Hi my lovelies! If you're reading this post then it probably means you read my 'University Part 1' post and actually enjoyed it and/or found it useful... yay! If you haven't read it and are all a bit confused, click here to go and read it now!

Whilst Part 1 covered organisation, equipment (books, stationary, etc.) and what to expect during your induction week, Part 2 will look at Freshers, time management and Moodle (or whatever online university portal your institution uses). Part 3 will cover my favourite topic, finances and budgeting!

So, Freshers... what is it? Where is it? What is happening? First rule about Freshers - Freshers' Week is definitely not just a week. Although the week before you officially start uni is normally titled as Freshers' Week, the whole of September is Fresher's Month. I would say that this section applies more to those of you who have moved away to uni, are living in halls or some form of uni accommodation. My uni doesn't have that big of an SU (Students' Union) so our Freshers wasn't really advertised as much as one of the bigger universities would have been, but even we had The Cheeky Girls performing at Liquid (I'm not even ashamed to say I went) as our main Freshers event! But this is the time where you can meet and make new friends and just have a care-free time socialising with the people who will be your crutch for the next three years. Often, pubs and clubs reduce their prices for Freshers on certain nights or for certain events, you just need to do a bit of Googling to find out the deets for your uni. A lot of Freshers-y stuff will happen on campus, I've known one Freshers activity to be the different accommodations having sing-offs in the SU, and it's such a great way to get to know everyone. My own uni does events such as pub quizzes Casino Nights, film days, karaoke, to name a few. If you are planning on fully throwing yourself into Freshers, which I would definitely advise, then it's a no-brainer for you to buy a wristband if your uni offers it as it'll save you so much money and you'll be able to get into everywhere for free, when the other suckers have to pay a fiver each! For Freshers itself though, I feel that's all I can really say as, like I've said previously, Freshers wasn't a massive thing at my uni when I started.

Something that I was digging however, was the Freshers' Fayre. That, my friends, was amazing! The fact that Dominos turned up and gave out free pizzas aside, I got so much cool stuff, and it was all free! Pens, pencils, notepads, piggy banks, gift cards, travel mugs, cakes, as well as so much information, it was coming out of my ears. If there is something that really interests you, and makes you you, there will definitely be a society for you to join. Whether your passion be sport, music, or even if you really enjoy watching films, there will be something for you to take part in so that your time at university isn't 100% working all the time. It's good to give yourself 2 hours off on a Wednesday night because the Film Society is showing one of the Harry Potter films, and they supply the popcorn and Pepsi, you've earned that break. Whilst university can be a fresh start for many, don't forget to hold onto a piece of yourself while you're there. Also, don't shy away from the people on the stalls at the Freshers' Fayre - they want to give you free stuff! Accept your poor student lifestyle and take it! Maybe stay and have a chat with them about what their stall is about, after all, and if it's something that interests you, sign up! I'm actually a bit gutted that I'm going to be away on holiday when the Freshers' Fayre is on again this year, I always love to go and have a look and get some great freebies!

My 'Virtual Learning Environment' (I'm trying so hard not to snigger) is Moodle, and although it will look different for every institution, it's pretty much the same. My Moodle homepage is a list of the different modules that I'm enrolled onto, and once you click into a module, you see each session you have scheduled (Session 1, Session 2, etc). This is where tutors upload the PowerPoint presentation that was used during the session and also any extra bits, such as government documents, any PDF reading, or interactive things that they'd like you to get involved with. I would definitely recommend using Moodle and using it a lot. I like to download and save the presentations the tutors put up as I found that sometimes they would change them when an assignment deadline is close and take out some information and re-upload them, that way I have the original version, fresh with helpful hints and answers. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

The main Moodle page where you can access all of your modules

Within each subject's Moodle page you will also find the Module Handbook - this will actually be your bible - along with some other 'admin' stuff and, I'll be honest, some things that the tutors won't even look at, let alone update. But it is important you familiarise yourself with the page as this is where you will find all your tutor's information, where you can message them, possibly upload your assignments and receive your assignment feedback and grade, and, if the tutors bother to keep track and keep it updated, you will be able to view your attendance.

Please do excuse the horrific editing job done on the faces - I really do not want to be sued.

