This week I have chosen to write about something I am involved with personally and that I enjoying doing at the university. As I have mentioned in previous blogs I joined a society called LINKS and this evoked my passion for becoming a paramedic. I know what you might be thinking; you study Psychology how could you go on to be a Paramedic? Well you don’t have to go into a medical degree at university to come out of it with a career in a medical field. Of course, if you want to be a doctor or dentist I’m afraid there is no other way around this. However, for something like prehospital care there is many options. Of course it means extra training after university, but my degree has equip me with skills that I can apply to what I want to do. Also they have allowed me to complete training with St John Ambulance, whom I now complete duties with.

However, I won’t bore you with information about my career aspirations. I will tell you about LINKS and the importance of everyone knowing a little bit of first aid. Picture this…

You’re in a restaurant with your family and you hear a loud gasp and someone shouting for help. You turn around and someone is chocking! What would you do? Would you panic? Or could you be the person to help? The teaching of first aid in the LINKS society equips you with this knowledge to be the one to help in these somewhat stressful situations. You also have a really good laugh doing it. With the sometimes hysterical demonstrations and fun ways to introduce some serious subjects it’s a place you can really learn a lot in a short space of time, and it is always memorable.

The basic message I want to get across is don’t think you are limited by the type of degree you are doing, there is always space to do that one other thing you are passionate about!

Blog written by Jessica Temple, Psychology student.

Getting Involved

Into cheerleading? There is a club for that. Do you love cups of tea? There is a society for that. Do you want to get involved in real life debates and conferences? We have a group for that. Believe it or not the university have a group, society or team for anything you may want to get involved in. If out of the vast amount of societies the university has to offer you don’t like any then you can set up your own society. What a better way to spend your time doing something you are really passionate about and you love to do. It’s going to be beneficial for you to do something apart from your degree. Don’t get me wrong, attending lectures is the most important thing to do while you’re at university. However, using the facilities the university has to offer can help you in ways that you wouldn’t even think.

For instance, I personally joined the Newcastle Links society and before joining I wasn’t sure what sort of career I wanted to go into. Joining the society and learning first aid added to my skills but also it opened up the new world of prehospital care. I then found my ambition to become a paramedic!
You may join a club and find out you are a natural at a sport or a game and this could add to your studies making you more confident in your degree, or it could spark inspiration in a new career choice or lifestyle.

Here are some top tips for what to think about when choosing something extra-curricular:

• Make sure it fits around your time table. Lectures and seminars are the most important thing to attend while at university, after all you’ve worked your whole life to be here now.
• Read, Read, Read. Make sure you read about what the society or club has to offer and make sure the times they meet are times you can attend. Also some societies may sound like one thing but actually turn out to be something else.
• Try something new. This may be the only opportunity in life that you will get to try such a broad range of things. The societies are always a brilliant way to meet new people and even make new friends.

Go for it, you don’t know until you’ve tried. But also remember, it’s not a lifelong commitment!

Pot of Tea with Cup and saucer

As I’m sure you know, Dentistry is a 5 year course, whereas most other courses are 3. At first, this may seem like a bad thing, but trust me, once here, it’s great! I’m in 5th year now, and it’s absolutely flown by, I wouldn’t have felt ready to leave after just 3 years, it’s way too much fun!
The 5 years is pretty much split into 2 parts, with the first 1.5 years being purely academic, and the rest mostly clinical. Here at Newcastle, the dental school adopts the ‘traditional’ style of teaching, so, lots of lectures and little self study time, with a few seminars (small group teaching) thrown in. In contrast, somewhere like Manchester, is ‘Problem based learning’, which means quite a few seminars, but hardly any lectures, and you’re expected to go away and do your own reading. I chose traditional as it suits my learning style, I need timetables to stick to, and prefer to be told what to know, rather than do the research myself.

The first 1.5 years, are pretty content heavy, and that’s the hard bit, the sheer amount you need to learn, the actual information isn’t difficult. Just be prepared to put some of your own time aside to go over things and make sure you’ve taken them in. You won’t need to spend all your time doing this, you can still do everything your friends from other courses do, just plan wisely.

A lot of it may not seem relevant at the time, as it’s things like microbiology, pharmacology, and human development, but stick with it, it all acts as building blocks for things later on, like the Human Disease course. A big part of first year is anatomy, at Newcastle this still involves studying dissected bodies and heads, and really getting involved, which is really interesting, but strong smelling!

Also, just as a side note, don’t worry about the essential reading, it definitely doesn’t mean read the books recommended cover to cover, just know they’re the ones to look to for help, and you don’t need to rush out and buy them, the dedicated medical and dental library here in the medical school has plenty of copies.
By Will Holme (5th yr Dental student)

I vividly remember receiving my offer of my first choice of university halls for first year, even more than receiving my offer onto dentistry, (I was just checking my emails at a checkout line in Tesco), and it was the point where excitement really kicked in for uni, as I knew exactly where I’d be spending the majority of my first year, which is a big thing!

