Hi my name is Diana and I write here to share my uni experience and keep you updated with some events that you might be interested in!

Hope you all have had a fantastic freshers week and are pretty much getting used to the cold weather 😛

Did you enjoy all the events during the week and did you manage to get a lot of freebies and sign up to hundreds of societies at freshers’ fair? I remember I signed up to loads at the beginning of first year but I ended up not really going to any of them haha.

So in today’s blog, I decided to write about what I learned from my first year of uni experience.

1. Balance your social life and academic life.
   A mistake that a lot of us have made in our first year: Thinking that the exam results don’t count towards your final grade so you don’t have to study as hard. Of course 1st year is all about meeting new people, making memories and skipping lectures. But that doesn’t mean that you should neglect your studies. What I learned from last year is that even though the exam results don’t go to your final grade in 3rd year, you should still make time for revision and make sure you are not falling behind. A lot of the modules in 2nd and 3rd year are actually built on the things that you have covered in your first year. Building a good foundation will really help you in studying your degree.
2. Eat, Gym, Sleep, Repeat!With all the events and activities happening around the university, your course plus all the night outs, it is easy to forget to take good care of your body and mind. Make sure you are eating healthy and not drinking too much alcohol and exercise regularly. Sounds simple, but I understand that it is a lot harder when you are trying to go to all of your lectures, get a part-time job and still have a life outside studying. To make sure I was eating healthy and getting enough sleep, I tried to set a budget on the money I spend on drinks and takeaways. In doing so, I was not only drinking less and ordering less takeaways but I was also saving some money. An advice from my personal tutor last year was to treat your degree like a ‘9-5, Mon-Fri’. What?! Yes, you heard me. So basically you go to your lectures or do your studying from 9am to 5pm everyday, and then anytime after 5 is pretty much your free time or alone time and you can do whatever you want. It is a lot easier to follow then you may think, and waking up early means you will go to bed early. I found that was really helpful in terms of helping me to get enough sleep.
3. Make the most of your time here!Time management is key when you are studying at university. The transition from having a 8-4 timetable at A-level to you only have a couple of lectures a week is very different. You are expected to spend time learning outside of your timetable. So make sure you are doing the reading for each of the modules, better if you can finish the reading before the lecture because this means that you can ask questions during the lecture and be more prepared. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your friends, other students and your lecturers. And make sure you actually go to your lectures, that will stop you from binge watching Game of Thrones and will help you to keep up with your studying.

So these are the 3 main things that I learned from last year and are also the areas that I am trying to improve or do better this year. Everyone’s uni experience is unique and there is no certain rule or guideline you need to follow but I hope these helps and thank you for reading my blog!

I wish you all a very good start of the year and see you next week! 🙂

Diana x