The more meaty subject now... time management! The easiest time management strategy that I've found is just to treat your time in uni as 9am-5pm (or whatever suits your and your family) Monday - Friday. It could be that on a Monday, you're in lectures from 9am-3pm, then you have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off and you've got a lecture Friday 11am-1pm. That's awesome, you have three days in a row off, right? Wrong. Oh, so wrong. Get this out of your head right now!! The only days you have off are Saturday and Sunday, and even then you might need to do some work. If you're going to uni with the intention of having a lie in every day and having 5 days off a week, then sorry, but you're either going to struggle to get enough credits to pass your first year, or you'll end up scraping a pass (in which case, why did you want to extend your learning in the first place?!). What has worked for myself and all of my friends is coming into uni for 9am, which is when our first lecture would be, and then going to the library afterwards. If you do it with a friend or a group of friends, but you keep it consistent, you'll slowly start to chip away at your work and it will honestly take the pressure off massively because you're still socialising. There's nothing I love more than spending all day in the library with my best friend. We'll do some work for half an hour, have a bit of a moan because we'll say we're not cut out for uni (it's total lies, we're so cut out for uni), have some dinner, do another half an hour of work, maybe have a little dance off or try to do the floss, have a wander down to the vending machine, and by the end of the day we've done 500 words, which when you've got a 2000 word assignment, is a massive help. Using this method, I've been able to crack out an assignment in an afternoon and I got a 73 (1st) on it. The library will be your new happy place, I promise.

Another good time management strategy is to plan your week. It doesn't have to be eccentric like what you're going to have for dinner every day, just a basic plan of what your week is looking like. Have an appointment at the hairdressers? That's fine, just pop it into your plan and work around it. I like to use Microsoft Word on my laptop and create a table, as I find it easier to visualise that way. I fill in the times where I know I've got lectures, so the example you see below, I was in uni on a Monday from 9am-4pm and Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am-2pm, while I was in work from 1pm-8pm on a Friday, had a piano lesson from 6pm-7pm on a Monday and had an aerobics class 6pm-8pm on a Wednesday. Then I had all these other blank cells where I could plan my study. I don't know the actual facts and figures but I read somewhere that you're so much more likely to do something productive if you write it down on a plan and commit to doing it. So, do it! Your plan doesn't have to be anywhere near as large as mine, I just like having it hourly so I know what's what but you could even just do a Monday - Friday, morning, afternoon, evening, which would be a basic plan.

My fairly complicated weekly plan - yours can be loads more simple!

I find it difficult to plan the work I'm going to do without having an actual plan for my plan. It sounds ridiculous, I know. And if I'm being honest, it is. But what I mean by that is, if I have an assignment due, on for example, makeup, I don't want to just sit down and start waffling on about anything and everything to do with makeup. I like to either draw up a plan using a notebook and different coloured pens where I will write the different headings; Introduction, Paragraph 1 (Skincare), Paragraph 2 (Foundation), Paragraph 3 (Brows), etc. and underneath each heading, I'll write a little bit about where I want to take the paragraph, and make notes of any interesting points (and make sure to write the reference down!!!!!!!). Because remember, university isn't about what you know, it's about researching and finding out many different points of views, and being able to convey which point of view you agree with in a subtle way. So you can't plan to talk about all the things you already know, which is a bit of a bummer. But usually with me, panic sets in so I make my plan on the Word document that I'm writing my actual assignment in - no joke, my best friend will tell you we do this all the time, some of the best assignments have been written this way! Always make sure to try and get your word count in so you know what you're aiming for, and make sure you are cover the Learning Objectives within your paragraphs. So for the assignment below, one of the LO's was to have an understanding about creativity, so I made sure to define creativity (hint: don't just use the dictionary, you will almost always find someone of note within your area who has defined something - I used Ken Robinson, he's a great fella!), then I went on to talk about things that can influence creativity, how creativity is implemented within the curriculum, whilst also being critical and comparing it to other countries' curriculum in terms of creativity. You will find that if you are on the right lines and have actually written your assignment well, you'll struggle to stay within the constraint of the word count. Remember to always try to link whatever you're writing back to your LO. I think in this assignment, the word 'creativity' appeared about 2038 times.

I always, always, always make sure to have some kind of plan, even if it is done using Word and is written on the same document as the one I end up submitting.

This is my best advice on Freshers, Moodle and time management. I really hope this has given you some food for thought and hasn't bored you completely and utterly to death. I know it does sound overkill, but it honestly works and makes you feel like you have some kind of control throughout your time at university. I'm not going to lie, it is hard, and you will struggle at some point, but as long as you are organised and manage your time well, you'll breeze through it and be able to take the hard times with a pinch of salt!

Thank you so, so much for reading and don't miss my next blog post which will be all about budgeting and finances - exciting stuff (if you're me)! See you there!

Thanks for reading,