First Years...come and share your experiences

[JDBfangirl]

College, Uni, OU or anything else. How's it going? The good the bad and the obscure.

Lol JDBfangirl, the phone call is always the bit I hate the most!

OsmosisBanana, glad to see you again! Least 2 of your assignments are ones you can get into But ooo 3 exams... hope they're not gonna be too tough!

I'm finally on my last piece of homework (at least I think it is, need to go through my notes to double check it all in a bit). DD's at mum's so I'm making the most of the quiet time til 1pm tomorrow.

I am currently trying to a SWOT and PEST analysis on my industry... which is highly difficult cause I really don't know a lot about photography other than using a camera. They're doing it from the pov that we would want to do our own business or go freelance. Ideally I wanted to do this degree so I have the knowledge I need to be able to go work in a studio or something for another company so don't really feel like any of this applies to me but I guess it would be interesting to find out if I actually knew what I was going on about! Lol. Think I've done the SWOT, just need to do the PEST which seems the most difficult as it stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological...

I'm currently packing. Going filming in Keswick on Tuesday. Trying to make myself a bumble bee costume for final night fancy dress. Not going well.

LV - hope you've packed your wellies, weather is vile up here at the moment.

Have managed to get a bt done today, mostly portfolio stuff. Moving and Handling was going well but am now confused at some of the questions. Will dig them out later and have a good look again. DS keeps dragging me away (last time to watch that twee nonsense "Come Outside" with Nurse Gladys Emmanuel. Granny loves it, mummy thinks its utter shite.)

Intend to spend time with DH tonight as he has probably forgotten what I look like. Have woefully under used LoveFilm Subscription... think we have The Future is Unwritten - Joe Strummer - might be on the cards with a big packet of minstels

JDB, don't say that! Thousands of £'s of camera equipment is being used....oh nooo....gonna be interesting...

my college was too tight to buy camera covers and went absolutely mental when we returned equipment damp. Being in the far north west of England you'd have thought they may have thought about this .

Best you can hope for is crisp and cold I have my team building on wednesday in the lakes so I will feel your pain.

jdb, that makes sense....both vascular and urology are ver interesting and the step one seems totally cool....but, hmm....mot of the ot bit

well...have thought over my project poster thing (me as an occupational being...)...and after looking at teh other posters of previous students...I thought, of my universe and so a planet thing....if you know what I mean, and then dh had a really good idea....the whole evolutionary thing...starting from embryo, etc.,..
so shall see what I do in the end...also thought of a clock thing, that spins, but don't think I am really creative enough to achieve a working example...

notalone, where are you? well, finished that "And now you know" book and ex bulimic written and can say it was one of the worst books I ever read...aigh....certainly will not base my coursework in the summer holidays on that., lol....but got those 2 , aapparently hard to get, must read books..so, at least I got them now, before everyone wants them, lol...

Oh good luck LV. And hope the weather's not too awful for both you and JDB! It has been horrible lately.

Well I'm still stuck on some of my homework. I need to come up with a PEST analysis on the photography industry, and no idea really how to go about that. I need to research flash photography, and got some pages saved on my bookmarks but no brain power to try and make sense of it all and put it into my own words. I also need to type up some work, which isn't urgent, just needs to go into our work book for end of the year so shall do that when I have less important things to do. Then I need to find my CV for work based learning and my old portfolio. Hope they're around here somewhere! Lol. So really I don't have a lot to do, but feels a lot! Hehe.

DD's back home, but DP came over last night and will be going back home tomorrow so he's helping me by keeping her entertained and cooking dinner. I'm quite shocked really! Lol.

Am back! Sorry its been ages but have had to do two presentations this week. One of which was sprung upon us at the last minute but I worked hard on it, finished it then got an email from the lecturer sayng not to do it as a presentation after all but to just fill in a pro forma instead. Needless to say I didn't start it again lol. We have also been given our first two assignments so I have been trying to start preparing for these. I have lots of ideas but a limited word count and I have no idea if I am on the right track or now. Luckily we all feel the same so we spend lots of time clutching at each other going "AARRggghhh - help!!!"

Tammybear - thats horrible regarding your group. I think it would be easier for you if there were perhaps more people in your group maybe. Is there a big age difference between you and the cliquey ones? What are the others like who are not cliquey? Hope you are making some in roads on your PEST - its a horrible feeling when you get stuck isn't it?

