Business mentality

When you walk past a hospital, do you look up and see its windows? Is it a new building? Are there colours? Do you imagine to yourself what the doctors and nurses are doing inside- caring for the sick, saving lives... It's the same with a court. There are likely to be people inside, looking to improve our society by applying their knowledge and evaluating situations.

When you apply for a medical degree, it helps to want to help people. But what you mainly need is a great, maybe even morbid interest, in one area of medicine. Radiology, Paediatrics, Neurology. Why? Because it's a difficult profession in which it is likely that you will be relied upon to contribute to the health of others and to help solve medical anomalies. But what you must keep in mind is that a hospital or a general practitioner's office is not just a place for helping or condemning people. It is a business.

When you apply for a legal degree, it helps to want to help people. But what you mainly need is a driven, maybe even obsessive interest, in one area of law. Family, Criminal, Media. Why? Because it's a difficult profession in which it is likely that you will be relied upon to contribute to the predicament of others and to help solve legal anomalies. But what you must keep in mind is that a court house or a legal office is not just a place for helping or condemning people. It is a business.

While these two admittedly unrepresentative professions do happen to inflict a large amount of power over certain realms of society, we must always remember that somebody who has trained for years must have money coming from somewhere. Either these people are working for their money (and if you feel they are overpaid try being them for a couple of days), or they are already rich and simply working because they are interested in their area. These are very tricky jobs to have. A simple mistake can cost a life, whether that is literally physically true, or because you have just allowed your client to be imprisoned for life for an offence he did not commit.

My point is, there's no argument in doing something lots of people find invaluable if you're not going to have a pricetag to go with it. These professions are businesses. These businesses, however, are not governed solely by profit. They are also governed by ethics. Research and hard work goes into being a doctor or a lawyer. You are dealing with other people's lives, their liberty, their happiness, their health. If you wish to obtain a job such as one of these, then certain qualities have to be either acquired or brought to light.

- Ability to work under pressure.
- Ability to work long hours.
- Enjoyment of puzzles.
- Enjoyment of hostile and confused clients who need you to use non-technical language so they don't walk out feeling lost and confused.
- Organisation beyond compare.
- Teamwork.
- Communication skills.
- A long fuse.

In short, business mentality. If you don't know how to run a business and how to operate efficiently, then you find out how, you change things, and you carry on. Research and development. Of yourself. Of your profession. Of your goals.

Be good at something. This year, learn one new thing that will help others. Make it a goal. Find out how to achieve it. Stick to the goal. Improve. The point is, high-flyers wanted to be up there. And they got what they wanted, by managing themselves and creating opportunities. Create opportunities.

Happy reading, folks!

How to prepare for exams

Most of us mere mortals out there (fact: there's at least one or two aliens in every school who will do well at almost everything, usually with the exception of sport) have a time where we do badly at exams. Now, there's a time and place for fails. I'll tell you now, the acceptable place to either metaphorically or physically faceplant is NOT at your desk in that quiet hall full of people. It's usually on a Friday night when you're out with mates, getting pissed and doing silly things. On holiday when you go skinny dipping and your clothes get washed away. On the weekend, when you plan to try and get up and end up in bed until gone one pm. NOT as you sit down in the Room of Doom. Don't let your mind go blank. better still, don't let your mind be blank.

I have some tips which should, hopefully, help you study a little more successfully.

Firstly, pick subjects you're interested in if you're going to attempt to do any good amount of work to an acceptable standard. This goes without saying, really.

Secondly, accept that sometimes you'll have to sacrifice time you'd have spent doing other things in order to get work done. You want to play WoW? You want to read some of that HILARIOUS book you got for Christmas? Fine. Just do it AFTER you finish your work. Some level of prioritisation is useful.

Set yourself a goal. "I will do ten essays today" is probably not achieveable. "I will revise one whole topic of (Subject X)" is better. Subject X will be all the more understandable if you don't flood yourself with it.

