Surviving A Level Results Day

For many of you tomorrow may be a very important day and you might be nervously awaiting your A Level results. If you are good luck :) 
I remember this day very well 2/3 years ago and I kind of knew I already had a place at university as I did 3 years at college which gave me more points for my course.

This year I'm working clearing at university and thought that I'd try and give some of my reader a few tips for how to survive results day and what to do if you don't get the results that you need/ want.

- Believe in yourself - Even though you can't change anything that you did in your exams, there is no point stressing about it. Try and be positive, I know that I doubt myself ALOT and that I surprise myself and end up doing better than I thought.

- UCAS will probably crash - Yes.. This isn't something that you want to hear but it happens. This is because there are 1000s of people who are wanting to see if they have been successful or unsuccessful. I remember checking from 7am and I didn't get on til around 9am which was quite annoying. You may get on it earlier and if you do well done. However some of you may want to wait to get your results from college/ sixth form to see if you have been successful.

- Clearing is always an option - If you don't get the grades you need for your firm choice or insurance then you always have clearing as a back up. Clearing this year might not be as competitive as it has been previously with fees rising and universities may have more places because of this. Check the UCAS website or the university that you are interested in and they will have a list of courses and the institutions with places. Make sure that you are interested in the course and that you don't pick something just for the sake of doing to university. Also try and call the unis as soon as possible to be in with the best chance of getting a place, phone lines will also get busier as the day goes by.

- Choices are important - Try to remember that you are going to be at the university for three years and will spend alot of time in the city. Make some lists of unis that you would definately like to go to and a list of no's, this is just incase you need to go through clearing.

- Make sure that you're contactable and can find information easily, have your UCAS number and an email address close by and try to stay close to a computer and a phone.

- Despite what happens try and stay calm. Results day and clearing can be daunting, especially if you've suffered disappointment with grades. Ringing up universities for a place through clearing might be the last thing you feel like doing but there will be 1000s of other students in the UK in the same position and unis deal with clearing every year. You may not end up going to the university you'd planned but it could end up being the best thing thats ever happened to you.

And most of all good luck! I hope that you all get the results that you need to get onto the course you want to do.

University is the start of a new beginning, so forget what has gone before and know that many others aren't as lucky as yourself.

ox

Sunday Summary 008

1. Dollars/ 2. Golden Postbox/ 3. Seaside in Sheffield/ 

4. Pineapple necklace/ 5. Painting the golden postbox/ 6. Picnic time on one of the recent sunny days!

So its Sunday 12th August 2012 which means its the end of the Olympics, I've literally not watched anything else other than them for the past 2 weeks and will be watching my telly this evening ready for the closing ceremony, if its as amazing as the opening ceremony then I may shed a few tears. I'm not sure what I'm even going to watch on TV this week as for the past 2 weeks its been sports, sports and more sports.

It's also a week until I head off to Florida and I'm getting so excited but nervous aswell because I've never been on a long distance flight, the only flight I've ever been on was 45 minutes to Belfast so if you lovelies have any tips or things I should make sure I take then please leave them in the comments below.

The gold postbox is in Sheffield city centre for the amazing Jessica Ennis winning the gold medal in the Heptathlon. She is such an inspiration and it was nice to be able to cheer someone on from my home city. I was so nervous watching but it was a freat thing to see and the whole of the evening last Saturday was pretty special with Team GB winning 3 medals in 45 minutes.

I've woken up this morning and realised that in a weeks time I will be in Florida! How scary. This week will be one of the quickest and most stressful weeks of my life which will be sponsored by lists as I'll make around 1000 of them! I need to pack, weigh, pack, weigh, check, double check and oh my. I'm scared, excited and panicking slightly.

I hope that you lovely lot have been enjoying the Olympics and have been glued to the TV too! 

Have you got any tips of how to pack for Florida? Any places that you recommened to go or things to buy?

p.s. Well done to Team GB for being super duper amazing, especially Mo Farah who is now the double olympic champion, he beat the Cube so it was only right he won both medals. I've become really patriotic this week and just hearing that national anthem sang on numerous occasions by huge crowds makes you just go 'wow'.

Kindle.

I'm a huge book lover and never thought that I'd actually ever cave and turn to ebooks but it happened and I bought a Kindle. For a few months I'd be in a battle with myself as to whether I'd prefer to stick with tradition or turn to a Kindle.

Since I was small I've always loved books and was a bookworm as a child, instead of being outside playing with friends most of the time I'd be inside reading a book which I didn't mind as it was my hobby in a way, so you can imagine the amount of books which I actually own. These include books from my childhood, The Tiger who Came for Tea, Mr and Little Miss Collection, Goosebumps, classics and my more recent favourites. I just always feel like having an actual book is better and being able to look at them all lined up makes me happy (in a strange way!)

I was also swayed by how much travelling I do, to and from university, going to different cities for ice hockey and the two 10 hour plane journeys that I'll be doing in a weeks time.

Once I'd charged it, I purchased my first ebook from the Amazon Kindle Store which was Karl Pilkington's travel diaries, I love this man and it's like a written version of An Idiot Abroad which I also love. I paid.... 20p! Yes thats it. The hardback version of the book was £8+ which put me off purchasing it.

So I'm guessing your wondering what my views are on my Kindle?

I absolutely love it and don't regret getting it at all. Part of me does miss having an actual book to read but there are many more advantages of having my Kindle.

It's really light and easy to handle, small enough to fit in your handbag on a day-to-day basis without weighing your bag down, it's really easy to use and best of all I seem to read books very quickly. I bought a baby pink case and a book light from eBay which simply clips onto the case, allowing me to read it in the dark as I love to read before I go to sleep. The battery also lasts for ages without wifi turned on and even with it turned on. One little problem I have with it is that I wish that ebooks didn't cost as much as a paperback book, maybe I seem like a cheapskate but there is no printing or materials required for it so surely it should be a little cheaper? Also you don't have to worry what books to take with you on holiday as you can take them all which is a big big big advantage in my eyes.

If someone asked me, 'shall I buy a Kindle?' My answer would be YES, YES, YES!

Do you have a Kindle? Are you obsessed with it as I am? Also what books would you recommended? I will read anything!

ox