Taha: University: Is it worth it?

Many of you reading this will be facing a big decision is your life in regards to your career. In amidst of all that is one very important question that has many benefits and arguably some disadvantages. That question is do you want to continue your studies by going to university? The truth is you do not have to go to university. Some people just do not like the idea of continuing education and would rather be working or have an apprenticeship. Others would have decided they would like to take a gap year either to travel or to figure out the important decisions in regards to career and life in general. So in order to help you with your decision I decided to sate three of the main dilemmas you may face with going to university and advise you on how to conquer them.

• Dilemma 1  
• “University is too expensive - I do not want to have a life time of debt.” 

Yes the maximum fee for university is £9,000 but student loans and bursaries can help you to cope with this:

Student Loans
When many people hear 'student loans' they become scared of a life time of debt. They do not want to be in a debt at such a young stage of their lives. However, don't forget that you only start to repay the loan when you earn £21,000 a year, and after 30 years, the loan is wiped off!

Bursaries
A bursary is a special grant that is given to students whose family/household income is less than £25,000. Here are some key bursary facts:

• Bursaries are free
• Bursaries given to the entitled student each year  
• Some universities pay much more than others. Sometimes £3,000 a year 
• Bursaries don’t affect eligibility for state support such as maintenance grants and loans for tuition fees and living costs
• Eligible students are entitled to receive bursaries as well as any scholarships they are offered

• Dilemma 2 
• “I want to start working straight away”

I respect the decision if you want to work but if you are stuck on whether you should enter the working world or stay in education here are my suggestions:

Apprenticeships
An apprenticeship is when you learn the important details about your job while working. It basically focuses on experience and preparation for work rather than just learning. A key website that is very beneficial for finding out about apprenticeships is http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/ which I suggest you visit if you want to work rather than stay in education.

Part time university course
A part time university course is basically when you spend some part of your week studying at University, leaving the rest of the week for you to work and earn some money and experience.  Courses do generally take longer to complete this way. Its is marketed by universities as a great way to balance your life and can develop time management skills.

Here are some key facts which Birmingham City University state about their part time courses:

• same course and qualification as full-time study
• work while you study
• balance your studies with other commitments
• employers may contribute to your tuition fees
• same great levels of student support and facilities
• study can fit in around family and work commitments
• potential to progress in your career
• large group of like-minded people

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/student-info/types-of-study/part-time 

Placement Year
While a traditional university course is likely to be three years long a placement year course is in fact four years. The extra year is in the middle of the course and is a work experience/placement year in which the student is paid for their work.

Aston University state:
“75% of Aston students take on graduate level job while studying, making them better prepared for industry and the professions.”
I am actually applying to an Aston University placement year course myself as I believe the work experience element of the course will help support my future (like it has done to my cousin) this is because it is very likely the work experience provider will take you on for a fully paid job after university and if not you will have the advantage of work experience and will be more desirable to recruiters in comparison to graduates who have little or none.

• Dilemma 3
• “I do not think I have the grades for the course I want.”

Why not consider these options:

Foundation year
A foundation year is basically when you take an extra year before your course which is the equivalent to your A levels. Basically this extra year prepares you for the university course assessing your knowledge on the course. It takes dedication and hard work to get on the actual course via the foundation year. A lot of universities offer foundation years including Wolverhampton University who states “FDs combine the teaching of an undergraduate degree with practical, work-based learning, and show you how theory applies to the realities of business. That means what you study is always relevant to your day-to-day operations.”

A2B scheme
The access to Birmingham University scheme is a way of helping local low income families from areas with less access to higher education get into to The University of Birmingham by lowering the grade boundaries dependent on the applicant (I can assure you though that a typical offer may be AAB or BBB etc.)
The University of Birmingham state  “The Access to Birmingham (A2B) scheme is designed to help students from families and communities in the West Midlands who have little or no experience of Higher Education find out about what studying at university involves. ”

In conclusion I recommend that you at least think about these options and hopefully you will find the path way for you.

Kamal: The Skills Show

This blog is dedicated to The Skills Show which took place from 19-21 November in the NEC located by the Birmingham Airport.

The NEC hosts UK’s largest events from releasing new products to hosting events such as the Comic-Con. Whatever big event happens, it happens here at The NEC Birmingham.

