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Single-honours versus dual-honours degrees

When it comes to choosing a subject to study at university, a lot of students find themselves torn between at least a couple of different subjects. As if picking a shortlist of unis to apply to wasn’t hard enough, they also need to then narrow down the subject they want to study–something that can be difficult due to the fact that you can’t really get a true sense of what studying a subject at university level is like until you’re there–which in turn can have implications on which university to apply to.

There is, however, a potential way out of this conundrum for those who have whittled their potential subjects down to just two: the dual- (or joint-) honours degree. As their name implies, these degrees combine two subjects under a single degree, with the balance between the two usually being roughly a fifty-fifty split.

It’s a tempting option for anyone who doesn’t want to restrict themselves to just one subject. Going down this route does, however, have certain implications that are important to be aware of. We say this not as a warning against doing a dual-honours degree, but rather so you can be sure it’s right for you and also make sure that if you do choose to do one you take full advantage of the intellectual and career potential of combining two subjects together.

The crux of the dilemma of deciding between a single- and a dual-honours degree comes down to the age-old battle between depth and breadth. If you do a single-honours degree, you’ll be immersed entirely in one subject, coming away at graduation with (theoretically at least) a 50 per cent more extensive knowledge of it than your dual-honours peers. In many walks of life this can be crucial, with that 50 per cent extra amounting to subject knowledge and skills that recruiters in that field are looking for. In some cases, such as certain fields of law or engineering, a single-honours degree will be more likely to provide you with exemption from certain professional examinations or grant you access to certain professional bodies than a dual-honours degree.

On the other hand, for other walks of the diversity of subjects offered by a dual-honours degree opens more doors. Doing a dual-honours degree in which one of the subjects is a modern language is a perfect example of this. Not only do you gain expertise in one field, but you also gain fluency in a foreign language, making you eminently more employable in the process. Combining business studies with Chinese, for example, makes you an individual who’ll be highly sought after by any company that does business in China.

Ultimately, then, whether or not a dual-honours degree is a good idea depends at least in part on what would best suit your career hopes. This is less of an issue if you plan on studying non-vocational subjects, as your motivations for studying are more intellectual than professional, though even here the chance to do a dual-honours degree will potentially grant you the opportunity of gaining a greater range of transferrable skills.

Even if in spite of your best efforts you can’t make a final decision between a single- and a dual-honours degree, it’s worth bearing in mind that, so long as you attend a university with a flexible degree structure, you might not have to make the choice until later on. Many universities are happy for students to take courses in more than one subject during their first year, and then switch from single- to dual-honours (or vice versa) depending on how they get on during their initial experiences of studying their different subjects at university.

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Laying the foundations for a great #UCAS #personalstatement

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve put up a couple of posts here on our blog offering you pointers about things to be on the lookout for when visiting a university open day and the different types of university and what sort of people they tend to suit. All this is part of our greater plan to make sure that those of y’all who are applying to university in the next academic year will go into the task fully prepared once September rolls round.

However, moseying around university buildings and thinking about whether you’d like to study in a big city or on a rural campus is far from the only thing you need to do before you’ll be ready to apply for university.

There’s the small matter of deciding on what course or courses to apply for, though that’s something we’ll be leaving for another day. But there’s also the issue of making sure you’re ready to fire out an application that shows what a capable, enthusiastic and multipurpose individual you are.

You’ve guessed it, we’re talking about how to be ready to wow your university suitors with a personal statement that screams knowhow, skills and a can-do attitude. In about six months or so you’ll be required to write six hundred words (give or take) that talk not only about why you’re interested in the course you’ve applied for, but also what other personal qualities and interests you have.

It might seem like this is a problem to worry about when the time comes, but the fact is that if you can’t think of enough things you’d talk about to sell yourself right now, if you do nothing the chances are you’ll also be struggling to think of things to say. So the coming months are your chance to get some experiences under your belt that’ll arm you with material for when the time comes to write that statement.

Now, some people will argue that there’s no point in taking measures such as these. After all, they say, what’s the point of doing charity work if you’re applying to do business studies? The two are surely unrelated. Well, superficially that might seem to be the case, but really it’s an argument that misses the point about what a personal statement is about.

You see, with the exception of certain courses such as medicine, the exact activities that you do are not so much the important part; it’s the ability to articulately reflect on what you’ve learnt from them that those admissions tutors are looking for, along with a demonstration that you have a curiosity for the world around you that makes you put effort into things beyond the absolute minimum of what’s expected from you at school.

