The desk set-up. Spotify and comfy headphones are a must.

Don't have a clue.

Hello! I have been very bad at keeping this blog updated in the last few months. I've been desperately trying to keep up with my reading (which has mega stepped up this term) and nursing a burgeoning addiction to Dragon Age games. My computer physically can't run Inquisition but am I looking at sale prices?? Of course. Also, I rediscovered Sims 4 this week. WHAT am I doing.

So my exams in January went fine (which isn't what I wanted, but technically I'm doing great) and I'm sticking to a similar routine this time around. Which is - writing up all my lectures and seminars and making note packs for all my texts. This time I'm hoping to take that one step further and learn some quotes. Will this work?? Will I get bored and stop revising some time this week?? Because it's me, yes probably. Ugh.

I hate revising. I hate exams and spending months going over the same information again and again so that you can spend 3 (YES, THREE WHOLE) hours in the same room at an uncomfortable desk fighting nausea and trying to remember something that you had memorised to a tee last week. Lucky for me, my coursework makes up only 1/3 of my overall mark for my modules.

(This term my coursework has picked right up!! Yay!! I had 58, 60 and 68 last term and so far I've got 63 and 65 this term. Phew)

But as a seasoned exam-taker (ten GCSEs, 4 AS's and 3 A-Levels in my pocket) I thought I'd share what has somewhat helped me survive the brutal showdowns that my university exams, at least, have been.

Choosing the right music to revise to

This may not work for everyone as I know some people like silence while working. I myself dabble in a quiet working minute. I think the trick is listening to old music (as opposed to brand new music). Music you know and love is both comforting and functional as background noise. You don't need to really engage yourself with the music if you know it well enough so you can properly concentrate on what you're looking at. It also works as background noise that drowns out any other distractions like people talking or car alarms or drilling or whatever. Plus it makes revising a little less of a drag.

Materials

This is truly up to you but it's not rocket science to know that you need pens, pens and more pens. Paper, paper, paper. Or infinite Microsoft Word documents. Highlighters, sticky notes. Those arrow-shaped fluorescent things that I own myself but can't name.

Then you make notes. My method is to write up your lectures and seminars (making sure to catch up on anything missed, even if it is just taking notes from a powerpoint if you can't get a recording of the lecture or someone else's notes) and then condense these notes and your annotations on the texts (which you will be making if you're an English student. I got over my fear of annotating in pen this year - it's quite liberating) as well as secondary literature into big sets of notes.

The notes work in themes or topics. This is the easiest way of doing this that I've found. Look at your lecture notes and find themes or topics that were significant for those texts. Use these for headings and subheadings in your notes. This is much easier to do on a computer as you can copy notes over in any order you want. Include quotes and page/line numbers. Then make flashcards or whatever to try and remember some of it.

Small comforts - hand cream, lip balm and my dad's Nespresso machine.

Know your texts

This means rereading. I'm going to sit down and do this soon (there are a few texts I actually need to finish off from this term :S). If you know your texts well you'll be able to think more quickly in the exam about what texts to use and how to use them. Know the plot, the themes, the characters, the form, the imagery. Once you have this down everything gets a lot easier.

Have your own ideas

This means making sure your own notes and annotations are included in your revision. Lectures and seminars are intended as springboards and originality will help you in the exam. Hopefully, as you reread your texts more ideas will pop out at you. Make a note of them and add them to your note packs. Your own thoughts about the texts are always supported by what you're reading.

Past papers

You can time yourself and answer the questions properly but I had a lecturer who told us not to bother. I think it's actually more beneficial to look at the questions and see if you can allocate texts and themes, and then start penning a plan. If you can make a fairly elaborate plan with examples and structure then your revision is going well. If not, back to the notes! Use past papers to measure the success of your revision.

I decided not to include the mountain of poetry anthologies and novels in my photos.

Don't burn yourself out

I have learnt that crafting revision timetables is absolutely pointless. Setting yourself very specific and many targets to complete each day may work if you are disciplined. But if you, like me, struggle with revision and sustaining it this is about the worst thing you can do. LITTLE AND OFTEN. Obviously there needs to be some substantial work done on as many days as possible, but don't give yourself loads to do, exhaust yourself on the first day and then give up on revising altogether. Set yourself vague targets, like just a text to look at on a specific day. No timeframes. Just, for example, Paradise Lost on Tuesday. Make a list of texts you want to revise (not all of them!!) and tick them off as you go. Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself. Get your shit done, but give yourself a break too. You can't be as thorough as you need to be if you're too bored and tired of working to care about it.

That's pretty much it. I'll let you all know how everything works out in May!