JDB are you looking forward to your outdoorsy day then??!! Hope the weather is good for you.

Freakyladyfrightalot - how are you getting on? Your poster idea sounds fab! We have to get together with another member of our group this week and teach each other a skill so we can do an activity analysis. I have just realised I have no skills!! I am not sporty, I don't knit or sew, I am a crap cook and I don't think mumsnetting, going out for a gossip with friends or watching telly are classed as skills. To make it worse my lovely partner plays gaelic football so this is the skill I am being taught She is very nice though so hopefully she may excuse my lack of co-ordination! Why was the book so terrible? I found Iris the hardest so far. I am now reading My Year Off by Robert Mcrum who had a serious stroke. I will then be on Alison Lappers book which I got from the library on Saturday.

Hey Osmosis - glad everything is going well for ya!

How is the Bumblebee Lollipop?

Notalone - Mumsnetting while swatting away a small child from the keyboard is a skill not to be sniffed at and takes much practice

Hi Notalone, glad to see you back There isn't really a big gap. Bout 5 years, so it's not a major age gap but they do act quite immature for 18-20 year olds. Unless it's just me lol. But there is one girl who's 19 that is like me, so we hang out, but I don't know if it bothers her like it bothers me iykwim.

Lol, well good luck with the assignment! I know exactly what you mean hehe.

Well I haven't been at college today, but had a crappy day none the less. I spoke to Income Support which is what I'm currently on as I haven't heard from them since I sent off my letters and stuff to confirm that I'm a student and what loans/grants I'll be getting. The only sum of money they should take into consideration is my maintenance loan which is £4000 for the year, I think.

Well the woman I spoke to said that they have to suspend my payments and perhaps make me pay back the "overpayment" from when I started my course! So now I'm wondering if this now means I'm not entitled to housing benefit which will really screw me over as my maintenance loan does not cover my rent each month for a year let alone any other expenses.

I mean I'm a single parent technically as DP isn't DD's father and he doesn't live with us. I rent a 2 bed flat through housing association with just the two of us living here. I don't have any savings over £6000, so the £4000 maintenance loan doesn't come near that. And I don't have a job. So why the hell are they taking it away from me!? Grr. So that's another headache I need to get through on Thursday on my next day off. Tut.

TB - I hope you get it resolved, its stressful enough without having to worry about money. I haven't heard anything from Grants people and loan people are awaiting info from Student Loans Co and my uni. My CRB only came back this week so I suspect thats what they've been waiting for. The grants people hadn't even got round to proccessing my form as of a week ago. All very depressing! All means I have to keep working, one of my clients died yesterday which is a bit sad, I'd been one of his carers since i started my job in May. Reckon it could be a Jamesons and Coke night

Lol JDB - think you may be right there!

Tammybear - have you thought about speaking to CAB because that doesn't sound right to me. I am not even sure if they can count a loan as income as you have to pay it back. I honestly don't think the people there know what they are doing and quite often its a matter of calling and speaking to someone else to get it sorted out. Have you also checked the entitledto website (sorry I don't have a link) as that is supposed to tell you what you should be getting after you input your details. Good luck though - bet its stressing you out no end.

We had Interprofessional learning today with paramedics, nurses, midwives and social workers. The nurses were not that friendly sob but the rest were nice. However we now have another 3 assignments which count towards our final mark plus lots of smaller tasks on blackboard which I sort of managed to get through in 2 hours this afternoon. I now have 5 assignments and am a wee bit panicky. Bugger Bugger Bugger!!!!

Hey, thanks guys Well it does say that I may be able to get income support if I am a full time student with children, so hopefully they'll pull their socks up (to put it nicely) and sort my claim out. So I think on Thursday if I haven't heard back from them, I'll phone them and find out what's going on. I'm gonna send out another lot of my confirmations recorded delivery this time, or possibly just go down to the job centre myself so I know they have what they need.

I also looked up housing benefit. It says that if I'm on a low income and paying rent, I should get it, as well as the if I'm a full time student with children, so gonna go in there on Thursday as well and get that sorted. For some reason I thought I wouldn't be able to get it if I wasn't on Income Support, so hopefully I'm wrong. Guess I will have to wait and see!

I'm not so bothered about the income support, as long as my rent is paid and I have money through the maintenance loan to pay my bills, I'll be happy! But yeah just not what I need right now, as December is such a terrible time for me! I've got my DP, DD, and sister's birthdays, mine and DP's anniversary, Christmas, New Year and my sister's due to give birth then too... Shall be home made gifts this year I think lol.