People from around the UK and other countries come to explore and find out new things; I was lucky enough to go to both the Skills Show and the Comic-Con events on the same weekend.

In my previous blog I used a quote on opportunity and when using quotes you should be able to use them in the real world and simply not just know them.

The Skills Show is an event to help young people find something like their career path to a small part-time job - mostly focusing on apprenticeships and traineeships.

However both the Comic-Con and the Skills Show will not be held in NEC for another year at least.

Life is about figuring out what you enjoy and/or are good at. “You can’t score without a goal”.

I hope you like the photos I took on the day and I hope I never write a blog shorter than this one, ever.

Thanks for reading! :-)

Maisie: The Stats of Future Students

Hi all,

As you may be aware, the college held an Open Day on Saturday 17th October, to which many young people attended hoping to get a taster of college life at Cadbury.

During the day, I supported the college and represented the student body by acting as a "journalist" for the day, making the most of my student blogger role.  I interviewed 30 randomly selected visitors to find out what it is about Cadbury that students are most interested in, and what we are doing, and can do, to spread the word and promote our college.

Below are my results.

The above clearly indicates that our connections with schools across Birmingham play a huge part in attracting year elevens, and our positive reputation means young people help promote us within their social groups.

From the results, it is clear that our number of courses and range of choice is recognised across Birmingham. I myself first visited Cadbury because it offers Further Mathematics. However, the majority of visitors attended the Open Day to browse, and compare it to other colleges they may have visited. This is why our Open Day is so important. The day gave us a chance to show off our assets to the public, and present ourselves in a positive light to the young people thinking about applying to the college.

I attempted to speak to possible applicants around the college on Open Day, in order to speak to a range of people with different interests for a fair test, however my results still seem slightly bias.

Regardless, Cadbury attracts many students who aim for a more academic set of qualifications due to our reputation with sciences, as the results above clearly indicate. Nearly all students who were interested in Maths also wanted to study a Science. Those who wanted a more creative set of results chose either Psychology or Sociology along with artistic courses.

It is important for us to take note of the volume of young people interested in our courses, so we are able to continue facilitating and supporting our students with their decisions.

I asked our visitors how interested they were in applying to Cadbury College, and 50% said they were extremely interested, and loved the college so far! Of the 30 people I spoke to, only one said they were not interested in applying to the college, and that was only because said visitor had their heart set on a place closer to home.

Looking at the above, and the overall results of the interviews, I would say we had a very positive Open Day, with a huge number of visitors and possible applicants taking a shine to the college.

I would like to thank all of the visitors that took part in my little experiment, and I hope to see you again in September!

Regards,
MT

Maisie: How to handle "Assessment Hell"

Hi all,

Current Cadbury students will be fully aware that the week before our blissful break was the dreaded assessment week. During assessment week, we are, you guessed it, assessed in all of our subjects to ensure that we are able to succeed in our chosen courses.

Some will be ecstatic with their results, and I congratulate those who achieved their targets. Among us, though, will be those who are disappointed with their results.

I will admit, I have been incredibly disappointed in myself due to underachieving in the past, but the trick is bouncing back. I have witnessed fellow students cave in on themselves after disappointment, and they began to form negative patterns which only ended in more disappointment.

My advice is to use that unpleasant feeling, and transform it into motivation. When it comes to challenges, I live by the four P’s.

Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

It is all in the preparation. We are past the stage where we can say “it’s fine, I’ll just blag it,” and manage to scrape a B. The time has come for some serious study schedules.

Those who plan on going to university may need to think about the effect poor preparation WILL have on their future. If you have big dreams, which have qualification requirements, you have two choices. You can either settle for another career, or get your act together and fight for what you ultimately want. It’s a hard long fight, but it’s possible.

Alya: 5 apps to help you study

Many people will tell you to bury your phone in a soundproof box 6 feet underground when studying, but your phone can actually be quite helpful. It fully depends on how you are using it. Here are some ways I use my phone to get the most of my revision.

• Pomodoro

The Pomodoro technique is great and if you’re not using it already I would recommend you to do so. It is a time management technique developed by Franceso Cirillo. Pomodoro means tomato in Italian and references the tomato shaped timer he used when studying as an uni student. The idea is simple, but it can improve your study habits immensely.