Lots of love,
Catherine

Some of you reading this may be about to embark on your first year at university. First of all - well done!! The application process is very tricky and tiresome, as well as those exams and those long weeks of waiting for your results. This time last year I really didn't know what to expect from my first week at Leeds and the following months. I like to think this post would have been helpful to 18-year-old me.

 Prior to arrival there are things to sort out. I like to find out my timetable and write it down in various forms - phone calendar, diary, front of notebook, a table on Microsoft Word. It's also important to ensure you have insurance and that it covers you from home to university and maybe even on holiday. You may not be prone to hazy nights out where your phone takes a jaunt, or live in a dodgy area, but just in case. Also, do your reading. Even if it's just a bit of it. Please try and read the set texts/textbooks. My first year involved me frantically and unsuccessfully skimming Great Expectations two hours before the seminar I needed to have read it for, and many other similar examples. Remember the Future Self I was talking about in my last post? Think about your Future Self. Give them a break.

When I moved into my first year room I was greeted with a double bed. Gasp. How exciting. Buy yourself some new duvet covers no matter what. Keep them folded, NOT crumpled up. Also make sure you have a drying rack for clothes. Laundry at university is expensive and it's good to have another option when the machines are in use. Extra hooks for the doors, extra storage in the bathroom (especially when you share). I brought two lamps with me - one for my desk and one for my bedside cabinet.

Pack for a move, not a hotel stay.

I know - packing is a nightmare. The flat I moved into lacked a toaster (really weird) so we had to buy that on the way. On top of that you need three different types of pans, plates and bowls, mugs, so on and so on. I would say take more than you might need. There's nothing worse than realising you don't have any teaspoons an hour after your parents or guardians have left. You should have your own cupboard (or two) and fridge/freezer space. I can't guarantee you'll have a spacious kitchen - I've seen an entire living space that can't have been bigger than 3x3 metres. I also really, really can't guarantee that you'll be eating anything other than pasta, frozen chicken nuggets (Birdseye, so not that bad) and if you're really gross, Pot Noodle. Sorry, I judge you.

Unless you're super chummy with your flat and cook together all the time prepare yourself for this and stock up on frozen veg. Your room needs to feel homely. You will be homesick no matter what (day 2 was pretty hard for me) so bring photos to stick up on your wall (white tack only, if my halls last year were anything to go by), bring some cushions from home for your bed and always take your favourite mugs. The fact is, in first year you're shoved into a small space with five, six or even seven other strangers and you just have to pray they're not rude, weird or a party animal. Take stuff from home so that your room can be a haven when the communal space is hell.

Okay. You're all moved in. Now we embark on Freshers Week.

You don't have to drink. You probably will. I managed not to do anything stupid (granted even after I stopped drinking four months ago I call myself a Beginner Drinker) but I imagine some of you will fall over, make bad decisions, be ill. It's okay. I personally would advise you to get it out of your system and be more sensible for the rest of your lives, but you are all faceless strangers and your business is no business of mine. I would say if you are drinking most nights of that week, have one night off. It's allowed, I promise!! It doesn't make you a Bad Student if you don't go out every night of Freshers. Drink water when you get to the club one night, or even take a night off entirely and drink hot chocolate and chat into the early hours of the morning. Basically, it's up to you.

One thing I do insist on is that you go to your Freshers Fair. PLEASE for the love of GOD go to your Freshers Fair. Can you tell I didn't do this? I think you can. To be fair, I lived downhill from campus for first year (I hated it but it probably stopped me from gaining a lot of weight, so) and none of my flatmates expressed an interest in going. Go with your flatmates and sign up for things (though don't go too crazy as membership fees are very expensive). I'd say stick to your subject's society and two or three other groups. Get involved, but make it manageable. Also go to your class inductions. The reason I suggest going up to campus a lot during Freshers is that you have no classes and time to get to know your way around. Running between classes is harder when you're lost, and those of you with lots of contact hours will definitely need to know their way around and maybe even discover some shortcuts.

By the end of Freshers Week, depending on how you used it, you may have vowed to never drink again three times or simply be exhausted. Prepare yourself emotionally for classes and go to all of them in your first week. In fact, aim to go to all of them for the entirety of your term. Attendance warnings are closer than you may think. Like I said - Future Self is cross with you because they're missing notes from five separate lectures and two seminars for each module and they're trying to revise. Give them a break.

I'll leave you with a myth-buster. All year you will hear 'first year doesn't count'. And no, it doesn't. Personally, I kind of wish it did. I scraped my second semester exams due to personal issues and the fact that towards the end I kind of gave up. If you don't try in your first year you may fail, for one thing, but you will also have a very, very nasty wake up call in your second year. Learn the skills now (at least try to) and it won't be quite as hard later.

Enjoy your first year!! Try and clean out your fridge occasionally, too.