JDB - sounds like an excellent plan! I've got a mug of thick hot chocolate though lol. I'm not getting my first part of the loan til beginning of next week, as I've finally got my student loan confirmation through, so going to our uni on Weds to get it sorted, and supposedly after 3 days I'll have the money. But not gonna get my hopes up too much yet lol.

Notalone, omg 5 already! Good luck!!

hi, an i join? im doing biological science. really enjoying...so far. completely exhausted though and should really be doing some work lol i hope to get into uni after to study nursing

Hi All,
well, not exactly doing what I came here to do...sigh....but I can't get into blackboard site, it seems (no probs earlier though and the Book I was going to read is all loaned out and the shelfcopy is not about neither.....great...not...

Yesterday I came in to do selfdirected study, only to spend most of teh time printing the fecking material out....what a flipping major pain in teh you know what!

Got a Library session in about 20 minutes...and then something in the afternoon, lol!

Glad to see everyone had time to say hi and glad!
Are we all still liking it or regretting ever getting involved, lol!

Notalone, we got that sort of skill thing coming up...think I will do baking....surely you got some special little talent? Any particular dish/cake/cookies....?
How about anything artsy/crafty ,something like making crads/ drawing, making christmas decoration...anything like that maybe?
Anyway, better be off...finally got into my blackboard site...wohoo....

Speak sopon again....possibly tomorrow, what with me not coming in to Uni, might got a bit mroe time!

Hi Snotdrool (lol @ name!) and welcome.

Had Ethics this am and Intro to learning disability nursing this afternoon. Am home now and going to work in a bit. Another client died this morning so I've only got two to do tonight.

Have InterProfLearning tomorrow and Numeracy. Might spend an hour in the library swotting for essay tomorrow evening.

Glad everyone is finding their feet and sorting through the issues.

Omg snotdroll, awesome name! Lol. I LOVE it. And hi! Lol.

JDB, so sorry to hear about another client

Freakylady, hope blackboard sorts itself out. And it's so annoying when that happens isn't it?

Well this week seems to be full of drama for me! I stupidly (can't stress the word stupid enough! Lol) forgot my work folder at college, and realised half an hour later when I got home. Half hour later after that I managed to escape back to college to find my folder has now disappeared and was not where I had forgotten it... which wouldn't be so bad if it was just my work and notes and stuff cause I can always sort that out with my other classmates. BUT I'm suppose to go to our uni to register tomorrow and in my work folder are my letters about my student loan and my UCAS acceptance letter, both of which I need tomorrow morning at 10:30...

Hoping beyond hope my tutor found it and put it away somewhere safe til I come looking for it, but he wasn't in when I managed to get to college again, so I'm praying. Please pray for me! I dunno if I'll be able to register without them, and this is the second time I have to go because UCAS didn't recognise me first time round. ARGHHHHH!!!

But other than that, I felt better with my class today, so must have been an off day lol. Plus we have a new student with us now, so I feel more for him as he's come in when we've got to know everyone better by now. But I tried to catch him up with stuff he's missed this morning, though half of it I couldn't even recall! Lol. Anyway gonna go sleep and rest my head before my brain explodes with all the stress lol. x

Okay all that panic was for nothing... I feel like a prized idiot! Lmao. I went first thing this morning, and my tutor was in a meeting that wasn't going to finish for another 40 minutes. Then our technician guy came and opened the darkroom, and the idea had already occurred to me so I thought I'd double check, and low and behold, my folder had fallen behind the radiator so I hadn't seen it night before... Such an idiot I am! Lol.

So managed to get to Uni, and I'm all registered. Got a letter from the loan peeps telling me that DWP need me to confirm my NI number, so I'm guessing they're trying to sort out my benefits at the moment. Good good.

Gotta get down council tomorrow as well to sort out housing benefit. And I've got to prepare a presentation that I'll be presenting next Wednesday on 3 companies, as well as creating a CV that I would submit to an actual job (), and I need to research a photographer, and finish off my research on flash photography. I also need to come up with a theme for my project that I need to do still life on, and so far all I have is sweets! Lol.

How's everyone else? x

tammy, oh god, that must have been a panicky time, then...glad it sorted itself out though!

JDB, sorry to hear about your client Very sad!