So put your skepticism on hold and start getting involved with some extracurricular activities. It doesn’t have to be anything that involves hours and hours of your time, and it needn’t be anything expensive. Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started:

– Get involved with a fundraising initiative for a local charity

– Do a short-term voluntary placement that involves looking after people

– Take up a new hobby or learn a new skill outside of school or college

– Arrange a summer work placement

– Start reading books and magazines or journals related to the subject that you want to study (because making up that you read stuff for the purposes of a personal statement is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and one that admissions tutors can see right through!) or attend some public lectures or talks related to the subject

In a later blog post we’ll discuss how to turn these little bursts of effort into persuasive personal statement paragraphs. But for now, just enjoy getting out there and helping people, earning some money or learning something new!

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#Careers #ideas: #chef

Like a good number of walks of life, television–and in particular the many reality TV shows on this profession–has skewed people’s perceptions of what being a chef involves. If we based our thoughts about this career just on what we saw on the box, we’d think that it was all about either all-powerful celebrities who produce only ornate and exquisite dishes, or their underlings doing much the same thing only while being shouted at and criticized by said celebrity chefs in the kitchen of one of their fancy eateries.

But the reality is that the career of chef covers a much broader range of working environments and types of food. It’s not just about luxury dining; chefs are also found in places like prisons, hospitals and army barracks, not to mention the whole gamut of restaurants that you find in cities, towns and villages, from country pubs to hip sushi joints.

But although there are hundreds and hundreds of different workplaces in which a chef can operate, they all have a couple of things in common. Firstly, virtually all professional cooking environments are hectic–lots of different dishes need to be prepared at the same time and on time, and a large team needs to work together effectively–and therefore no place for people who don’t thrive under pressure. Secondly, there is a strict hierarchy in any kitchen, whether it’s a pub or a triple Michelin-starred one, and newbies to the profession almost always start off at the bottom, working their way up through the various levels such as kitchen assistant, sous chef, commis chef and chef de partie.

This progression happens because this is very much a career path that is based around learning the ropes and training on the job. You don’t just walk into a top restaurant and become a chef, even if you’ve been fortunate enough to attend an elite cookery school. Because of things being done this way, and also because of the fact that kitchen teams have to form very tight working relationships, progression is based to a large degree on the effort you put in and your ability to show commitment and graft. This goes in particular for when you try to get a first position, with many kitchen staff being taken on strictly on a trial basis. If you don’t pull your weight, you’re out; if you create a good impression and the head chef takes a shine to you, you could go far.

In spite of the sink-or-swim dimensions of working towards being a chef, however, it is still a career for which proper training is highly advantageous, and some respects vital. Although it’s more likely you’ll learn the key culinary skills on the job, vitally important areas such as hygiene and workplace safety are done through taking qualifications in them.

Working in this sector is ideal for those who both love working creatively through applying technical skills and also want to combine their training with working. As a result it is unsurprising that the apprenticeship route is often the way in which people get a start in this career, with there being both intermediate- and advanced-level apprenticeship opportunities for food preparation positions. Larger companies often also have their own training schemes, where those with no experience in the sector can get trained and work their way up through the ranks. However, there are also plenty of opportunities to be had in independent and smaller businesses by getting directly in touch with the management and–this is the crucial part–demonstrating that you’re serious and committed to working hard and learning quickly.

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#Gapyear #adventures in #Europe

So, you’ve made up your mind: your upcoming gap year is going to be the time when you set out and see the world. You’re going to expand your horizons, get a new perspective, embrace new cultures, meet travel buddies who turn into lifelong friends, and so on and so forth.

In fulfilling all these ideals, in practical terms your gap-year travels will probably take the practical form of doing things like visiting cities that are global cultural hotspots; taking in breath-taking architecture, ancient and modern alike, including exquisitely beautiful places of ancient worship; trekking through stunning, rugged natural expanses; sampling exotic cuisine; and discovering the way of life of a rainbow of fascinating peoples and societies.

Now, you could well be thinking that to do all this, your itinerary will probably be along the lines of flying out to Bangkok, before touring around the rest of Thailand and then Cambodia and Vietnam, before perhaps making the hop over to Australia and then New Zealand. Or perhaps you were thinking you’d start out in Buenos Aires, before taking in the great cities of South America and experiencing windswept Patagonia or humid Amazonia.

