it. Use reminders on your phone or computer to keep you on track. Giving yourself varying due dates for drafts will really help when you have three assignments due on the same day. But don’t beat yourself up if you’ve not quite made your own deadlines.

Finally, going to the library for 10 hours doesn’t count if you spend most of that time on Facebook, Buzzfeed or chatting with friends. Consider improving your time management by using a pomodoro technique to work for short bursts with short breaks every 30 minutes or so. MyTomatoes (http://mytomatoes.com/) is great for this because it times your work and breaks for you (make sure you’re using headphones if you’re at the library), and allows you to keep track of what you did during each work session. You can also use a programme like Rescue Time (https://www.rescuetime.com/), which will tell you how you’re spending your time over the course of a week or month. Maybe you know you spend too much time on Buzzfeed, but hadn’t realised quite how much time you spend checking football stats. Once you know where and how you’re losing time, you can figure out ways to work more efficiently.

There is no right or wrong way to manage your time, but there’s a good chance that you can improve on how you currently do this, which will allow you to confidently put time management on your CV as a key skill. So try out some new techniques, but remember you don’t need to try every single one – it’s all about what you think will work for you. After all, you don’t want to waste even more time creating 30 different calendars in different colours and for different time periods. That’s just bad time management.

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Making the most of careers fair opportunities

If you’re nearing the end of your university career, or just want to know a bit more about what sort of jobs or internships are available for a bit further down the line or even the summer, a careers fair might be a good event to consider attending. Many universities host their own careers fair at least once a year – it will likely be well promoted but you can always ask at student services or your careers advice centre to get some more information and find out how to sign up. This is a great opportunity for you because the company representatives will be there to talk about jobs that are available for graduates. So how can you prepare for the next careers fair?

There will probably be too many companies for you to talk to everyone, and doing so will probably put you into information overload anyway. This is why it’s important to do a bit of research before the fair. Check out which companies have registered to attend, think about who you’d be interested in working for and focus on talking to representatives from those companies. It’s a great idea to check out their company profiles online so you can demonstrate that you’ve taken the time to think about why you’re interested in working for them.

Dress appropriately. Although this isn’t a job interview, you are trying to make a good impression on potential employers, and you want them to see that you’re taking this opportunity seriously. So put on whatever you’ve got that puts across a professional image.

Take a few copies of your CV. You’ll be there to find out about potential job opportunities which you’ll then have to apply for online, so you may not need this. But it’s not a bad idea to have this on hand to pass as some companies will be accepting these on the day, and you might want to make sure that a particular representative remembers you.

Show interest in the companies that are at the careers fair. You can do this by asking questions about the company’s operations, day-to-day duties involved with the job you’re going to apply for or what other departments you’d be working with. But don’t ask questions about how much you’d be paid, how much holiday time you get or what job perks exist. They’ll want to know that you’re interested in the company rather than your pay check.

Even if you’re a bit unsure about what you want to do after university or if you’ve got a while to go, the careers fair is a great way to find out about different job prospects. So sign up, dress up and head over to the next careers fair at your university.

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Here’s a selection of great study apps

As the year starts to get underway, it may be time to start thinking seriously about coursework and study techniques. There are a whole host of study apps and software that are available to help you make the best use of your time. Today we’ll highlight a couple study apps and software which you may want to make use of. Given the different types of devices that you may be using, we won’t recommend specific ones, but you can easily find out more information online.

Mind mapping software

We’re not going to talk about any specific mind mapping software, but will highlight a few of the reasons to make use of this. Mind maps are useful for organising your thoughts and drawing connections. You start with a main idea or topic and draw branches which connect to other related ideas. The use of key words, colours and pictures to create a visual representation of your ideas, connect together. They can be especially beneficial for anyone who struggles to write essays or presentations that flow naturally with ideas that build upon each other. They can also be great for organising the main points that you need to know for an exam.

