3^rd Annual Psychology Days Newcastle

Are you a budding scientist interested in how humans, think feel and behave?

Do you want to find out more about Psychology and Neuroscience?

If the answer to these questions is “Yes” then this event is for you!

Psychology Days Newcastle gives A-Level students with an interest across the sciences, the opportunity to come and find out about cutting edge research from Newcastle University academics.  Researchers will cover topics as diverse as “Is the red I see the same as the red you see?”, “Do animals have emotions?”, “Watching eyes and the control of antisocial behaviour” and “How psychologists can help police with their enquiries” amongst many others.  Researcher will demonstrate how biology, physics, neuroscience and psychology collide and demonstrate the applications of modern day psychology in the real world/

Register for this FREE event by 10th June 2016 at:
www.ncl.ac.uk/psychology/about/news

Here are some of our speakers from previous years;

Prizes are available for schools/colleges and attendees who encourage students not currently studying psychology A-Level to attend.

The school/college that brings the most students, not currently studying psychology A-Level, will win a selection of psychology textbooks

All students who bring a friend, not currently studying psychology A-Level, will be entered into a prize draw to win a School of Psychology hoody!

The social side of university and dentistry

You get a real flavour of what the social side of university is like in your first week, arguably the best week, and definitely the most mental, freshers week! It’s set up and run by the student’s union (so by students), with the primary aim of getting you to mingle with all the new people in your halls – the fresher’s crew are brilliant at this – as well as experience what Newcastle has to offer. This includes an array of daytime activities from paintballing and quad-biking, to cocktail making and beach trips. Then onto Newcastle’s incredible (and award winning) nightlife; there are a number of themed bar crawls ending in the city’s superclubs, and music performances in the newly refurbished union. Or if that’s not your scene, try the ‘grub crawls’, comedy gigs and cinema trips, and best of all, everything’s included in the price of the fresher’s wristband, it’s incredible value. If like me, you enjoyed it so much, you can volunteer to be one of the crew the following year, so you get to do it all again!

There are so many sport clubs for you to choose from, whether you’re a footballer trying out for the first team, or want to try something completely different like ultimate Frisbee. There are also hundreds of non-sporting related societies, such as the film society, the 20-minute society (a 20 minute heads up is given before a totally spontaneous event, sometimes even a holiday), and then, your course societies, which brings me to the ever-famous dentsoc.

I can’t stress how good dentsoc is, it’s the perfect way to let your hair down after a busy week on clinic, socialise with everyone on the course, and get involved in some wickedly funny events.

It really sets Newcastle apart from the other dental schools, and the ‘Crown and Bridge’ acts as its central hub. The ‘Crown and Bridge’ is our very own bar, situated next to the lecture theatres, and for a one off payment at the beginning of first year, around £90, gets you membership for life, and that includes your drinks! Roughly every 2 weeks there’s a dentsoc event, be it ‘blind date’ for valentines, the hilarious ‘hustings’ event (the dentsoc presidential candidates show their campaign videos, which are superb), the annual ball (your chance to dress to the nines), or even events out of the Toon, such as sports day, a weekend where all the dental schools converge on one city for a brilliant day of sports, followed by epic nights out.

Dentsoc really is the epitome of ‘work hard, play hard’!

Newcastle

Obviously when choosing your university, the city it’s in will play a massive part.

I had never actually been to Newcastle before I went for my dentistry interview, and I didn’t really know anything about it, other than how far away it was (I’m from Preston), but now I’ve been here 4 years, I can’t say a bad thing about it.

The thing I love most is the size of Newcastle, it’s got everything a massive city like Manchester or even London has to offer, fantastic shopping, an enormous range of restaurants, the best bars and clubs, yet it’s all conveniently located close by. Seriously, I could walk anywhere I wanted to, partly because the centre is so compact, and partly because the student areas, such as Jesmond, are essentially next to the city centre.

It’s also a staggeringly beautiful city, effectively blending the 19^th century architecture of places like ‘Grey Street’, which leads down from the ‘Monument’ in the heart of Newcastle, to the Quayside, a modern and vibrant part of the city with the famous ‘Millennium bridge’ and ‘The Sage’ concert hall just on the other side of the Tyne river.

Plus, public transport is fantastic around here, taxis are so popular and really cheap, there are a plethora of bus routes, and the metro (a scaled down version of London’s tube network) is a fantastic, cheap and safe way to get to the main areas. The local beaches, Tynemouth and Whitley bay, are beautiful places to visit for a day out (the metro can take you there), as well as Durham, only 15 minutes away on the train. Newcastle’s also bike friendly, I cycle everywhere, and my route into University is mainly along cycle paths and through a massive park.