Well, did homestudies...and prepared for group work tomorrow, all about a case study...and printed out lecture notes, and stuff...

still got some reading to do though...so, will have to do that now!

Other then that a pretty uneventful day....
Oh, tammy your incident, somehting like that happened to me yesterday...I took a small handbag with me, aswell, as my big backpack...well...I only went to go home without it....luckily I was still only walking towards the car, so, could return and retrace my bag...and luckily purse and stuff was all how it was meant to be....could not have coped with cancelling bankcards, etc...right now...

Also, got talking to teh tutor who is the module leader for the part timers...and ask her about the possibilities of switching over, if I do find it to much full time...and she was very positive about that....but agreed with me, that this term I will try how I get on full time, then do my placement and then, if I feel it's to much we look into switchover...

FreakyLady, that's good that you can switch over if it's too much. But that would have been worse if you hadn't remembered so soon about your bag!

I went down to council today to sort out my housing benefit and she asked to see two bank statements, child tax credit letter and child benefit letter. Wish they would tell me that before so I had it all! So gotta go down again once I get my CB letter back. Also got a letter from Job Centre saying my Income Support claim has now been closed. It's not an official letter so not sure exactly how they worked that out. Bet they ignored my letter saying what did and did not count as income. So going to be patient and wait for the offical one and then appeal if I'm not happy. Mainly my housing benefit I'm just worried about at the moment. Praying I get at least some of that!

Back from my team building in the Lakes. Weather was good. LMAO at the younger students who were "eeek" about the fairly low levels of mud and for one of the challenges water. I had a great time and really enjoyed it.

Had a tutorial with my tutor about my essay and she's happy with it . Actually had a lovely chat with her about the course and how I ended up at uni. It does make a difference when tutors seem interested in you as a person. She's a bit of a no nonsense type (she's the one who threw the late students out of a lecture)but lovely all the same.

Tammy - glad you found your folder, I'm great at those sort of tricks

Freakylady - Glad you are getting things sorted.

I'm going to walk into town and get a few things (DS is two next month - need to start looking at pressies) And then I might just treat myself to a lovely hot choc somewhere warm as I think |I've doone bloomin' marvellous today [self congratulary pat on back emoticon]

Hi everyone!

Been having a mare this week. We have inter professional learning and the lecturer is next to useless. He talks really quietly so no-one can hear him, he is disorganised (for example yesterday he forgot to order the pc for the lecture so we had 1 hour 10 minutes instead of 2 hours and had to catch up most of the work at home)and he doesn't go through any of the vital areas with us and makes us do role plays instead meaning we have to do all the learning at home. The work is piling on now as too and we are all really feeling the pressure. I sat in the learning centre on Tues all day and for 6 hours yesterday and got very little done so was panicking a bit. I got more done today but its all stressful at present. Arrgghhh!!!!

Tammy - you sound like you have been having a time of it as well. Glad you have finally enrolled now. You should get HB surely shouldn't you? I know you probably won't get income support but hb and council tax should be given to you as a student with no other income.

JJB - that is so sad. Were the deaths expected? Think you definitely deserve that hot chocolate after doing well on your first essay - congratulations - you must be over the moon!!

Freakylady - that handbag thing sounds just like the sort of thing I would do lol. Are you still leaning more towards the pt route then? If you are I don't bloody blame you lol! Will you still get a full bursary?

Notalone IPL is a complete pain in the arse. I wish they'd just give us the tasks as let us get on with them as a group. We have another couple of sessions then it disappears until the spring (thankfully). My group are lovely, its just the way the lessons are handled that I find annoying.

And it was only my essay plan that I went to see my tutor about.. sorry forgot that bit. I'm still happy and feeling a bit more confident about writing the darn thing.

Notalone - Know exactly what you mean. This week I haven't had much to do which seems really weird compared to the last few weeks. Although we were set research on a photographer but we weren't told what to do other than to look at his photographs. Shall investigate more as to what we're suppose to be doing. That sounds like our work based learning. Our teacher doesn't do well talking in front of a class and doesn't know what he's on about. Maybe they're all like this for this particular part of our courses And no idea about housing benefit. It said online I should be able to get it, even if it's some would be nice! But I get council tax exempt from me now which is very good!

JDB - Glad you're feeling good about doing your essay Best way forward!

I'm back from Keswick! Amazingly, the weather held out for us!