Keeping Organized

Organisation, this is something that is considered more of chore than something that is quite useful. The little things like keeping specific pieces of coursework in organised folders. This is a topic that could become somewhat confusing so bear with me.

I’m going to go off of my own organisational skills so some of you might even be better organised than I am. To view the full sized screen shot click on the images that are all in order at the bottom. So what do I do? Personally most of my work in college is on computer so it’s pretty easy to keep organised and I've noticed that if I didn't stay organised I would have to search through hundreds of files to find the work I’m currently doing and I could see that getting pretty confusing. The first thing I do is create a folder with this structure in naming “Frederick Knott – Business Studies” this is what it looks like. I like to keep it in a first letter capital structure because of my slight OCD. After you go into this folder you’ll notice that I have a folder for each tutor that teach me different topics to others and the ones who teach the same topic get put into the same folder. Jumping into the folder with two tutors for example sake my law folder, I have the folder with Beth and then Jasmine, then I have the assignment sheets and assessment records on the outside, this is so I know exactly where they are and I can just go straight to them when I need to. Once you go into the folders you’ll be met with pass, merit and distinction folders, these are self-explanatory. Once you get into the pass folder I have yet more folders and most of you are probably thinking “another folder!” but this is because in these units there are a lot of passes that have to be done in comparison to merits and distinctions. I have them split into different categories like “Business Law – Leaflets” and “Business Law – Posters” this is to ensure that I don’t have to look around for what I need to get to. For the units that require that I have lots of different images I then separate them from the work itself so that I have something to back me up just in case I lose the work.

That’s pretty much it for my way of organising my work. I can’t help with organising paper based stuff because I don’t do that kind of thing, but if you guys have any suggestions just leave a comment on how you do it :) Also most of my organisation is OCD like and convenience so do what works for you and I wrote this because when I've managed to have this standard of organisation in my work I feel proud of it (weird I know) but I thought I'd share it with you guys :)

Tweet me! @Jayson__Knott

Getting Help When YOU Need It

We've all been there, that time where you feel like everything is getting on top of you and the stress becomes a little too much. Some people can cope others (like me) seem to just give up sometimes and it’s easy to forget that there are people that can help you in these situations. So here’s a little advice.

1)   Accepting that you need a little help – A lot of people never even acknowledge that they need some help with this, accepting that you do isn’t a weakness. If anything it’s a strength because it involves accepting that you can’t deal with everything that is going on whether that is to do with your work or personal life it’s good to get the practical things out of the way, especially coursework because you don’t want to the work to pile up in times of stress as it would just end up adding to your stress.

2)  Seeking Help – This is another thing that people struggle with, most feel embarrassed or as if they are being a pest. I can guarantee that you wouldn’t be the first student to struggle, you’re only human and your college or school will know this. There is most likely someone to help you in school or college to email people you think will know about said person, for example your tutor or head of year if you’re in school. Remember you can get help with the stress itself or with the things that are stressing you out like coursework of the whole subject, just going to a tutor and having them explain things to you does a world of good.

3)  Follow the advice! – This is the biggest of them all! A lot of people go to see someone about some help in a close minded attitude. So because of this the advice they give you could be the best advice ever but you won’t follow it because you either think you are above it or you just don’t want to. So ironically, my advice would be to follow their advice! You’ve gone for the help that you need so you do need to follow that advice no matter what!

4)    Find stress relievers – this is the final step which is the most useful one of all. Find things that calm you down, whether that is just taking an hour or so to watch something on the TV or listening to music just do it. You need a rest you can’t be expected to do everything at once all of the time, you’ll just become more frustrated and everything you’ve gone and done so far would have been a waste, just sit back and relax!

That’s what I think you should do based on my personal experience, you’re not the only that struggles every so often :)

If you’ve got any good tips for relieving some stress let me know by either leaving a comment or by tweeting me at @Jayson__Knott :)

Looking For The Right University

So many of us have probably been thinking about university and some of us are studying for a BTEC qualification like me. But when you look at university courses online most of us have noticed that more often than not you see that their requirements are usually A-Level or AS. So what does this mean for BTEC? I mean take what I study for example, I do Business Studies Level 3 Extended Diploma which is equivalent to 3 A-levels. But what does this mean?

I recently had a look at Manchester University for International Management with American Business Studies and when I had a look at the entry requirements at first I was a little confused because I study BTEC and I had to look for the alternative entry requirements but after I found the BTEC option it became clearer. After look around more at different universities I got gist for the entry requirements and what most business courses have to offer.

So how do you find a course that suits you? Well coming from me I don’t have an exact way of doing this, I’d recommend just research and even if you have your heart set on a specific course, keep looking because you could find a uni with better version of that course or you might even stumble across something that interests you more. I’ve recently been looking around at universities and because my main access to the internet is through my phone and the computers at college, I would do basic research on my phone, like looking local universities and then I’d email my college email the links. After this I would go into college and when I got some free time I made a little table with what uni it was, the course, brief description, location of the uni and then the link. Of course this is just a starting point for me, I have until next year to worry about this but it’s good to have a head start instead of worrying too much when it comes to it.

Got a better way to look for a good uni? 

Tweet me! – @Jayson__Knott

Leave a comment :) 

Is It Worth Leaving It Last Minute?

The one thing I've noticed about college is that in those subjects where you have a lot of coursework its easy to let the work pile up. I'm guilty of this myself, there's always that one thing you want to first "oh I'll do it when I've watched this" or the classic "I'll do it tomorrow instead" and before you know it, your doing the work in a last minute panic barely scraping the deadline.

I don't know about you guys but personally I worry about the work more than I actually do the work itself!

I think it's time that we all stopped with the excuses and got the work done. I've recently stopped making those cliche excuses and just making a start as soon as I get the work. I can honestly say it feels WAY better. You are able to just relax after it knowing that now you can have those few hours of procrastinating doing whatever you want! 

My advice would be just simply get that work done as soon as you get it, mainly because now in BTEC there isn't the case where you can just hand the work in over and over again, get it back marked and then easily get the grade you want. Now you've only got one chance at a resub and that's it, if you fail, you just fail.

So is it worth it? 

I'll leave that to you.

What was your best excuse for not doing any coursework? Let me know in the comments :)