First, break a big task into small task and write them down. Do the first task and time yourself for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, you take a 5 minute break and then do the second task, and so on.  After four Pomodoro’s you take a 15 minute break. Working in short intense sessions while taking short breaks improves your concentration and the way your brain retains and processes information. For both Android and the Apple Store, simply search for "Pomodoro".

I use ClearFocus on Android. Its simple design and its ringing tune that is not annoying makes it my favourite app. Also, it blocks your WiFi during the 25 minutes and when the 5 minute breaks comes up it shows a green screen that ticks 5 minutes; enough to grab yourself a snack or make yourself some tea!

• Rain Sounds (Android)
• Rain Sounds HQ (App Store)

This app proves that I’m not the only one who finds the sound of rain strangely calming. I use it whenever I’m studying in a crowded place such as the library. Having rain as a background noise helps me to improve my concentration because music with lyrics can be distracting.

• TimeTune Schedule Planner (Android)

Time management is one of the key things for better grades.  TimeTune allows you to plan your day and to schedule in anything, including study sessions. It has a clear simple interface and it notifies you when you need to do something. It also has a statistics section that shows you how you have spent your day.

• Free dictionary (Android)

Everyone loves an old fashioned dictionary, right? But a digital version can be a little bit quicker sometimes. This app in particular is great because it has both an offline thesaurus and dictionary for English.

• Forest: Stay Focused (Android/App Store)

This app is also a timer. It works with 30 minutes intervals and the moment you start the timer you are given a tree. If you try to leave the app, i.e. the moment you are distracted by your phone it gives you a warning that says, “This will kill your little, cute tree”. Believe me, the tree is cute and if you have any morals you don’t want to kill it. After 30 minutes you get golden coins in the app. You can use these to buy bigger, blossoming trees. The more you use it, the prettier your forest gets.
It is free in the Android play store, but 79p in the Apple App store.

Happy studying!

Amandeep & Saiba: UCAS Advice!

As the UCAS deadline is fast approaching, we thought for this month's blog, we'd share our overall top tips on dealing with it all.

1) Research! 
Most uni courses are for a couple of years so you're going to be doing the course for quite a while. Make sure you've researched your course to see if it's suited to you and if it's something you're capable of completing. Don't just go for a course because of its social status or because your friends are picking it - make sure it suits you!

2) Referee connection
Make sure your referee is on your side! Make sure you have had some sort of discussion with your referee and that they have a good idea of who you are as a person! That way they have loads to write about you.

3) WoWinG PS
Your personal statement needs to WOOOOOW the uni! Really go for it and express yourself, make yourself sound exciting! There's loads of advice on the UCAS website on how to write the perfect statement.

4) Be sure to check out the course you wish to apply to online or through an up to date prospectus, for the reason being, old prospectuses may give you the wrong UCAS code/information, or the university may not offer that course any more! So be sure to check out an up to date prospectus!

5) Visit university open days, as they are very useful because you get an overall feel of the campus, and you'll also have a chance to speak to the lecturers personally and have a much clearer approach in regards to what course you'll like to pursue at university.

We hope our advice has helped you in some shape or form!

Until next time... :)

Kamal: Blog No.2

Time draws near for a second blog to be published. Enjoy the last one?

Last time, I discussed my college experiences with a quick overview on the transition from school to Cadbury Sixth Form College.

Everyone should be settled in by now and realised whose friends groups they fit into and so on.

We finished our first half term with mini-mocks, so we could practice our exam technique and prepare ourselves for the summer term!

There is a detailed insight on our report. Perhaps that C in English and B in Maths suggests you can “work harder/revise more” in English and so forth.

What’s happening in Cadbury?
Coming in early December is the Cadbury talent performance held in the Bob Michell theatre and tickets are only £2 each. Something to check out. I am attending and will be reviewing it next month I hope. As long as you pay attention to your emails you should be updated with what’s happening when - like an online notice board. From small notices speaking about lunch menus to trips such as Thorpe Park and Spain.

Last month the Open Day at Cadbury was a success and should have shown some students what Cadbury life is like. More details are on the Cadbury Twitter page. Try to participate in anything you get the chance to!