Well, you might have been thinking that. But what we were thinking was a little different. You see, we reckon that you could scratch all of those same gap-year itches–the friendships, the culture, the sights, the partying–with the first step of your itinerary being no more than a quick pootle across the English Channel.

That’s right, we think that before you decided to go to the other side of the world you should at least consider the majesty, splendour and hedonism on offer right on your doorstep, in Europe.

You want to see astonishing places of worship? Then forget Angkor Wat and go and have a look at the Sagrada Familia, or the Alhambra, or Vatican City. Raucous nights out? Then give Sydney a miss and instead take your pick from Prague, Amsterdam or Madrid. Or is it places that let you live and breathe mankind’s dramatic past that you’re looking for? Then from Pompeii to the Berlin Wall, Europe’s got the whole sweep of human history covered.

When the idea of going no further than Europe is put to British gapistas, their response is often along the lines of “yeah, but why would I go somewhere so close to home?”. It’s funny how something arbitrary like distance affects whether we see something as worth visiting or not. Ask a young American or Australian or Argentinean who’s keen to travel which places they’d most love to visit, and you wouldn’t be surprised to hear them tell you that it’s Europe that they’re looking to jet off to.

And just because something is close to you doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re more likely to go and see it. Think about the tourist attractions within a few dozen miles of where you live, or all the must-see things in other British cities. How many of them have you visited? Probably very few. So just because you could theoretically just get on a Ryanair or Easyjet flight to see all that Europe has to offer over the course of your adult life doesn’t mean that you actually will.

Besides, discounting Europe just because you could hop over and see its jewels during bank-holiday weekends to come throughout your adult life entirely misses the point of what a gap year is all about. It’s the whole package of being away from home for an extended period, meeting new people, and experiencing these amazing places with them. That’s not something you can hope to replicate on a mini-break. And with its rich patchwork of cities, sights and sounds, there’s no better place to have this overall experience than in Europe.

On a practical level organizing a gap-year travel sesh in Europe is a doddle, and probably a lot cheaper than the costs of going further afield. European cities are crammed with great-value accommodation aimed at young travellers, which can easily be booked at a moment’s notice through trustworthy websites such as hostelworld.com. And getting around the continent is a breeze as well. If you want to travel by train, just get a great-value travel pass–which will let you use the train networks of thirty different European countries–from InterRail. Or if you prefer the idea of a mode of transport aimed exclusively at young travellers, then Busabout operate a network of hop-on, hop-off coaches throughout Europe for people such as your good self.

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Literature #students: ditch those paperbacks and get some #free #audiobooks!

Today’s post is dedicated to all you literature lovers out there.

Actually, hang on, let’s try that again. Today’s post is dedicated to all you literature students out there.

We’re well aware, you see, that it can sometimes be difficult for people who are studying English literature–whether it’s at GCSE, A Level or at university–to stay in love with your subject. And we’re fully sympathetic with people who have experienced or are currently going through this falling out of love.

The reasons for it are always the same. You love books and stories, but they make you read so damn many of them–and in such a short space of time to boot–that it all gets a bit stifling and repressive. Reading at a leisurely pace in one of your favourite reading spots is great; galloping your way through the final chapters of a another great tome while on the bus to college is not so much fun.

In our many years of experience of listening sympathetically, our head cocked slightly at an angle, as students pour out confessions of where it all went wrong, the books that most often lead to this literary heartbreak are the older ones.

While contemporary authors–with some notable exceptions–tend to write more in a style and tone that we understand and can therefore read more easily, our Victorian or Elizabethan forebears can often seem, shall we say, a little more trying.

In fact, let’s be honest, at times certain writers (we’re looking at you, Dickens) can be an outright ordeal to read. If we had all the time in the world to persevere with their prose it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but the fact is that we also have a million and one other pages of books, lecture notes and websites to pore over as part of our studies.

One of the most popular ways for getting round the reading fatigue generated by the literary greats of eras gone by is to turn to the film or TV adaptations of their works. And given that watching a screen for a couple of hours requires far less time and effort than hours hunched over a book, it’s little wonder.

There has always been a bit of a flaw with this tactic, however. Those pesky directors and producers often cut bits out, or in some cases change things entirely. Unfortunately, if you haven’t read the book version you’re blissfully unaware of these discrepancies until you get lots of nasty feedback from your teacher/lecturer about your coursework or exam.

