Balancing home and studies!

I am very excited to get back to University this week, we have had three weeks off to recoup and to start preparing for end of year exams. I really cannot wait to catch up with my friends and see how their Easter break was.
I had a lovely family Easter and put on a little egg hunt for my two young kids and little brother, the weather held up too and it has been a lovely week to spend with family.

I feel its really important to find a good balance between academic work and family life. By taking the Easter weekend off I got to spend some valuable time with my family and now I feel happy and confident to take on the rest of the year at University. I am not going to say it is easy trying to balance home life with University, because at times it can be very challenging, however it is do-able and I would not change the way my life is. The University of Bedfordshire acknowledges that every student is unique and that each person has different lifestyles. The University has been nothing but supportive throughout my first year, and without the support I probably would have felt like I couldn't make it through. The staff are always on hand to make appointments with, so you can talk to them about your workload and they always offer great advice on time management and organisation.

This week I have been getting all my revision material together ready for the revision classes, and these will really test me on how much I have managed to learn this year.
Unfortunately, this week has been slightly uneventful, but I know when I start back up at University there will be plenty more activities and experiences to share with you all.
I hope everybody had a lovely Easter break and did not eat too many chocolate eggs! Although I believe you can never have too much chocolate!

Self Motivation Tips

Sometimes I feel really lazy and unmotivated. At the beginning of the week this is exactly where I was. My mind was stuck in the 'let's do it tomorrow' phase. 
So I have thought of a few tips on how to self-motivate myself and I thought I would share them with you. 

• Firstly I like to start slow. Instead of jumping into something at full speed, start slow. Getting started, even if it’s at a slow pace, is a whole lot better than not getting started at all.
• Secondly, sometimes I act like it. If you don’t feel motivated or enthusiastic then act like it. The strange thing is that within a few minutes you actually start to feel motivated or enthusiastic for real.
• Thirdly, I try and do something small to create a flow. Just clean your desk. Or pay your bills. When you have finished that small task you’ll feel more alert and ready to go do the next thing. 
• Lastly, I write down my goals and reasons for working towards them. Tape them on your wall, computer or bathroom mirror. Then you’ll be reminded throughout the day and it becomes easier to stay on track and stay focused.

There are so many other little things I can do to keep me self motivated, taking out distractions would be good one. For example whatever you do, do not turn on the television. Daytime television will slowly be the death of me, getting entwined with the dramas of Jeremy Kyle is never a good start to the day. It becomes addictive so best not to turn the television on at all. 

As it is Easter weekend, I will spending my bank holiday with family in London, organising a Easter egg hunt and tucking into a lovely roast dinner made by my dad. 

Whatever plans you guys have for the Easter bank holiday try to stay motivated and positive.

New Developments

It is now officially Easter break, but unfortunately it still means work. Although I have taken this week pretty slow, I have been preparing my notes and started to make some exam revision material for May examinations.

I know the main areas I need to revise for each unit, so for each one I have constructed some mind maps in a book. I am hoping the colour co-ordination and little doodles will help me get all this information stuck in my mind.

The 24/7 library at the Luton campus is a major contributing factor to my revision. I am hoping that it will be quiet next week so I can go in with my headphones on and find a nice spot to revise, next year will be even more stimulating as the new library development is due to open in early 2016. 

An Artist Impression of the new Learning Resource Centre.

The new library building will be spread over seven floors, connecting to the rest of the University’s Luton campus via bridge link. The new library marks the latest stage in the development of the university. There will be a ground floor cafe, study spaces and a 30 per cent increase in book stocks.

The most common misconception of libraries are that they are old dusty and boring, the library at the Luton campus is far from that. It is a comfortable learning environment and dare I say it, a place we all meet up with friends and get some work done. The new library development will definitely be a popular building on campus and I cannot wait to see it when it is completed.  

Just Dissert.....ation

Today is the deadline for 3rd Year LLB dissertation. Whilst everyone's idea of celebrating is either getting drunk, eating out or something called an Ann Summer's Party (I have no idea what that is), I'd rather plug my laptop into a 50" TV and play some Hearthstone! Though this is a happy occasion, it is important to keep in mind that we still have exams just over 2 weeks away.

I'm so glad that the Law supervisors allowed us to contact them for feedback when it was close to the deadline. Other courses apparently didn't do that. So I count myself fortunate. It's such a sigh of relief to hear from your supervisor that your work is alright. It is very reassuring considering that they are the ones marking it too. I even made an acknowledgement page thanking mine.

In the faculty meeting; some of the supervisors made a comment that not many students actually contacted them for feedback, guidance and/or support. This is very puzzling. Why wouldn't you make use of the resources you have at your disposal? They are literally one click away.

But never the less; it's finished now. Time for the home stretch. Once the post-dissertation day(s) off are finished, its back to the books. Life is hard as a Law student. But I wouldnt change a single aspect of it :)

Paul G,
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Easter Scrambles

With exams looming in; a majority of my Easter is spent studying and doing dissertation. Despite the fact that lecturers are not running sessions over the Easter break; a few other students and I have been going into the University practically every day of the week for at least 5 hours of straight study. That's more hours than some days of regular Uni.

Needless to say; I got some work done. Dissertation is up and running, "super-notes" of a couple of my modules are completed and there is only a couple of modules left to do. These notes are concise versions of the everything you need to know for each exam. This is derived from the known topics which are going to be featured in the exam (we wouldn't want to waste precious memory space on information that will not come up now; do we?) I then set it out in a format that is easy to understand and I employ diagrams if a concept is too complicated to explain in words.

What I normally do with these documents is to disseminate them to as many fellow colleagues as I can. That way; it helps them too. I seem to have received possessive feedback on my previous super-notes last year. I even saw multiple students gripping copies of the knowledge I somehow cobbled together in the few hours prior to the exam. It's satisfying to walk into the ICT suit to see several students benefiting from your work; then proceeding to the social learning space to see even more.


And I intend to recreate that again. The notes I have prepared consists of each topic being condensed to about a page and a half of A4. This way; the information is easier to absorb. It's worked well for me so far!

Paul G,
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Easter Break Blues

With Easter Break hitting the uni-students' calendars, there are still plenty of things left to do and not allot of time to do it in. As a 3rd year, I have to use this break to do 1 more piece of coursework, wrap up my dissertation and prepare for 4 exams. Thats alot to handle and leaving it to the last minute is a bad idea. a VERY bad idea.

Thankfully, I just finished my coursework yesterday and I have done plenty of research for my dissertation. Ive started pulling it all together into one coherent article today and so far; its looking good. I got to write about Pac-Man IN my dissertation. I also get to talk about YouTubers who cover gaming. It doesnt get any better than that. Though I fear that I may get tired of writing the words "video game culture" after a while, so far I'm really enjoying it :)

The way dissertations are set out in this Uni is really great. At the start of 3rd year, you get a list of supervisors and their broad specialities (each one usually has about 4-6). Then it is up to you to decide what to pick and what precisely about that topic do you wish to write your piece about. For me; it was Copyright Law with regards to video game content. I am so glad that I picked my supervisor for his speciality. Its advisable that you dont pick one purely because you like him/her ;)


Paul G,
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