'Seize the moment because some opportunities don’t come twice’

I took a couple of still shots to represent College life; the first being a bus, which shows how most of us get to college, the second being the closest McDonalds to illustrate work. Perhaps looking for work now is a good idea? Some extra spending money is always nice and you could even save up for something your heart desires.

P.S. Thanks for reading the monthly blog, and if you ever need to speak to me, feel free to do so.

Isobel: Exploring Textiles

Hi everyone,

November is upon us already! Last month I wrote about starting college and dealing with the switch into a brand new environment. But now, after spending many more hours here at Cadbury, I want to tell you all about a subject that I am really enjoying at the moment; Textiles.

I want to talk about textiles in particular because, for those who are interested in the subject, knowing a little bit about the opportunities and facilities on the course may be helpful. There’s so much that I love about the course, so I hope you consider choosing it as an option if you study at Cadbury and you have a passion for creative subjects.

I didn’t take textiles at GCSE because I felt as though the course was too structured and limiting and wouldn’t enable me to develop my own creativity. The most important thing about a creative course is being able to experiment, make mistakes, follow your instincts and have freedom of expression with your work. With A-Level, that’s what you get. Yes, you’re given guidance and the teaching is excellent, but it is important to have your own individuality and personal chance to explore textiles and design.

You start the course with an empty sketchbook, every page plain and bland. But even over first few weeks and months, these pages soon become plastered in photographs, annotations, sketches, textiles samples and so much more. We were given the theme Savaged Beauty: Beauty and Decay for our work. It is now our role to interpret this how we wish, create samples inspired by our ideas and we will eventually create a final piece. The final piece can be almost anything you wish, whether it be a fashion garment, a home furnishing, an installation, a display board, and that’s just to name a few.

At the moment we are practicing a range of techniques such as batik, embroidery, screen printing and pleating. We are taught the basics of each technique then it is our role to expand on these with our own creativity, making our knowledge even greater through the use of experimenting by ourselves. My favourite technique so far has definitely been screen printing. The facilities at college are fantastic. We have access to professional silk screens, proper screen printing tables, a screen-washing room and a huge array of coloured dyes to print with. I'm incredibly happy with the results of my screen prints. Here’s a photo of my favourite sample:

I’m enjoying my textiles course so much that I have been researching undergraduate degrees at university for textiles and interior design courses. I visited a textiles talk at Birmingham City University a few weekends ago, and it was so exciting to see all of the equipment and facilities they have on offer there. The work produced by their students is outstanding and very inspiring for my own work. I learned that the creative field is incredibly competitive, with loads of people working to be the best. That’s why it’s so important to put all of your efforts into your work now so you can reach those top grades in your subjects, then you will be well on your way to being the best in whatever you want to do, whether it be creative or not.

Here's a photograph of some of the work on display at Birmingham City University:

If you need any guidance with choosing the right courses for you at Cadbury, then visit us at one of our open days, or contact a member of staff who will be happy to help.

Thank you for reading my second blog post, I’ll see you next month!

Who can believe the year is nearly over?!

Bye for now,
Isobel

Dorottya: How to manage exam stress

I think we all know the feeling when we’re a bit more stressed than usual because an assessment or an exam is coming up. Now, a little bit of stress isn't harmful; it can motivate you to work harder. However when you get to the point that it distracts you and messes up your daily routine, you need to tackle the problem.

Here are 7 ways you can reduce exam stress:

• Listen to the old classics… I mean really old classics
• Listening to classical music makes you more productive by elevating your mood and encouraging you to study more and the more you study the more you know and the more you know the less you stress
• Pop those Bubbles
• I don’t think I have to explain how satisfying it is to pop the bubbles on the bubble wrap. It just feels good and relieves stress as you concentrate on popping instead of stressing.
• Go to bed… and get some SLEEP!
• Sleeping isn't only great because we all love it, but it helps your brain to save the new knowledge into the long-term memory so that you’ll remember what you learned on the day of the exam.
• Chocolate, DARK Chocolate
• Good news chocolate lovers, eating dark chocolate which is over 70% cocoa helps your brain to fight stress hormones and has an overall relaxing effect on your body which means it reduces stress.
• Don’t let any distraction distract you 
• When you need to study, make sure you’re not wasting your precious time on social media or on funny cat videos. Concentration is essential for efficient work which is important if you don’t want to be stressing on whether you studied efficiently enough or not.

