thecatsouthebag: university

Top 4 High Street Lunches for Students

09:11:00

The Holocaust Memorial Trust Remembers All Genocides // The NUS Holocaust Debate

12:21:00

I'm writing this post fresh off the back of digesting the goings on at the annual NUS (National Union Of Students) Conference. 9 times out of 10, I agree with or understand the angle at which NUS members are coming from. When I do not, I accept delegates views - after all, the NUS was built on democratic foundations. However, I cannot stop myself from challenging today's outcry that the NUS should not commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.

Any NUS affiliated student union can, from my understanding, recommend amendments to NUS policies. This year, the Birmingham Guild of Students put forward the idea of the NUS officially commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. To me, this seems like a reasonable request. Many secondary schools, further education colleges, and youth organisations commemorate the day, so why shouldn't the NUS? But today I was shocked to see video footage pertaining to the dismissal of Holocaust Memorial Day by NUS delegates.

Darta Kaleja, from Chester University, challenged the notion, arguing that she was "against the NUS ignoring and forgetting other mass genocides and prioritizing others." Whilst I am fully aware that she "had nothing against Holocaust Memorial Day", and would never consider her or anyone else in the room to be anti-Semitic, I cannot help but think that both she and the clapping delegates have not done their research.

Holocaust Memorial Day has taken place since 2001, with the Trust becoming a registered charity in 2005. Since then, it has worked tirelessly to not only commemorate the Holocaust but the equally as harrowing genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia and Dafur. Events on Holocaust Memorial Day rarely centre on the Holocaust, but bring to light all genocides and the lessons we have learnt from their taking place.

Anyone can learn more about their work at http://hmd.org.uk/

Thankfully, the majority of delegates were for the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day, and the motion has been passed. The simple act of remembering the Holocaust at a national student level can only further the cause against genocide.

(I am well aware that me posting my opinion on this issue could cause backlash. That's just the way things go when anyone tackles a sensitive issue head on. I fully support the work of the Holocaust Memorial Trust and remembrance of all past genocides, in order to prevent these atrocities from happening again.)

Beth

exams

My Uni Revision Techniques

07:15:00

Every uni blogger has an opinion on the best way to revise. Every uni blogger thinks they have the answer to all your exam woes. But the truth is, no student can tell another student how to revise. We just have to work out a unique method that suits us ourselves. Today I want to share exactly how I revise for my history exams, in the hope that you may pick up a method that might work for you, or rule out the techniques that don't.

Colourful, novelty stationery makes revision days a little bit better...

Gathering my stationery and writing a to do list is the first task for my revision session. I take about 5 minutes to write out everything I need to achieve during my allotted time frame, making sure I don't miss anything important.

Spending time going over information and transferring it succinctly into spider diagrams works perfectly for me.

History exams at my uni tend to require students to answer two essay questions in two hours. Every topic is 99% guaranteed to come up in the exam, so we are advised to revise three topics fully and one topic partially for each exam.

Under these exam circumstances my revision tends to go like this:

1. Listen to/watch lecture recordings and summarise lecture topic in a A3 diagram.

2. Read/re-read and make notes on key seminar readings for each topic.

3. Re-read and make notes on any readings I have done for any coursework essays I chose to write on this topic.

4. Plan seminar questions and essay questions provided in the module handbook, in order to pull together all the information I have learnt. I do this in spider diagram form too. These plans then form the basis of my revision.

5. Highlight these plans until EVERYTHING is colourful (see picture above).

6. Repeat process for however many topics I need to revise, whilst also taking 30 mins out of each day (morning and night) to re-read and memorise existing planning sheets.

7. By the day of the exam, I have memorised each diagram, and am able to apply my knowledge to any essay question about any of the three topics.

An example of a finished lecture spider diagram

I hope this has helped one of you guys reading this. I remember being quite daunted as a fresher, as there was very little guidance from the university on how to revise as they assumed we already knew. Please do let me know if any of this method works for you, whether you be a fresher or a panicked 2nd/3rd year!

Good luck! Summer break is nearly here!

Beth x

buzzfeed quiz

The Buzzfeed Quizzes You Need To Kickstart Your Procrastination

12:36:00

lifestyle blog

Stationary Addict! // Paperchase Haul

12:06:00

history student

5 Totally Normal Sights Around a Uni Campus

13:27:00

As the end of my second year approaches, I've been reflecting on my university experience so far. Yes I could spend hours boring you with my academic progress and my mental well-being, but instead let me tell you 5 strange things I've seen on campus this past year and a half - things that could only happen at uni.

100+ Sports Team Members running across campus at 9pm wearing nothing but boxer shorts...

I never fully got to the bottom of this one, but I think this had something to do with sport society initiations, but I'm not too sure. I will forever remember walking home through campus after a Music society rehearsal, and double taking as around 100 guys in their underwear ran past. It was November and FREEZING COLD!

The Red Bull Milkman payed us a visit...
Uni is full of publicity stunts and marketing stints, but this was definitely the strangest. Each house was told to leave a special Red Bull cardboard box by their front door overnight. When we got up the next morning, we had been given 6 free cans of Red Bull. No explanation, whatsoever.