Here at Newcastle, if you put the uni as your firm choice after you’ve received your offers, you will be guaranteed a place in university accommodation. But what does that really mean?

You will be given a room, in either halls of residence owned by the uni, or in one of the partnership halls that the uni has agreements with, such as ‘The view’ or ‘Victoria halls’. To be honest, they are run exactly the same as uni accommodations and the contracts are done through the university, so it makes no difference really.

You’ll be given a date of when the accommodation ranking scheme is released, and it’s up to you to do your research (visit open days, go on the Newcastle uni website, ask friends at Newcastle) and rank the accommodations in order of preference.

Firstly, chose  whether you want catered or self-catered. Obviously this depends on your culinary skills and, let’s face it laziness, but there are other things you have to consider. For example, ‘Castle Leazes’, Newcastle’s self-catered halls, are massive, you’re guaranteed to make hundreds of friends there, you’ll get a full English every week day, and a three course meal in the evening (you will put on weight, beware!). Sounds fab, and it is, but it wasn’t for me. Mainly because of the layout, it’s essentially long corridors, of 20 or so rooms, and large communal bathrooms, with large bars and the food court downstairs for chilling, or people’s rooms.

Whereas self-catered halls, are arranged more as individual flats in large blocks. There were 6 in my flat, 3 boys and 3 girls, in ‘Marris House’. We shared a kitchen/living room, 2 showers and 2 toilets. If that sounds too quiet, it wasn’t, you’re surrounded by more flats (another 180 people), which meant there was still plenty going on, if you wanted it, but it was really good because you could get the downtime when you wanted too.

The second, and most important thing, is location, location, location!

Get a map out, find out where your course is, and look at the accommodation near there. For me it was a no brainer, it was either ‘Marris House’, or ‘Richardson road’, both next to the dental school, a 10 minute walk to the town centre, and they’re right next to the gym (which I barely used anyway). If you do want somewhere closer to town, ‘Windsor terrace’ or ‘Park Terrace’, are a 5 minute walk to the dental building, and only a 5 minute walk to town, or even somewhere like Liberty Plaza, which is in the centre of town!

Some halls are a little more out in the sticks, like ‘St. Mary’s’. A few people on my course where in these halls and loved it, they never missed an event or night out because of where they lived they aren’t too far out, just remember to factor a bus pass into the cost.

Thirdly, price! Weigh up what you need, you want, and can live without. So my choice, from location, was either ‘Richardson Road’ or ‘Marris House’, it was now price that separated them. When I applied, ‘Marris House’ was £10 a week more, but I believed the extra money was totally worth it, for a newer, brighter, more modern flat, rooms with sinks, larger communal area, more cupboards and fridge/freezer space, a nicer layout, 2 toilets instead of 1, and a TV with the license paid for. However, I had friends, who chose Richardson road because they wanted that extra £10 for food or drink and were happy with that compromise.

Similarly, with an en-suite, if you feel you need one, these rooms tend to be roughly £20+ more expensive than a flat with a toilet and shower shared between 3.

Definitely take ranking halls seriously. I’ll always recommend ‘Marris House’, I went there so I am bias, but it was my first choice too. I had an amazing year, staying up late watching films and weird TV, going to flat parties and nights out, but mostly, I made friends for life that I have since lived with in 2^nd and 3rd year (more on that side of accommodation in another blog).

Unfortunately, ‘Richardson Road’, which is next to ‘Marris House’ is due for demolition in June 2016 to make way for new uni accommodation. However, the university has set up a contract with the building company so that it will be, what they are calling ‘quiet construction’, and they have said that it will cause no disruption to occupants of ‘Marris House’ during this period, both in terms of access and noise. Especially around exam times as the sports hall, also next door, is where a lot of exams take place. The only difference I think you’d see would be less people walking around.

Will, Dentistry Student

I assume by now you will have been bombarded with introduction lectures, careers lectures and all sorts of other information sessions. Whether you are first year or fourth year believe it or not but you will use all of that information. I know that you will feel like you just want to get on with the core modules of the subject you are studying but being at university isn’t all about the degree, it’s about building up graduate and personal skills. I know when I sat through a careers talk in first year I thought that it was way too early to be taking the information away with me and using it, I mean I was only in first year right?

Right! But I still use the information on CV writing, presenting and even how to write a proper letter now. What I’m trying to say is think of the bigger picture here. If you are first year you only have three years and you will be finished your degree! Try thinking back to year 11, it doesn’t seem that long ago does it? But that was a whole three years ago. Look at how quickly times goes, so why not use that time to help your future self. Take the information away with you, even if you don’t use it straight away I guarantee you will use it throughout the degree. Sign up to workshops put on by outside staff from careers or public lectures, because they might just be the tools you need to get the job you want or the contacts that’s lead you on to your employer. Just because you don’t know what you want to do for your career yet doesn’t mean you can’t start putting some things in place, or laying down a carpet of skills that cover a range of areas. Don’t leave everything till last minute; you definitely won’t thank yourself for it.

Psychology blogger

Jessica Temple