Term 3 – Year Three Guide: Summertime, is the living easy?

Objectives

Time flies when you’re having fun. How are you going to spend your last three months? Will you:

• get active and stay healthy
• pass your exams and
• end the academic year with a bang!?

Budget for term 3

With exams coming up this term you’ll need to focus on study. It’s a short term and you’re happy with your last budget, so you decide not to fiddle with it for the sake of it.

Working out

You’ve made a tidy wedge from your part-time job, but now the hard labour begins. Exams are looming, but you want to get fit before stripping off for the summer. Anyway you nosh on the usual fry up. You’ll start getting fit tomorrow.

• Mobile message. Your kung-fu class has moved from 4 to the earlier time of 3, please don’t be late. Grandmaster.

You’ve stuffed your gob and are all set for some fancy moves with the Grandmaster so you head straight down to martial hall.

• Mobile message. Did you know Kami is in hospital!? Collided with someone on the badminton court. Saw her this morning, she’s OK, would love visitors. Forgot to pick up mascot for tonight’s basketball game, could you do that for us? Joe.

Kung fu fighting

That was an ace way to destroy that pesky exam stress. You need to do some serious last-minute revision, but you decide to collect the mascot for tonight’s basketball game first.

• Mobile message. Just checking if you’ve picked up Mad Monkey the mascot. We need all the luck we can get for tonight’s game, it’ll be a close one! Joe.

You bump into Joe. ‘I’ve just found something out. If I get a job paying £18,500 per year on graduation, I’ll repay my student loan at a rate of £6.06 per week. I’m happy with that. Now where’s that monkey?’

Mascot collected, you have to take him to the library with you to save time, but bump into Doctor T. You do as the Doctor says and get on with some revision.

Cramming

The crammed library has given you a mother of a headache, but you’ve got a few more hours before the basketball game begins, so you drop by the Union for a quick half.

You order a large one, then feel well guilty, there are a zillion other things you should be doing! It’s about time you went and visited Kami in hospital.

Playing doctors and nurses

Flowers and a sexy bit of bling made by Sanchia have put the smile back on Kami’s face but she’s gutted she can’t make it to the basketball game. Doh! Where is Mad Monkey? You must have left him behind somewhere! Better retrace your steps.

Monkeying around

You see Mad Monkey coming out of the library, hanging off the arm of your love interest! You approach the cutie, explaining your relationship with Mad Monkey.

Wow! What a connection! Cupid isn’t so stupid after all. You feel totally loved up as you skip down the stairs. You’re walking on air, and miss the last step. OWWW!!!

Casualty

You’ve had 4 stitches in your chin! Looking into your loved one’s eyes as you fell might have been worth the pain, but let’s hope being in Accident and Emergency hasn’t taken up too much precious revision time. Now you’re back at home you bury your head in the sand like a depressed ostrich.

Heads down

Sanchia and Kami are swotting in the library, Joe and Darren are revising together, testing each other. Now you’ve got The Fear. You reckon the best way to relax your mind is a workout in the gym.

The workout means your head’s now clear, but your tummy’s playing up and you have to go meet one of your lecturers. You reach for the pills.

Blimey, you are in a state! Is it a hangover? No, it’s exam anxiety and your lecturer tries to give you some advice. You can’t take it all in. You go home and decide to complete the revision once and for all.

• Mobile message. Feeling strange urges to clean the house or write to that relative you haven’t spoken to in years? You’re procrastinating! Do your work first, it’ll be much less of a task than if you keep putting it off. Student Adviser.

You’re more focused now, but your stress levels are off the scale! You think its time to sort your diet out.

You see Kami in a shop on campus. She reckons you should always cook your own food. Not only will you save money, you’ll stay trim.

Your concentration’s improved three fold since laying off the kebabs and fizzy drinks, but you’re still feeling stressed. You have a reassuring chat with Sanchia. If tomorrow never comes you’ll be a very happy bunny. Sanchia seems sorted, but you’re still all over the shop. Sanchia changes the subject. ‘Hey, hey, Guess what? When I’m earning £21,000 a year, I’ll repay my loan at a rate of £10.38 per week. How good is that!?’

Its time to head to the Student Counsellor.

• Mobile message. Come on mate, you’ve got to sort out this revision thing. It’s really not so bad once you’ve got organised and cracked on with it. Good luck! Sanchia.

You get some reassurance from the Student Counsellor and decide to hit your pit early.