These are the few little things you can do to avoid too much stressing before exams and most of these things benefit your brain in multiple different ways.

Other than that, researchers concluded that the most common reasons for exam stress are:

• Low motivation levels
• Lack of preparation and planning
• High expectations from others

If you watch out for these things and do everything to reduce your stress levels, you should be fine for your exam!

Good luck!

Dorottya: Making a start at Cadbury College

This year, hundreds of new students joined Cadbury College. Getting into an entirely different environment can be difficult sometimes, however fitting into Cadbury isn't hard. Besides having a great variety of subjects to choose from, the college also has awesome societies that we can join and meet people who have similar interests to us. There are a lot of people with different styles, personalities and backgrounds, which makes it easy for everyone to fit in and make friends. The new students at Cadbury didn't only do well in fitting in, but they also made a great start academically. Most students are able to keep up with their work and get fairly good grades on their assessments right at the start of the year. This is probably partly because of the very supportive teachers we have at Cadbury who are ready to help us out whenever we need it. It doesn't only help our grades, but it also makes the college a friendly environment as well. We also have plenty of opportunities to express ourselves in the college outside of the lessons. There are societies such as; The Law Society, The Chess Society, The LGBT Society, The Anime Society, The Glee Club and of course, there are lot of sporting facilities as well. However, if you haven’t found a society that you would like to join, you can create your own! There are lot of great opportunities at Cadbury College and students tend to seize them, which means I can honestly say that we made a great start this year at Cadbury both academically and socially.

Jasmine: 5 Tips for success during A-levels

Hello again!

I thought I would do a quick little update on the old 'blogosphere'. I got inspired for this particular blog post whilst sitting in the LRC (The Learning Resource Centre, as it is officially known as, but it's just "The Library" to you and me!)

However! It isn't "just" a library, it's a LIBRARY. Its set up to imitate one you would find at University, just on a smaller scale. (I know this because I volunteered as a student guide during my first year). Cadbury College is making a Uni student out of us all from the get go! It's arranged with the Dewey decimal system, something that all Universities do. It may sound all complicated, but don't worry, once you get used to it, it's a doddle!

Anyway, that was a slight detour from what I was going to blog about…

Considering as I am a second year student, I like to think I have mastered the whole "knowing what to do to pass" – Maybe be true for my first year, but I'm still getting there for my second year.
So, as many of you reading this are either first year or are in your GCSE year, or even if you're younger and just wondering what A-level and college is like, here are my 5 top tips for a successful first year!

1)  Revise as you go along.
This maybe the most important one, hence why I put it at number one! You cannot, without a shadow of a doubt, revise weeks before the exam. There is no way that that is going to end well, for anyone! (Wow, sounds scary. I don't mean it to be scary, I promise!)
You probably got away with revising 2 weeks or so before your GCSE exams, and ended up with an awesome grade (I personally wouldn't like to admit that myself, mainly because my teachers would be HORRIFIED!), but for A-levels, a 2 week revision wouldn't even cover a single topic, let alone the entire first year of your course.
Revising as you go along and making the most of the end of topic assessments you'll have in college - you'll thank yourself for it. You have to do this for the top grades!
And I don't even mean hard-core revision. Even just going over the notes again after class, maybe writing them up again, looking at them and taking everything in. If you revise as you go along, there isn't going to be that sudden rush towards the end of the year, right before your exams when you're staying up late into the night, revising for the exam the next day, freaking out.

2) Do a revision timetable.
My favourite thing to do, ever! Mainly because organising and colour coordinating things is my dream job.
Making sure you have a timetable makes you revise (at least that's what happens with me, anyway). This way, you can timetable in things you like away from revision as well (You can't give up your social life, that's hard to deal with).
A general rule in college for first year students is 3 hours of revision per subject, per week. Personally for me, I wouldn't revise a subject/topic for more than 45 minutes per session. Small chunks of information are much better than huge chunks of information you're forcing into your head, because it'll just go through one ear and out of the other.
Make sure you go over things again and again. Just because you've revised topic 1, don't leave that until exam time to go over again.
My revision timetable changes every term, so then I can change it up, and not get bored of it! Boredom is what makes people not want to revise. Make it fun for yourself!
And make sure you reward yourself after your hard work! I make sure after I revise, I watch a few episodes of a show I'm currently watching, or read a book, or write a chapter of a novel I'm currently writing (wow, it's suddenly turned into a 'what does Jasmine do with her spare time?' blog).