I’ve been here for 4 years now and there are still hidden gems I’ve yet to visit, there is so much to do here, both day and night, you’ll never be bored, there really is something for everyone, and best of all, its cheap!

Dentistry – The Course itself – The clinical years.

So you’ve got through what seems like a long slog of endless information, and you’ve sat your second year exams (they’re just before Easter), and passed, what’s on the other side? The best term, that’s what! The last term in second year is where you learn the basic clinical skills like drilling cavities and placing fillings. It’s a really fun and fairly laid back term, were you’ll practice on ‘phantom heads’ with fake jaws made up of real extracted (mostly clean) teeth. This is also the first time you’ll really interact with the clinicians, and find out they’re all really approachable and helpful.

The start of third year is when you’ll first start seeing patients, which is absolutely nerve wrecking! You’re thrown straight in at the deep end, getting your own, new patients, off the hospital’s waiting list, and these are then your patients to keep, plan, treat and manage, so you’re also a bit of your own secretary too.

Being thrown into it though is actually really beneficial, you’ll learn more being out of your comfort zone, you’ll adapt, enhance and refine your skills at a rapid pace, and although you may be shaking giving your first injection, (actually, you will be!), there will be a really helpful clinician there guiding you through it, and the patients are actually lovely, extremely grateful, and, excuse the pun, patient, after all, they’ve signed up for it and you’re helping them, which is extremely rewarding for you.

Over years 3, 4 and 5 you’ll continue to enhance and speed up your dentistry and knowledge, by having a mixture of clinical sessions with your own patients, undertaking aspects of dentistry such as dentures, gum disease and decay, as well as completing courses learning how to do root canal treatment and crowns, and even weeks each year on oral surgery extracting teeth, which is so much fun, and hand numbing! You’ll get stuck in in the labs too, learning and understanding how laboratories make dentures and crowns, and even making your own.

There are still lectures, only 3-4 a week, but they’re much more clinical based and seem more relevant, but when you get stuck into the human diseases course, easily the largest, all about medical conditions that patients may have that complicate treatment, you’ll appreciate all the effort you put in in the first 2 years as that was valuable baseline knowledge.

Written by 5th yr Dental student Will Holme.

Communication is Key 

I recently had a seminar on communication and how important it is to be a good communicator in the work place. I of course agree that the work place is where you would want every communication to be excellent, especially with your boss.  However I also think it’s important to think about how you communicate with people every day. For instance, I have been having lectures about signals and how important they are in the animal world. So basically a signal is something that one animal gives and another one receives and it tells both of them animals that they should produce a behaviour. So you can imagine in the human world; a baby is hungry, so it cries and the parent will come and feed the baby. That is a form of a signal, because it communicates some message to the receiver (the parent) from the signaller (baby).

So now think about the different signals you will give off every day. Some of them you might not be aware of, but either way they will normally be someone who is receiving your signal. Hence, based on this I think it is important to think about how you communicate with people. You may walk past someone you have never met before and smile at them, and it turns out next year they are your lecturer or a demonstrator. The little communication you had can then make them form an impression of you, a good impression I assume. Think about the different people you will communicate with in a day, your friends, your family, lecturers, maybe someone who works in a shop. It is normal to change the way you talk to people depending on who they are, but it’s always important to consider your audience.

So this may be a lot of rambling on but what I am trying to say is, be aware of how you communicate yourself to other people. Well, because you never know who the person who you are talking to could turn out to be.

Around December time in first year, you’ll want to start thinking about second year accommodation. The key is, don’t panic. There always seems to be a mass hysteria that all the houses are going to run out, they’re not, and they never do, and you’ll always find nice people to live with.

There are two main places most people chose to live, both with an abundance of houses, Jesmond, seen as hip and happening, modern, close, however, fairly expensive (£70-£90 per week), or Heaton (£60-£75 per week ), which is slightly further away, doesn’t have the bars of Jesmond, but generally, is cheaper. I live in West Jesmond, and cycle in, it takes me less than 10 minutes, to walk, about 25.

You’ll also need to decide who to live with, don’t rush into this decision, obviously if you completely gel with certain people, go for it, if you’re not too certain on some people, wait a bit, as you may actually not like them by the end of the year (it happens). Don’t feel pressured to go house hunting with a group because you’re worried you have nobody else to live with, you actually will do, such as people on your course, in your halls, or in the clubs apart of, do a bit of asking around, and most of all, be selfish, you’ll be there for a whole year!