While you can always draw your own mind map by hand, many universities have professional mind mapping software installed on university computers. This is great to use because you can easily make changes and move ideas around, highlighting the connections between different branches without having to start all over. There are lots of videos on YouTube that demonstrate how you can use these programmes and why they’re useful. Check with your department or library if you’re unsure what software you may have access to.

Flashcards

Again, there are a number of apps which are available, where you can quickly and easily create your own flashcards. By doing this on your phone, you can test yourself whenever you have a few minutes, whether you’re on the bus, waiting to meet a friend or waiting for a lecture to start. These are especially great for learning languages or ensuring that you know important vocabulary for your field of study. Some apps will track how well you’re doing, so you can easily focus on the ideas where you need to improve. Flashcard+, Android Flash Cards and Study Blue are just a couple of ones out there, but there are many more.

There are a huge number of study related apps on the market, many of which are free. Software probably won’t be free, but many universities, colleges and schools purchase different programmes for students to make use of, so it’s a good idea to check what might be available. Figuring out good study techniques will help you in your academic career, but will also help you develop skills which will be of use when you’re done studying as well.

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Plagiarism and how to avoid it

Whether you’re doing A levels, have just started university or have been there for a while already, you’ve may well have heard about plagiarism. But what is plagiarism? It involves copying someone else’s work or ideas and using them in your own work. Penalties for plagiarism can be severe, such as being expelled from your program, put on probation or automatically failing a module. This may sound quite intimidating, and may make you worry that you’re going to get caught for something you haven’t even done.

Detecting plagiarism is the reason that much of your coursework has to be turned in using Turnitin. This is a computer programme which compares your submission with millions of articles, essays and websites and highlights bits of your text that appear elsewhere. When you submit to Turnitin, you’ll get a percentage score back about how much of your work has appeared elsewhere. Don’t worry if it’s more than 0% (it definitely will be) – common phrases, theory names and even journal article titles from your reference list will probably get picked up. This doesn’t mean that you’ve committed plagiarism. But what can you do to make sure that you’re not plagiarising in your work?

First off, don’t just copy text from a journal article, newspaper, book, the Internet, etc. However, it is okay to use short quotes in your work, although it’s good not to rely on this too much. When you do this, be sure to follow whichever referencing style your department uses to let the marker know where you took that quote from. It’s likely that your library will have an online guide to help you use the referencing style correctly, and you can also talk to your librarian to make sure you’re doing this properly.

So what about when you’re not actually quoting from another source in your work. If you’re taking statistics, theories or other ideas from another author and including these in your work, you need to acknowledge where these came from, again using the correct referencing style. It’s a good idea to not rely too heavily on quotations, and to explain these ideas in your own words. Changing a couple of words, or even changing each word for a synonym is not enough, and may be considered plagiarism.

To make sure that you are indeed using your own words and not inadvertently copying what someone else has written, it’s a good idea to close the original book and take a few minutes to think over the main points. Then write this down as you’d explain it to someone else. You’ll probably need to rewrite it again when you’re actually writing the essay. While this may seem like it will take a long time, this process will help you to not only avoid plagiarising the ideas, but also to better understand what authors are saying so that you can then relate that to what other authors are saying.

There are serious repercussions if you do decide to plagiarise in your work, but it’s unlikely to happen accidentally. So keep in mind that it’s fine to use what others have written before you (that’s why it’s there), but you need to acknowledge that you’re using someone else’s ideas! After all, you wouldn’t want anyone using your ideas without giving you credit.

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Avoiding a mid-week slump during freshers’ week

Freshers’ week is upon us, and for many people this is the first time that they’ll be living away from home. It’s also a period of meeting new people, finding your way around a new campus and city and beginning new classes. Basically it’s a big transition, and this can be really exhausting! So what are some ways to avoid a slump this week so that you can stay energised and ready to take on all that your new university has to offer? Here are a few simple tips to practice during freshers’ week and beyond that will keep you feeling good.