But we have discovered another answer to this problem that guarantees you won’t fall into this trap while still giving your eyes and brain a rest from reading. Over on the website Librivox lives a community of volunteers who make audiobook versions of literary classics that are out of copyright. The versions are fully unabridged, meaning you won’t miss a single detail of the plot. And, just as importantly, all of the books are completely free!

So if you’re staring at a big stack of paperbacks right now that you need to wade through, why not pop over to their site and get it in audiobook version instead?

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#Careers #ideas: #photographer

After taking a brief diversion into the world of librarianship and information management, our series on careers ideas now turns back towards Mediaville. This time, however, rather than looking at the people who make the words, we’ll be examining the work of the folks who take the pretty pictures that go alongside the text.

That’s right, our career for you to mull over pursuing today is that of the photographer. It’s a profession that’s romanticized and somewhat mystified in equal measure, and often regarded by many as one of those dream jobs that are impossible to get into. Like being an astronaut. Or a puppy farmer.

But should it be placed on this pedestal? Well, a tiny bit yes, but mostly no. For although very few photographers fully live out the idealized version of the profession–getting exclusive access to do portrait shots of rock stars and presidents, or capturing the near-unimaginable beauty of rare orchids in the Amazon–it is a profession which, provided you get the right training and are prepared to be patient in waiting for your break, is a viable career choice. So if you like the idea of becoming a photographer but feel it would be too risky or daunting a career path, read on.

Obviously the first prerequisite for getting into this career is an interest in photography. But by this we don’t just mean that you like taking snaps when on holiday. We’re talking about a much, much deeper interest than that. If you don’t know what apertures or shutter speeds are all about–let alone know how to use them to take a great picture–then you’ll either need to start teaching yourself or forget the whole thing.

Self-teaching through books on photography and regular photo-taking excursions are an essential preparation step for this career, as quite possibly is also joining a photography club, at which you’ll be able to show your work to others for constructive feedback and pick up new techniques.

And once you’ve got some really beautiful, unique shots, it’s time to start creating a portfolio–in fact, two portfolios: one physical and one online–of your own. Because although the majority of photographers have formal training and qualifications, what counts above all in a field like photography is having a great portfolio of work. This is the main thing editors and employers will use when they consider hiring you.

In spite of this, we would recommend you also devoted your educational efforts to the field. Because unless you’re an absolute natural, the training will help your photography come along in leaps and bounds. Photography training comes in all shapes and forms, from the odd evening classes for dabblers, through to BTECs and undergraduate degrees, and even specialist postgraduate courses. While postgraduate studies are perhaps more of a bonus than a necessity, a qualification at least at diploma level is probably advisable. Courses that are approved by the British Institute of Professional Photography or the Association of Photographers are particularly worthwhile; these bodies also offer great resources to their members that provide advice on job openings and freelance opportunities. Another possible avenue to explore is apprenticeship opportunities in photography.

While you’re learning the skills of the photographer’s craft and art, it’s certainly worth taking the time to develop a specialization. This is because the term ‘photographer’ in reality covers a wide range of professions. Just as engineers come in lots of different flavours, from aeronautical to petrochemical, so too do photographers. While some of these are relatively well known, such as press, sports, wedding and wildlife photography, some photographers also occupy rather niche areas such as aircraft.

Once you’ve got some qualifications, a specialism and a cracking portfolio, the exact form your career path will take depends largely on the type of photography you want to do. There are initial employment opportunities at assistant level with established businesses in areas such as wedding, event or studio photography, through which you can potentially work your way up to a position with greater creative responsibility. Working freelance is a route that many photographers take; while it’s easier to do this having learnt the ropes from working in an entry-level position, some brave souls make the jump straight into freelancing.

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We’ve got some great new articles on #gapyears and #careers!

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Which type of #uni is right for you?

In our last blog post we presented a gameplan for people who are going to be attending university open days. Advising you on what to look for and where to think of it, the post was real next-level-thinking stuff. Seriously, check it out if you haven’t done so already.

But after we wrote it a thought occurred to us: what if some of you good people haven’t even decided which university open days you’ll be visiting yet?

Always prepared for every eventuality, even when we’re armed with no more than a keyboard and a stack of university prospectuses, we thought we’d get right on the job of helping you to decide which open days you should be checking out.

We’ll be working on the assumption that you’ll only be visiting open days of places you’d be interested in accepting offers from or at least applying to–we know you’re all busy people who don’t spend your time touring open days out of a misplaced appreciation for student-union architecture.