Finding houses can be stressful, and you don’t always know what to look for. In first year I went to some accommodation talks put on by the university, designed to help you look for danger signs, dodgy landlords and what to look for in your contract. These was extremely helpful and I recommend it to everyone, plus the Uni has services all year round in the King’s gate building to help with this.

When looking around an accommodation, definitely ask the current tenants what the place is like to live in, how expensive are their bills, how cold is it, are there any issues, and most importantly, what is the landlord like, a good/helpful landlord is crucial!

Obviously, unlike most courses, dentistry is 5 years, not the usual 3, so I’d be prepared to live with course mates at least in 4^th and 5^th year.

Will, Dental Student

Hi everyone! My name is Danyal and I’m a 3^rd year medic here at Newcastle. In this post, I’ll just tell you a little bit about Newcastle as a city and what student life is like here.

The important thing about Newcastle’s campus is that it is very close to town. The Student Union and many of the campus buildings are practically in town which makes it very easy to dash into town in between lectures or in lunch to do grab food or do a quick shop.

Newcastle is known for its nightlife,  and there’s also a lot to see such as Monument, Grey St. (previously voted as one of the prettiest streets in the UK!), Jesmond Dene, and Tynemouth Beach. More importantly, Newcastle also has the St. James’ football stadium very close to campus. Students can get tickets for a relatively cheap price from the Student Union – I watched Newcastle end Chelsea’s 23-win streak which was totally unexpected! Another sight to see in Newcastle is Quayside (image below) – this is probably the most scenic part of Newcastle and is a great place to go out for a nice meal though it is slightly pricy so save it for a nice occasion! Lastly, the Metro Centre is worth a visit – it used to be the largest mall in the UK and you could easily spend a day there without crossing the same shop twice. It has the IMAX theatre, hundreds of stores, and lots of great restaurants.

There are lots of great places to eat in Newcastle! Some of the hidden gems include Quilliam Brother’s, a teahouse near campus, and Grainger Market, a farmer’s market in town where you can usually find good deals for most things! There are also several restaurants and bars in Jesmond, the main residential area for students.

If you wanted to get out of Newcastle for the weekend, you could easily make an inexpensive trip to Durham, Tynemouth, Edinburgh, the Lake District, etc. There are lots of places in the North which are easily accessible by public transport or even by cycle if you’re up for the challenge!

As you can tell, Newcastle essentially has everything you’d like in a city and it is accessible which makes it easy to get around! We’re also one of the few small cities with a metro system! If you you still aren’t convinced then why not come and visit and see for yourself, because it’s honestly a great city for students and all of the students here love it.

Danyal Ladha

Hi everyone! My name is Danyal Ladha and I’m a 3^rd year medic here at Newcastle. In this post, I’m just going to tell you a little bit about how the first two pre-clinical years are structured.

Year I

The first year of medical school consists of the following modules:

• Molecules to Disease: biochemistry, genetics, basic cellular physiology – this is essentially a review of A-level concepts
• Life Cycle: focused around pregnancy and male/female reproductive health
• Clinical Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Prescribing: introduction to pharmacology and basic pharmacology of the main conditions you cover over the year (done in second semester)
• Nutrition, Metabolism, and Endocrinology: the name says it all – you will cover all the physiology of nutrition including biochemistry (i.e. glycolysis, Kreb’s, B-oxidation, etc.) and also learn about the liver, pancreas, stomach, etc. This was one of my favourite modules!
• Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and Renal Medicine: this is the favourite in first year for most people! In this module, you’ll learn about the heart, kidney, lungs, and do a bit of haematology (anaemia, blood clotting, etc.)
• Patients, Doctors, and Society: this module involves all the communication skills, ethics, sociology, etc. and is quite dry in all honesty. Not people’s favourite…

In first year, you also have a few written assignments, the biggest of which is the Family Study. You, along with 2 classmates, are paired with a pregnant woman in the community and visit her at her home to discuss her pregnancy, both before and after it. You then have to write a bio-psycho-social report on your patient.

Year II

In second year, the first semester is mainly one module: Thoughts, Senses, and Movement. This sounds like it’s about your emotions but it’s actually the most intense module of the first two years – in it you do a bulk of the anatomy (including neuroanatomy and musculoskeletal stuff – upper and lower limb) and all of the neuroscience. It is a favourite for some but those who dislike neuroscience and anatomy have a hard time with it. I personally enjoyed it quite a lot!