Get a full night’s sleep whenever you can. Obviously there are a lot of activities and parties to go to during freshers’ week. We’re not saying that you should be in bed by 10pm every night, but do try to get a full eight hours of sleep when you can. And take a quick afternoon nap during those other times (note this doesn’t mean sleeping for 4 hours every afternoon). A quick power nap can make sure you’re still bright eyed and bushy tailed to continue with your week. Don’t nap during classes though. Even though it’s the first week, you don’t want to start out your year by falling behind.

Eat some fruit. If you’re living away from home for the first time, you’ve probably not mastered grocery shopping, cooking or how to maintain a balanced diet. Don’t worry too much about this, you will learn. But do have some fruit every day. It doesn’t require any prep and the vitamins will keep you energised and scurvy free so you can get on with enjoying freshers’ week.

Likewise, drink some water. While coffee, beer and alcopops may perk you up for a round of classes or for a club night, they will leave you dehydrated, which will leave you feeling worse for wear, especially as freshers’ week goes on. Alternate your drinks with a glass of water. It will help you get up the next morning ready for another day.

Go for a walk. This is a great way to explore your new area while getting some fresh air and exercise. Go by yourself for a chance to get some peace and quiet, or with some others from your class or hall of residence. It can be a great way to get to know people a bit better, clear your head a bit (freshers’ week can be overwhelming and sometimes you just need to walk away from it for a bit) and feel re-energised.

So have fun but don’t push yourself too much. Remember that you’ve got a long time to see and do everything, so you don’t need to do it all now, but if you try these tips you may be able to do a bit more.

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Making the most of your library: Library resources

In the last post we talked about why attending a library orientation can be good to learn about the physical layout of your university library. Today we’ll talk about what your library has to offer in terms of other resources. Of course, these vary by library and we can’t list them all, but rest assured that your university will have more than enough library resources for you to get through your course!

The most obvious of library resources are the books available. These should be pretty easy to find in general, although not necessarily to find the one you’re looking for. Library cataloguing can be a complex thing, so if you’re having trouble finding a specific book, don’t hesitate to ask the library staff! Remember that books on the same topic will be in the same section of the library, so generally you just need to find that section and you can browse around for loads more titles. More and more e-books are also becoming available, which you can “borrow” by logging onto a computer with an Internet connection.

Library resources will also have printed and electronic copies of academic journals, which are full of shorter articles and are excellent for writing those dreaded essays. Some libraries have a catalogue where you can search for books and articles in the same search bar, but often you’ll have to login to a separate electronic database to find these. You can get an idea of how to do this by attending a library orientation (a lot of libraries will have orientations on doing this specifically), or by talking to your librarian – this is what they’re good at and they’re there to help you, so do talk to them if you’re having trouble or just want to get better at finding materials!

Other library resources will vary between libraries, but can include DVDs (including popular films), laptops or tablets which you can borrow for a few hours at a time, newspapers and magazines, government publications, conference proceedings, reports, previous dissertations or theses and much, much more. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the catalogue but you know it exists, talk to your library staff about how to borrow it from another library. Often an item can be delivered to your library in just a couple of days, so it’s well worth it if you need something. Don’t wait until the last minute though!

Remember that your library and the staff are there to help you in your studies. Making use of the library resources will improve your overall results. So attend a library orientation tour and don’t be afraid to go to the library staff with questions.

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Making the most of your university library: Library orientations

Starting university, or starting back to university after a summer break, can be an overwhelming experience. There are friends to make and societies to join as well as finding your way around and starting your classes. Attending one of the library orientations offered that are offered by most universities is not high on everyone’s list of things to do at this time of year. So why should you do it?

At some point, you’re going to want to use the library, and most likely some of the library resources held in the building, even if it’s just to catch up on Facebook between classes. Attending one of your university’s library orientations (usually these don’t last more than an hour) can give you a good idea of the layout of the building. After all, once the term is started and students are there taking full advantage of silent study areas may not be the best time to start exploring, especially when you need to just get on with doing your work!

