#tronny

Coming Home - Eurovision 2014 - Malta

Style - Taylor Swift

On My Own - Les Mis Soundtrack

Journey to the Past - Anastasia Soundtrack

Still Alive - Jonathan Coulton

Save Ginny Weasley - Harry and the Potters

Rise - Dragon Age: Inquisition Soundtrack

Does He Know? - One Direction

Rhymezone.Com - Charlie McDonnell (embarrassing)

Empire State of Mind (Pt II) - Alicia Keys

I’m Into Something Good/Happy Together - GQ

Weight of Living, Pt 1 - Bastille

I Lied - Nicki Minaj

Mother, I’m Here - Bastion Soundtrack

Category 2: Freshers Week

There will be a fresher’s fair; go to it! It will be crowded and uncomfortable, but there will be lots of free things. Sign up to a bunch of society mailing lists, but make sure you’re at least a little bit interested in what you’re signing up to, because you will get emails about it for the next three years.

There will be a lot of drinking and revelry. If this is your sort of thing, great! Have fun, be safe, make sure you know where you are and how to get home! If it’s not your sort of thing, it’s not a huge deal. Chances are, there will be a few people in your house who will be skipping out on going out drinking because they’re not into it/they don’t fancy it/they’re still recovering from the night before. Make plans to watch a movie with them, offer to get the snacks/drinks/etc

There will probably also be other events, go to ones you think sound interesting, don’t bother with the others. Some universities have wristbands that get you into everything, you might think it’s worth it, you might not. In general, freshers ‘events’ (comedy nights, gigs, etc) are usually pretty naff.

Grab some housemates/people you’ve met and explore the campus or city together. This first week is the only one where your schedules are totally free, so use it to your advantage! Make an effort to be way sociable for this one week, even if it’s totally out of character for you.

Category 3: learning

I found that first year wasn’t as big of a step up as the GCSE-A Level step was, if that helps! The only difference is that all of a sudden, 70% in a thing is amazing, 90% is almost unheard of, and 56% is still pretty decent. Adjust your expectations accordingly!

If you have a first year that doesn’t count towards your final degree, by all means chill out about learning for a little, but don’t slack off! The things you learn in first year will be needed for the next two years, and you’ll be super glad you have a firm grasp of the basic concepts when you have to write a complex third-year essay on a subject.

Okay so the main difference between school essays and university essays is basically just that university essays require you to reference other people a lot. When writing an essay, plan it out roughly first, find a bunch of quotes/concepts from other books, and note them down with the page number and book that they’re in. Then when you’re writing the essay, use any relevant quotes and CITE THEM using whatever reference system your department requires. Make sure to do this right, because you can lose a lot of marks on an essay for doing this wrong, but it’s not as hard as people make it out to be. Make sure you don’t use a quote/concept without citing it because that’s plagiarism and that’s a Big Deal.

Remember that everyone starting uni this year is in exactly the same boat as you! Everybody is a little nervous and eager to make friends - you’ll probably find that making friends in your first few months of uni is the easiest thing ever, because everybody is out of their element, trying to find their people. (You might keep these friends, you might not! You can always make different ones by talking to different people on your course and going to a new society!)