In the second semester, the modules are as follows:

• Clinical Sciences and Investigative Medicine: pathology, immunology, microbiology, virology – this is dry at times but also quite interesting to learn about how all the different bacteria/viruses can infect the body. You also learn about cancer and systemic diseases.
• Clinical Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Prescribing: pharmacology centred around microbiology, cancer, and neuropharmacology
• Patients, Doctors, and Society: this is continuous throughout the first two years and will be there to haunt you every semester. Enjoy!
• Life Cycle: in second year, this is more focused on ageing

In second year, you do a Patient Study, which is similar to the Family Study but with a patient with a chronic illness. You also have an assignment called a Student Selected Component in which you do a research paper on a topic of your choice.

Something important to mention is that there is a module called Clinical Skills and Communication which runs throughout the first two years – in it you learn all the important clinical exams such as respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, taking blood, blood pressure, etc. You get to practise these on volunteers which allows you to practise your bedside manner and professionalism as well. I had to mention this because early clinical experience is one of Newcastle’s strengths!

I hope that was an informative overview of the first two preclinical years! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at d.ladha@newcastle.ac.uk.

Danyal Ladha

Hi everyone! My name is Danyal and I’m a 3^rd year medic at Newcastle University. In this blog, I’m just going to explain how anatomy is taught at Newcastle, and a few pointers for learning it based on my experience.

At Newcastle, anatomy is taught by prosection rather than dissection – this means that the Demonstrators and Anatomy Leads have already dissected the cadaver for us. There are obviously pros and cons to both methods but the benefit of this is that you do not risk damaging the specimen and ruining your own learning material!

In first year, you have a Dissecting Room session once every 2-3 weeks (more frequent in 2^nd semester) and you learn the anatomy of the thorax, abdomen, reproductive organs, heart, and kidney. In second year, the first semester is anatomy-heavy and you are in the Dissecting Room 2-3 times a week. All of the anatomy of the upper limb, lower limb, face, brain, head and neck, etc. is learned in this first semester so it’s safe to say that it is initially a bit overwhelming. If you like anatomy or neuroscience though, you will definitely enjoy this semester.

I initially found anatomy quite challenging but I certainly enjoyed it, particularly in my second year. Below, I’m just going to list a few tips which helped me a lot and will hopefully be of some benefit to you:

• Prepare for the anatomy sessions beforehand! I didn’t do this for the longest time during first year and it really helps to look over things for even half an hour the night before a session. If you walk in with no idea what you’re going to learn about, it’s all a bit overwhelming and you don’t absorb any of the important material they try to show you with the cadavers. You won’t have access to cadavers later on so try to make the most of the time you have with them!
• Use TeachMeAnatomy as a guide – I discovered it in second year and I wished I knew about it in first year! It explains everything in a concise and understandable way and has just the right amount of information.
• Watch AnatomyZone videos on YouTube – each one is 12-15 minutes and explains things really well in a 3-D format which really helps. I also used the program that the AnatomyZone teachers use called BioDigitalHuman – you can google this and use the website to look at any of the anatomy in 3-D. I’d highly recommend this as it helps a lot to visualise things from different angles.
• Use mnemonics and draw things out to help you remember them – I found that drawing out the blood supply of something helped it stick in my memory a lot easier than just trying to passively memorise it.
• With regards to textbooks, Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy has really good pictures as does McMinn’s Atlas (more realistic images).

I hope some of those tips were helpful and that you feel a bit more excited about learning anatomy now. It really is very interesting and it’s definitely important because so much of it is clinically relevant. Good luck J

Danyal Ladha

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

So, it’s finally dawned on you that you’ll be moving out very soon. You will have your suitcases packed, brand new outfits to wear and maybe even shed a tear or two at the thought of leaving home. Yes it is a little scary and yes maybe at times it will be a little awkward but after fresher’s week you will look back and wonder what you spent time worrying about. You get to try weird and wonderful things like petting a tarantula and riding a mechanical bull. Flatmates will become more like family and remember to have the all-important first flat meal together. Sleep will feel like a long lost memory but you’ll have such an amazing time at the event the night before you won’t even mind. Dressing up in different costumes each night really breaks the ice, I remember dressing up as such things as a Red Indian and a panda.

Everything in Fresher’s week is really designed to push you to talk to new people and in all honesty it does push you out of your comfort zone sometimes. However, all of that is for the better because everyone is in the same boat and you soon settle into university life. Be sure to sign up to all the societies you want to because first year will probably be the most flexible year you have at university to test out different sports or clubs, who knows you may even find a hidden talent. Don’t miss out on all of the free stationary you get from fresher’s fair (I didn’t pay for a pen in a whole year!). I’m extremely jealous of everyone that gets to be a fresher this year, the team who have planned it have really pulled out all the stops. Remember, you’re only a fresher once so make the most of it!