This is not to say that libraries are all about being studying, reading and being quiet. Most libraries will have group study areas, where you can do collaborative work with your classmates or even have study breaks with friends while you’re doing your own work. Taking advantage of these areas to revise with friends can be a great idea, and can make studying a little more fun. And if this doesn’t appeal to you, most libraries will also have silent study areas. Depending on your own preferences, this can create a good environment to really buckle down and do some work without being disturbed by others.

Another library resource that a lot of libraries will also have is private study rooms for groups or individuals. Many of these come with plasma screens or projectors, which can be great for practicing presentations. These rooms will likely need to be booked in advance (especially as the term gets underway), which can usually be done through the library catalogue. Again, this is something you’ll find out about during a library orientation tour.

Attending one of your university’s library orientations can also give you an idea of some of the rules of the library as well, like where you’re allowed to eat, opening times (more and more libraries are opening 24 hours, especially during exam periods) and how to take advantage of the IT library resources, like where to find computer terminals and how to print, scan or photocopy.

Of course, library staff will be on hand well after fresher’s week to help with this stuff, so if you can’t make it to the orientation, don’t worry. But getting a head start on finding good study spaces and knowing how to print things before they’re due in an hour could save you a lot of worry when the university term starts and you’re up to your neck in work!

Next time we’ll give you some more tips on using the library – this time on the actual resources and why the librarian is your friend!

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Top UCAS personal statement opening lines to avoid at all costs

If you’re planning on going to university next year, it is more than likely that you are either in the process of trying to put together your UCAS personal statement or trying to force your brain to think about doing so.

In fact, many people find it difficult to get beyond said stage of mental block and actually start turning their ideas into a draft UCAS personal statement. Even when they have plucked up the courage to sit in front of a computer and start typing, on the first few attempts it’s more than likely that the strain of trying to write a zinger of an opening line–or any opening line, in fact–will induce a bout of procrastination and putting off the task of writing the statement, right until the fear of missing their school’s/the official UCAS deadline becomes too intense to put the task off any longer.

If you were hoping for a blog post about great opening lines to UCAS personal statements, we’re unfortunately not going to be able to oblige you. And there’s a good reason for this. With the goal of a personal statement being to convey your personality–the clue is in the name of the thing–a one-size-fits-all approach to this task is impossible.

We can, however, give you two pieces of advice about creating a great UCAS personal statement opening line. The first is to not worry about it at first, and instead focus your efforts on the main substance of the statement. The chances are that this’ll get your creative juices flowing and make the opening line much easier once you come back to it.

The second is to under no circumstances give in to the temptation of resorting to the sorts of clichs that have been blighting the first sentences of UCAS personal statements for years. We’re talking about the ones that seem to be practically begging the admissions officer to stop reading there and then and chuck the statement on the reject pile.

If you do a search online, you’ll find plenty of discussions on what UCAS personal statement openers get people’s goat. But here, in a nutshell, are the main three categories of them:

1: A quotation

At some point an overly influential teacher must have told their students that high-powered academics are inexplicably impressed by random quotations culled from books or the Internet. The ruse somehow caught on, and ever since then, and with virtually no considerations of quality control or appropriate context, students have been shoehorning the first vaguely impressive-sounding quotation they’ve come across into the first sentence of their personal statements. All they are proving, however, is that they know how to type the phrase “quotes about” and the name of their subject into Google.

2: “Ever since…”, “For as long as I can remember…” and so on

While trying to convey your enthusiasm for your subject is all well and good, you really need to find a way of doing it other than just claiming that it is something that has been with you since before you had the intelligence or self-awareness to know a) what the subject was or b) what studying a subject even meant.

3: Anything that already exists on the Internet as the opening line of an example personal statement

It’s not difficult to find model UCAS personal statements posted online. And while many of them are very good, if the opening line they contain is even remotely memorable you can be sure that in any given year at least fifty people will steal it and use it as their own. Admissions officers are fully aware of this, and they like nothing more than to catch out a copycat by typing standout phrases from their personal statements into Google and seeing what hits they get. And when they see that the opener has been lifted from elsewhere, they’re probably not going to be reading the rest of the statement with a particularly open mind.

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