Batman ran around the library for a good 20 minutes, followed by a mob of angry students...
I thought I was seeing things when this happened. But no, Batman was chased round the library at 11am on a Wednesday morning. He was caught by the mob, and dragged off onto another part of campus. No one ever saw him again.

Someone decorated a tree with shoes...
I think this was some sort of attempt at a Christmas tree. There were 5 or 6 pairs of shoes flung over a tree, and no one bothered to take them down. I haven't checked in a while, but I'm pretty sure they are still there today.

I learnt to ride a bike at 1am, after a heavy night out at the uni nightclub, around the university plaza...
No one batted an eyelid. They were more concerned about getting their £1.50 burger from the takeaway hatch. I was having a great time, and learnt a skill I would never forget.

I love my subject, but the peculiar things that happen on campus really do make university that little more interesting! Whats the strangest thing you've ever seen on campus?

Beth x

beauty blogger

March Favourites

13:02:00

50 book challenge

Quarter Life Poetry by Samantha Jayne (Book #8)

08:23:00

50 book challenge

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (Book #6)

11:38:00

“But it’s like time is sort of … balanced. We’re young for such a small fraction of our lives, and yet our youth seems to stretch on forever. Then we’re old for years and years, but time flies by fastest then. So it all comes out equal in the end, don’t you see.”

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler follows the life of one family, and one house, across three generations. I was drawn to this book purely due to its beautiful cover; I loved the retro photograph and its juxtaposition with a modern font. Looking back now, I can see why this juxtaposition is used. Yet despite the promising cover and blurb, I have to say I was a little disappointed with this read as a whole. But I shall get to this later. There are some good aspects of this book that I feel need to be covered first!

I did enjoy the story and was satisfied with how it ended. Tyler certainly takes great care polishing her narratives, and certainly creates believable, complicated characters. As a result, the reader really has the chance to fully immerse themselves in the story and the problems facing the family. I for one, spent whole afternoons ploughing through this novel, so sucked in that I totally forgot about time and my to do list.

Furthermore, Tyler tackles some very real problems facing families today. What do children do when their parents start to show their old age? How do they navigate looking after their parents, whilst looking after their own lives? Can families really stay close to each other forever? Does a significant death in the family change things forever? I was really stunned by the amount of topical issues raised in this novel, and I honestly feel like I took something away from it.

But despite all this praise, I wouldn't label this book one of my favourites, or one that I would read again. The chapters were far too long for me, and I feel like a couple of them were irrelevant to the story as a whole. Also, whilst I liked that the story was split into four distinct parts, I felt that the story got a little more boring after every part. Whilst it only took me a day to read the first part, it took me six days to read the remaining three, shorter parts.

Overall, A Spool of Blue Thread is worth a read if you enjoy modern American Literature and novels about the family. If you can get past its ever slowing pace, you won't be wasting your time giving this a go.

history student

5 Things No One Tells You About Studying History at Uni

10:31:00

A year and half after I started my history degree, I've come to realise that some aspects of my course have differed significantly from my expectations. Some differences I wish I had known before the start, some have been a pleasant surprise, and others are downright hilarious. Here they are...

Studying history is an eye opener and a game changer.

1. You will study some pretty weird stuff.

History at university level is nothing like A Levels. Yes, you can study traditional history. But even the traditional history can get pretty unconventional sometimes. I've just written 3,000 words on the policing of homosexuality and transvestism in early modern Europe. I've also studied the history of murder and the Victorian love of death photography. No one can prepare you for what you uncover during your studies, but embrace this unconventional side to the course!

2. You will find your historical niche, and you will be surprised by what it is.

Despite being horrifically unknowledgable in the science department throughout my school years, I have become an absolute medical history nerd. To the extent that my degree will ultimately be a history of medicine, science and disability. I'm writing my dissertation on the emergence of the medical profession in the nineteenth century and their obsession with freakish bodies. Hopefully I will get a place on a module next year exploring Cold War Human Experimentation and I'm currently studying the role of photography in nineteenth century scientific discourse. When I started my degree, I was 100% sure I wanted to focus on East Germany under Soviet Rule after the Second World War. I couldn't have been more far from the truth!

3. Contact hours are few and far between, reading lists are huge.

The only downside to studying history is the lack of contact hours. I am only in classes for 6 hours a week, which is a little bit annoying when I am paying £9,000 a year to study. However, there is a lot of reading and essay writing to be done outside of class. Although every history student hates reading for seminars, at least it makes up a little for our lack of contact hours.

4. History academics are a different breed of academic.

I have yet to encounter an unreasonable, intolerable academic. I don't think my uni's history department has any. 75% of them however, in one way or another, are absolutely crackers. Some study weird things, others do not believe in authority so allow you to do pretty much what you want. I have even had a lecturer chose to not record their lectures, in fear of future backlash from not only the university, but national intelligence services. Nothing they said in any lecture was a matter of university or state security. Ever... But it made us all chuckle.

5. History books and historical documents give the most fearsome paper cuts you will ever experience.

So much pain. All the time.

Beth x