There are a couple of ways you can decide which universities are worth visiting. There’s of course the matter of which ones offer a course you’re interested in. And then there’s the method of consulting those university league tables that them newspapers pump out once a year.

Both these are fine ways of making a decision, but here we’re going to propose another method: working out what type of university setting you think would best suit your personality.

What do we mean by this? Basically factors such as the size of the city or town the university is in, how far it is from the city centre and so forth. Such things can have a big impact on how much you’ll enjoy your overall university experience. It probably won’t help you decide which university’s course is best, but it could crucially help you decide where you’ll be happiest. And we’re given to understand that happiness is considered to be a Good Thing nowadays.

Central, big-city universities

The backbone of the UK university system is made up of universities based in or close to the city centre of the country’s main provincial cities. Leeds, Newcastle, Belfast, Glasgow…. you get the idea. All are cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands, and all have at least one–and often as many as four–universities in them.

These universities are generally big, both in terms of their physical area and their number of students, though there are some exceptions to this rule, such as little Leeds Trinity University, which has just 3,000 students.

The large student body of these places often makes for a boisterous, bubbly student community who love to live it up, both at their student union and in the city at large. Cities in this category are big enough to have a great selection of entertainment and services, but because students make up quite a large proportion of the population many of these things are aimed squarely at students.

The universities themselves are more likely to be considered as precincts rather than campuses, with their buildings situated on normal streets rather than surrounded by parkland, as you find at a campus university. Students are likewise more integrated into the city; although many of these places have studenty neighbourhoods, they are also undeniably part of the fabric of the rest of the city and its non-student population.

So if you like the idea of being part of a buzzing city and not separated from the real world, then this sort of university will probably appeal to you.

London universities

Hang on a minute, isn’t London a big city? In fact, isn’t it the biggest city of them all in this country? Well yes, it is; and that’s why it gets a category all of its own. You see, there’s a big, big difference between studying in a city with a population of about 300,000 and one with close to ten million. And let’s not even get started on the difference in the cost of living between the capital and Cardiff…

The London student experience is therefore fundamentally different to the provincial-city one. There’s of course a lot more going on–in terms of culture as well as bars and other night haunts–but it’s less geared towards students.

London is therefore perfect if you don’t want to feel like you’ve been pigeon-holed as a student and want to hang out in the same places as people with real jobs. You will have to pay for it, however; two-pound pints are thin on the ground in this neck of the woods. And while you’ll have all sorts of exciting places on your doorstep, it’s also unlikely that your neighborhood will have a studenty vibe, with London’s students tending to be spread much more thinly across the whole city.

Small-town universities

How small do we mean when we say ‘small-town’? We’re talking anywhere up to 100,000 people. A city of this size will offer a much more intimate atmosphere for students. Universities in small towns are often a bit smaller than their big-city counterparts, though they nevertheless their students tend to make up a bigger proportion of the population.

Smaller town generally means that while the local clubs will be a bitter shorter in supply–or non-existent in the case of the smallest towns, such as Nottingham Trent’s agricultural college, located on the outskirts of the pretty Nottinghamshire village of Southwell, population 7,000–there’ll probably be more in the way of cozy pubs and cafs. It’s likely that the university’s own social facilities will be a bigger part of life in small towns, as anyone who’s been to an Oxbridge bop will be able to attest to.

A smaller town and possibly a smaller university also means that you’ll also be more likely to bump into the same people, day in and day out. This is great if you don’t like the impersonality of big cities, but some people tend to find it a bit claustrophobic.

It also tends to be the smaller-town universities that are the ones situated in historical splendor, such as Bath or Durham. So if you like to be surrounded by charming old buildings, you might want to hunt around in this area.

Campus universities

You’ll find campus universities in all of the different types of town and city mentioned above. Nevertheless, the campus university requires a category of its own. A university that classifies itself as a campus university is likely to be a lot more self-contained than city-centre ones, with its buildings being surrounded by a hefty perimeter of parkland.

If you like the peace of leafy surroundings, campuses are great. But they’re not for everyone. If the idea of a small town where you’ll always be bumping into course-mates doesn’t appeal to you, campus universities can sometimes have the same dynamic, especially if the university’s accommodation is located there.