Past papers. Oh my god. They're beyond useful. They help you with timing, with clarity of work. And they'll teach you, if nothing else, to READ THE QUESTION and proof read your answers. When your hand is spewing out words as fast as your mind tells it to, there are likely to be a few silly mistakes. Go back and check. Clever people don't not make mistakes, but they do correct them before others get the chance to catch them out.

Mark schemes! Don't do a past paper without having the mark scheme to hand to check your answers. That being said, don't read it BEFORE you answer. You won't improve unless you know how to rewrite and evaluate your work.

Extra essays. These are the bane of my life, but boy are they useful. Write an essay, send it in, get a lower grade than you want? Keep a copy and update it. Trust me, three weeks down the line it's much more useful because you've learnt what mistakes you've made. ALWAYS read what you've written.

Stress a little bit. No stress is the same as saying, "don't worry about missing that bit out". Of course you should. Just don't let it get to the point where you feel like you're imploding. When something is set, try (and really TRY) to do it that evening or afternoon. You get it out of the way and it's usually better quality than the piecemeal shite you'd have written much later on (say, the night before the deadline).

Revision timetables. These make revision manageable instead of daunting. They also mean you can actually go and see your friends and chill when others are stressing. Keep your work under wraps, and you won't miss anything out. Good organisation is tantamount to exam preparation and studying. You need a set time to do things, because that way you can get into the routine of it.

If I've missed anything out or you have anything you'd like to add, comment below.

Happy reading, folks!

The magical adventures of Christmouse

News news news! In what can only be described as a surprisingly satisfying cliche, I received socks for Christmas, again. Don't see it the wrong way, though; I asked for them. My room is pretty cold most of the time (in comparison to the rest of the flat, at least). It's currently 18.2 degrees (Celcius, not Fahrenheit!!) so it's bearable. My feet, of course, aren't cold. Why, you ask? Because, dear reader, I didn't get just any socks for Crimbo. No, I got ski socks. Proper ski socks. From animal. And they're green and black! And they're padded on the front and back! And... Okay, I'm starting to rhyme, which is a sign I should stop.

I've always wondered, when geniuses get bored in exams do they answer in rhyme instead of the normal way just for a change or challenge? Perhaps they answer in iambic pentameter, that'd be awesome.

So I have a bit of an embarrassing tale for you all. If you've ever seen an advert (it was on UK TV for a while) in which  lady drops a mug of tea on her laptop... You can see where this is going. I had a major cock-up incident in which I knocked over a mug of hot ribena. If anybody reading this doesn't know what ribena is, you need to google it, find out if your local shop has some, and then go and get it. But as a matter of opinion the one with no added sugar tastes best (just so you know). So... Yeah. Great taste. Even my laptop liked it.

So, new keyboard, whoop!

Now, you'll be wondering who the heck Christmouse is. Basically, I still have a stocking. My mum (I mean Santa or his elves) fills it with silly little things. This year I got a Newton's Cradle (everybody needs one, let's be honest, they're endlessly entertaining) and a toy mouse that, when you press its belly, belts out a verse of "Let It Snow" in an adorable high tone. I love it. It was duly named Christmouse.

Anyway, I've had this idea that, as I'm going to university in September (subject to grades), I will take Christmouse with me and take photos of him and show my family (and probably you folks, too) what I'm up to and what's going on. I wrote my mum a note explaining that there is likely to be at least one scene in which Christmouse takes over Cathedral City as mayor (Cathedral City is a cheese), but he gets fired because he eats the citizens and buildings. I'm very proud of the silly pun.

So hopefully Christmouse will be going places this year. I hope to find my camera (yes, I've lost it) and start ASAP. Note: Help me find my camera!!

Aside from that, I've got examinations next week and so I doubt very much that there'll be anything particularly interesting out of me for some time ( I mean until they're over). Unless you want to read rants of paranoia about not having done enough revision, that is.

Happy reading, Folks!!

Victoria