3) Take extra notes!
College issue you with textbooks for a reason. It isn't just what you go over in class. If you do extra notes, condense them down and rearrange it into your original notes. If you're unsure, ask a teacher! They're extremely helpful.

4) Take mock exams seriously!
I know so many people who felt like mock exams didn't mean anything, but then realise towards exam season how important they truly were. It isn't just a chance for teachers to see who may need extra help with certain things, but it's also a chance to practice exam technique, which is massively important at A-level.
Especially at second year, as mock exams are an important factor for your teachers to decide your predicted grades which get put onto your UCAS application for Universities to see.

And last, but definitely not least…

5) Get a good night’s sleep before any exams.
You’re probably like “That sounds really out of place in a list of tips on how to deal with A-levels”, but it’s really true. A sleepy, tired student doesn't equal a top grade student.

WOW! This blog was EXTREMELY long. Sorry about that. But I do hope they help you with your studies here at Cadbury, or wherever you’re studying.

See ya!

Alya: First Blog Post!

Hello everyone!

I'm Alya, a 17-year old AS Cadbury student doing Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Creative Writing. 

This is my second year in Cadbury College because I did my GCSEs here.

I enjoy reading and writing and have a passion for psychology, poetry and baking.

In 2014, I came to the UK from the Netherlands so I had to do my GCSEs first. This was pretty new to me, especially in a college environment in a city as big as Birmingham.

I've prepared myself for the worst after having read about A-Level students who went to big colleges with big classes where the teachers don't care about you because there are already thirty other people in the class. Also, making friends seemed almost impossible in an environment like that.

But I was (pleasantly) surprised!

The teachers in Cadbury College were amazing and passionate about their subjects and they genuinely wanted you to succeed. Even the classes were perfectly sized and settling in was much easier than I thought. Luckily I didn't get lost and if I wasn't sure about where I was going both staff and students were ready to help.

Cadbury College is a sixth form college, and a relatively small college that really reminded me of how it was in the Netherlands where 1000 students is usually the maximum. So, being in the UK in a big city as Birmingham didn't give me much of a culture shock after all.

Even now, in my AS year, the different teachers still have the same passion for their subject whether it is Chemistry or Creative Writing.

So far my college experience has been pretty good and it had taught me that all colleges are different and that it is really helpful to attend open days or taster sessions to get a feel for the College you are choosing. Alternatively, you could always read a blog post ;-)

Alya

Taha: My College Experience and What I Have Learnt

At the start of my First Year at Cadbury Sixth Form College things were complicated; it seemed that the skills I learnt from Oldbury Academy were not enough to prepare me for the transition to college life.   As such, it took me quite a while to adapt. 

Eventually I got used to the idea of doing independent learning (revision) every week rather than a week or two before my exam (which I did during my GCSE's). During the first few months of college I found out that I have dyslexia which was a major shock to me as I did not really suspect that I had a so called "learning difficulty", but eventually things like not having the best memory or spelling started to make sense. I was granted extra time during exams to accommodate my dyslexia.  Despite being granted extra time, I decided that I had to put in more effort and work harder (a concept that took some getting used to considering my lazy habits and love of procrastination...!).

The thing that I look forward to the most about college is learning. I am a curious individual with a genuine interest in my subjects. The thing you need to take advantage of when at college is the freedom and the independence. By this I mean the freedom to choose any subject you want to study, choose what coursework topic you will focus on, choose an enrichment activity that you are interested in and choose what societies and extra-curricular activities you will get involved in.  If you are interested in what you do, you will tend to work harder and therefore should achieve the grade you want and deserve.

During college I have learnt to ask teachers questions whenever I can. It's a privilege to be able to learn and develop in small classes, so it is important to make the most of this while you can.  The importance of independent research is something I also see as important during college and will become more important during university.