For campuses located on the outskirts of reasonably big cities that have good transport links and whose students tend not to be so tied to the campus, such as the University of Nottingham, this isn’t really an issue. But more self-contained and remote campuses can sometimes suffer from the claustrophobia and detachment factors.

If immediate access to lots of city stuff isn’t high on your list of priorities, however, and you like the idea of being part of a tightly-knit student community, a campus university makes an ideal choice.

A final word of advice before you start scoping out open days. Although it’s good to have an idea of what sort of university you think you’d like before you head to open days, it’s just as important to be prepared to let your preconceptions be challenged. You might think that London’s the only place for you, only to discover later on that you’d have thrived at a friendlier, small-town university. So do throw in a couple of wildcards into your open day shortlist!

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The #uni #openday #gameplan

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#Revision #spots

The secret of a great revision session isn’t just a matter of how interesting you find the subject and how motivated you are to plough your way through the materials in a bid to ace the upcoming exam. It’s also very much a question of your surroundings and environment.

How relaxed the room you’re in and the furniture you’re on make you feel, the level of background noise and the access you have to the treats, snacks and drinks that fuel your revision sessions: these are all hugely important factors in determining how well your revision goes. And that means, by extension, that these things also decide how well you do in your exams.

Many people don’t take these things into consideration when they revise. That’s fine, so long as it’s because by chance they’ve hit upon the perfect revision environment for them. But if you’re one of those people who continually finds themselves distracted or unfocused when revising, it could be because of where you’re revising rather than what you’re revising.

So let’s have a look at some of the pros and cons of some of the most popular–and some less well-known–revision spots.

Bedroom desk

The bedroom desk is often people’s default place to revise. And this is unsurprising, given that our bedroom is our private space. Whether it’s an effective space, however, depends on a lot of things. If it’s a quiet oasis and free of distractions, and you also have a big, tidy desk, then it’s perfect.

But if your room is full of clutter and there’s an Xbox in the corner screaming ‘play me!’ at you, then it’s possibly not the best spot.

Sitting at your bedroom desk to revise certainly shouldn’t be ruled out. But whether or not you use it should be determined by results. If you’re not having much luck revising at your desk, move elsewhere.

On the bed

The first place we suggest moving to is just a short hop from your desk, over to your bed. One of the things about revision that it’s best to face up to is that, ultimately, we don’t want to do it. However, any task that we don’t want to do is made more tolerable by at least being comfortable when we do it. And for many people, reclining on the bed to revise is much more comfortable than fidgeting on a stiff office chair.

If this applies to you, give the bed a try. That said, some people hate mixing relaxation with work (rule of thumb: if you have to get showered and dressed before you can revise, you’re probably in this category). If this applies to you, then don’t worry; the key thing here is to find a place where you personally feel good about revising. And there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to that.

The library

Going to your local library is perhaps a good option if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like the idea of slouching or reclining when revising. The library is probably about the most focused environment you’ll find for revising. It’s quiet, there are no distractions from your personal life here, and the chairs will probably force you to sit up nice and straight.

So for the down-to-business revisers it’s a great spot. And the relaxer-revisers might find the library is a good place for the odd revision session too, if what you need is a jolt of concentration to get your mind thinking about the task before continuing your revision somewhere you feel more comfortable.

In a caf

Cafs are a good place to revise if you’re looking for a change of scene from home, but don’t want to be in the silence of the library. You can order your favourite beverage, get comfy on an armchair or sofa, and get down to some study. If you’ve been distracted at home in your revision, you’ll probably find the change of scene does you a world of good. The two main downsides to the caf are that often there can be background noise, and if you’re sensitive to this sort of thing you’ll find it off-putting; and eventually you’ll either have to buy another coffee or face the wrath of the owner.

In the park or garden

This is obviously a very weather-dependent option. But if it’s a nice, warm day, getting a dose of vitamin D from the sun and being out in the fresh air can be just the shot in the arm that a flagging reviser needs.

Assuming you have gone out on a sunny day to revise, the only things you need to bear in mind are to be careful not to overexpose yourself to the sun–wear suncream and spend time in the shade as well–and that you have some sort of way of keeping your notes secure if there’s a breeze.

There are of course loads of other places you could revise, and whether you use them or not depends entirely on how well they work for you. We’ve even heard one tale of an eccentric chap who used to take a long, round-trip train journey every day for his revision sessions, as this was where he felt most focused and at peace. The key point is to not be afraid to try new places, and also to abandon them once they stop being effective.

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