Access to HE 2012-2013

I dont like study skills either! This research project we have to do is a nightmare!!! i havent evenb started yet!

What is it all about? I am not there yet. But I find study skills so boring... I mean, ok, I have learned a few nice things, but having to write about study skills kills me! Though I admit that I should just man up, after all it's not that bad.

Our study skills have just been a pain in the backside really. We've done things like analyse our learning styles, organising our time effectively, plan revision timetables, essay writing, presentation, five year plans etc. It's not that there is anything really bad about them but I'd rather spend my time doing hardcore chemistry than colouring pie charts. Some of them are mandatory but if nothing else they make up the credits so you have to do your best at them because they could be easy merits/distinctions.

I have done all of that except presentation and five years plan. What's the later like?

Hi everyone,

So today i had the assessment at Birmingham and fingers crossed i get an interview now, they said i should hear something within the next two weeks.

I have an interview at Birbeck Univesristy for Access to Science but it's so expensive££££4.600 for 1 year course??part time!shocking!!!!!!

I am not sure whether I can afford this...I don't now much about grants and loans.I am just wondering whether there is any fincancial squeme for access students(i M 29yrs old)????Does anyone know?

Thnks xx

It was part of another assignment so I just did a flow chart to be honest, maybe others wrote a few paragraphs instead. Its a bit of a silly one for someone applying for a 4 year degree with a 1 year pre-reg afterwards and a fairly well defined career path but I guess for someone doing a humanities access course and then a 3 year degree then it would be important for them to have a rough idea of where it is going to lead them.

We are very lucky in that our study skills tutor doesn't want to read through masses of stuff and likes things concise so we focus on meeting all the criteria to an excellent standard in the minimal amount of work possible.

What are you going to do at uni? Your tutor sounds cool. Mine is also all right, I mean it could be even more boring if he wasn't so laid back and prone to be funny.

Something a bit off topic- Has your class changed after a few weeks in the course? The week before Easter we got our first assignment back, it was a Psychology one, and it is worth 3 credits. So it was a big deal for most people, me included. I worked like a slave! However I was not confident at all and though it was not good enough... So there is this one girl that has changed her attitude a bit when she found out that we are aiming for the same course and uni. However, then she became normal again. But, since that day she has changed again. I am not sure what grade she got, but I got a D in all the criteria and in the lunch time before receiving the results she said she was pretty sure she would get a D whereas I said I was expecting a pass... Apparently no one else got D in all the criteria so I am starting to believe it didn't go down to well for her, which disgusts me really! I don't know what to think. But I am starting to think that this is going to be awkward, I was expecting to make friends! People are also not helpful at all. An handful of people don't care about anything and the other handful seems to be selfish, proud and competitive. There are a few people that seem to be nice but they're a minority! I have also been listening to too much back bitching....

Is this normal or I am being too pessimistic here?

Anyone know what the consequences (financial or otherwise) would be for dropping out of an Access Course? I'm just weighing up whether it's worth starting one half-heartedly or not.

Hey.. As someone else has said I don't think there would be much point in starting it if you're not sure whether you'll see it through - I have heard that in the majority of access courses there can be quite a high drop out rate for a number of reasons. Only do it if you are certain that you want to progress to university, as otherwise it would be a waste of the college's/ staff's time, and also your own time! If you have a change of heart and find it's definitely what you want to go for then do thorough research in to the course you feel you would most enjoy/ like to study before you enrol

I spoke to the course leader regarding my fees and she cleared it up for me - it looks as though I won't have to pay the full fee after all and it is in fact a full level three qualification, which is what I initially thought, and the receptionist worried me over nothing.

I think this sort of behaviour is probably relatively normal when you get a bunch of people together

That's really ool.

You're probably right and maybe I am too naive cause I was kinda expecting to have the same environment as I did in GCSEs and Alevels in matters of getting along. It's not that we don't get along fine, we do, and most of the people are friendly however there is also too much back bitching and I don't see the point of that, especially considering that we barely know each other. I don't feel comfortable when I see people that I once considered cool saying nasty things of someone behind their back. And it makes me wonder if they say nasty things behind my back as well. Anyway it's too early too tell, really, and all I can do is keep on being approachable to everybody and besides that not everything is bad. I am sure I have already made one friend and there are a few people that I get along with especially fine.

What a major rant. Sorry.

You don't have to tolerate listening to back bitching. In the past I have said to people "I wouldn't listen to them bitching about you so do me a favour and don't bitch about them in front of me". It is fine to politely tell people you are not interested in class politics. How they react will depend on how badly they want to be your friend. It will either earn you their respect or lose you their friendship.

Remember the access course is over in less than a year (well ours will be, not sure how it works if you start in January). The teaching weeks on our course add up to about 28, when I found things hard I would add up how many lessons/days/weeks I had left (only 4 more Maths lessons!).

I just wanted to say to everyone applying for an access course this year, good luck! I was here this time last year really nervous about my interview and tests etc.
Now I'm nearly finished and I can only say it has been one of the best, most stressful and enjoyable experiences of my very sort life so far!
I've been offered a place at UCL in London and couldn't have done it without the huge amount of support you get on your course
My tutors are all fantastic and I know my fellow classmates would agree.
You're all in for a hard time, but trust me, when it's you here this time next year, you'll feel amazing!
Good luck! x

I really feel it would help me to set realistic goals.

I really want to study history at uni, but the only universities that have courses that I would enjoy doing are: Lancaster, York, Manchester and UCL. Durham do, but on the table I was looking at before it says that there are no mature students accepted onto their history courses