'The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about'. - Oscar Wilde

Song of the day: The Scientist - Coldplay


Last week I was on the middle of my 'English' adventure, so I could not blog, but have no worries, I will tell you all about it now! 


I left to London last Friday and I was there for a bit more than a week. As a whole, it was an amazing week. I saw my old friends, I met new people, I ate new things, I saw new places, I went shopping... just everything I could have asked for. 


I went to visit the universities in Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich, Lancaster and London. I have to say UCL wins for 'most beautiful university' out of the ones I visited. Lancaster and UEA are my favourite choices this time round. Lancaster reminded me a lot of St Andrews, the atmosphere was very nice and it seem like a bubble which is something I like. Norwich was also amazing, the day I visited they were all queuing up to get Coldplay tickets! The uni was  much nicer than I expected because I thought it was going to be much smaller and its so green. 


Now that I am back home  I have to go back to 'normal' life tomorrow. I have a lot of red cross paperwork to catch up with before the end of this week and then I am also volunteering in the Children's Hospital which is always entertaining. Also, I have been advised (several times) to start doing some revision and I think I am taking the advice as this time I want to be very prepare for the exams instead of cramming for them. Tuesday has then been my chosen day to start with the planning of my revision for January exams! I have never started revising so early so if anyone has any tips on this matter please let me know :) 


Lately I have receiving some comments / tweets/ emails asking how did I stay so focused and determined and I guess its is just because I really want that place at medical school and every morning I wake up and think about it and what it would mean to be a doctor and that just gets me going for the day. 


Also, I have now submitted my UCAS application as the deadline was yesterday. I am not sure if I have confirm my choices on here already but I have applied to Lancaster, Liverpool, UEA and Southampton and I have already received acknowledgements from Liverpool and UEA which was excited. Sad news is that last year, on the 18th of October I received and invitation to interview in Birmingham and chances are this year it will take much longer to get any answers from medical school. I guess, I should get ready for the long wait, or as they call it: 'the waiting game'! 


For now my gap year is going pretty well, at least better than expected, even though you cannot compare to those who go volunteering in Africa or on a tour around Australia... but do remember this gap year was very spontaneous as in theory I should be in university already! 


Well I have heard that 'things happen for a reason' many times in the last few weeks so I think that by the end of next summer I will know if it actually happened for a reason or not! 


That's all for now, I will write again next week :) 


Thanks for reading ! 


Beh 


PS: Best of luck to everyone applying to university this year :)

'Do whatever it takes to get to where you need to go', said Spanelsh twitter girl

Song of the day: Mi Lamento - Dani Martin


Summer is now over, even though the good weather continues which is nice. The end of September also means that everyone leaves to uni or starts schools... so most of my friends have gone to uni and I feel myself a bit lonely at times, especially when I get stressed about this whole 'messing up my exams, not getting to uni and having to resit and reapply' thing. 


At times I find myself very down because of all these things and I really need to talk to people. As my friends are very busy, and very far away, with freshers I don't really want to start worrying them just because at times I don't know what I am going to do if this time round it does not go well. Thankfully though, I have received a lot of support and constructive criticism from twitter.  My main support most of the time comes from Spanelsh  twitter girl, who is actually very good at motivating you. So I want to use this to thanks her :D 


Well, enough about others and more about me! I have just noticed that I didn't update in a long time and a lot have been happening recently. 


Exams wise, I asked for a remark which came back as the same. I paid for my resits in January, I will be resitting two chemistry and two physics exams and I also got my scripts back so that I can go over my mistakes. 


I have also (finally) decided where I want to apply. I will be applying to: Liverpool, Lancaster, Peninsula and Southampton. I really like all of them so it's not like I actually have a top choice or anything. I was a bit surprised by how nice they are as I had not even look into them when I applied last year as I knew where  I wanted to apply from the beginning last year so there was no need of research or anything. Liverpool has a really good course and from what I have been reading online it is a really nice city. The thing I really like about Lancaster is how it is such a small community, very similar to St Andrews in that aspect (where I applied last year), and I think I would really enjoy living in a place where you know everyone. Peninsula has all the things I want and the only thing I dislike is the fact that you cannot choose the location where you start the course, but I like surprises so its okay! Southampton is my only non-PBL choice, which is good as I have no experience with anything similar to PBL and I tend to be a bit scared of the unknown at times. It's location is also really nice, near London where lots of my friends are now.


Personal statement was supposed to be finished but then I kept reading it and some parts didn't feel like me, so I have now decided to go back and get changing many things so I am working on it at the moment. In  less than  a week I have the UKCAT, scary!, I need a good score for Peninsula and I have been practising lately but not as much as I should have to be honest so this weekend I will be staying in with my 600Q book. 


My job hunting with NHS Job has not been very successful so far but it's okay because I am very busy lately with the Red Cross where I am organising sex education talks for teenagers so I have to go to many meetings in the next few weeks with schools and other centres to arrange the dates and inform about the topic we will discuss.


Well , I think that is all for now. I should get my UKCAT book out and start working. 


Thanks for reading,
Beh
@behrouzn

PS: Wish me good luck with UKCAT !

19 Days Left of Summer

Song of the day: Different - LidoLido


My exams are done and I have finally catch up with all my lost sleep! All my friends are getting ready to leave to their university halls in about two weeks while I just think about what I can do to entertain myself. 


My gap year is 'officially' starting on Monday. Tomorrow, I will start to revise for the UKCAT which I have the 30th September and I plan to go to the beach and get my tan back because so much work indoor has made me look very pale. 


Tomorrow I am also going to talk to my Red Cross centre about the volunteer work to see if I can have something permanent in the evenings. My parents are going to help me arrange some work experience so I have to start contacting to people and also I have applied to some HCAs jobs all around England and I am waiting for them to contact me. 


On a non-medicine related note, I have applied for a job at my local Hollister (but I didn't include a picture because I don't have a recent one) and I am waiting for an interview as apparently they interview most people that apply for the job. I've always wanted to work in a shop, as a temporary job, and I really like Hollister so it would be nice to work there. 


To start enjoying myself during my gap year I have started the '101 things in 1001 days' challenge and I have until 2014 to complete them. 


In October I will be going off to London for a few days to visit my friends, so if anyone can suggest things to do then let me know! I am also going to the University of Manchester Open Day, even though their resit policy is now completely different to what they said after Results Day, but I have my tickets and I want to go and see it. Last year I went to the KCL Open Day and I ended up not applying there, this always happens to me! 


My university choices are still not very clear. My current options are: Liverpool, Lancaster, Peninsula, BSMS, Southampton and maybe UEA (they are reconsidering their resit policy). I  really like the first three and I will probably apply to those so I just need to decide one more choice. Personal statement is also on my 'to-do' list so I guess from Monday I will have to get working on it. 


Oh and also I think there is something wrong with me or my exam technique because since GCSEs every exam I take that I feel prepared for goes very wrong! 


Well that's all for today! 
Hope you enjoy the 19 days left of summer,


Beh 


PS: Sorry, I didn't notice it was such a long post !