Bed head

You’re feeling fresher and much more confident after a good night’s sleep. That last paper was pretty easy and you’re relieved, if you’d had to do re sits, you don’t know how you would have funded it.

Deep joy!

Those exams are finally over, and you can think about having some proper fun. Thank goodness you’ve got your ticket to the summer party already.

• Mobile message. YAY! Exams are over! Now lets party! You are coming to the party aren’t you? Tell me yes. Sanchia.

Yes you’re going to the party! And a good thing too, it’s sold out! You decide to do some serious celebrating.

Nice little earner 3: Basket burgers

You’re with the gang. Darren’s been thinking of selling burgers at the last game of the season in a few days. You’d have extra dosh for the party. What say you? The game’s soon, so not much time to decide!

‘Everyone loves burgers’ Darren tells you, ‘I used to run a burger stall and can get us all the equipment for nothing. We could make a fortune at the basketball game!’

There will be about 700 people at the game, with the right mix of meat and veggie burger you could sell to a decent proportion of them. As always there’s a risk. The game’s at 7 so there’s a chance people will have already eaten. But charge a decent amount, sell loads and you could make a tasty sum!

Darren’s convinced you that burgers equal cash, so you splash out £90 on enough ingredients for 450 burgers. The investment doesn’t stop there with a pitch in the sports hall costing £100 and a £50 flashy sign for your burger stand.

Basketball diaries

The game goes well but not enough of the crowd are hungry. You sell 189 burgers which brings in £359.10. Minus the £240.00 costs you and Darren have made £59.55 each. Not bad, but not the mega cash you hoped for.

Darren’s loan

In the pub again, Darren turns to you and says, ‘I found out today that when I’m making £18,000 a year I’ll pay my loan back at just £5.20 a week. I’ve just realised that’s the same as a pack of fags!’ He’s well pleased.

• Mobile message. Don’t be late for that massage you booked, you won’t get a refund if you miss it and you need it for your stress levels! Sanchia.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Aaah! That massage was the best, even if it has set you back a few squid. You feel seriously relaxed and ready for anything.

Summertime

And the party’s kicking off in fine style. Darren’s singing in his band and Joe’s DJing, while Sanchia and Kami are chilling. You feel like doing a spot of singing. Soulful warbling is cool.

The excruciating but fun karaoke machine has been wheeled out, and everyone’s giving it some welly. You give your tonsils a thorough workout.

To your dismay, you sound worse than a cat being strangled. It’s time to work a fast groove on the dance floor.

Everybody dance now

You’re shaking it on the dance floor, the music’s hot and you’re getting hotter. You want to dance the night away.

Your over enthusiasm leads you to trip over Sarah’s bag and go flying. You decide to head off for some well-earned rest and refreshment.

The party’s almost over and you’re thirty quid down, but happy. You ask the person who has been looking over at you all night if they fancy grabbing a bite to eat. Disaster. You realise you’ve only got a tenner left, so you explain your predicament, and ask if you can go Dutch.

Amsterdam

You munch on cheap and cheerful tucker, split the bill, and save money by going home for coffee and to set the world bang to rights.

On the way home you bump into Sarah. She invites you to another party. You go, you’re up for anything.

The morning after

You can’t remember what happened last night, you’re skint and, worst of all, your friend has vanished!

On top of all that, you promised to help Sarah clean out her digs, and it’s farewell to all the gang till next year.

But wait: didn’t you get that telephone number last night…?

How did you do?

So you’ve reached the end of your first year. How did it go?

• Your tactics have paid off. You’ve ended up with a healthy £384.93 in the bank. There’s also Summer work beckoning.
• Your academic performance has improved and you’re now on a high 2.2 and there’s still room for improvement next year.
• Your social life rocks. You’re feeling cool and that’s no surprise. You seem to know almost everyone, and they like you. Result!
• Health’s not too bad but you know you still need to do more sport. Try and find a summer job that keeps you fit as well as back in the black.
• The nice little earner with Darren wasn’t a great success but did earn you a few quid extra and will look good on the CV.

Well done! It’s all over but maybe it’s just beginning for you? So what did you learn?

As you’ve seen, life at University is full of ups and downs, check out other Useful University stuff here.  You’ve experienced a lot, including:

• preparing yourself for going to Uni, including deciding where to live and choosing the right kind of bank account
• budgeting your spending to stretch your money
• identifying alternative ways of making a bit of extra cash
• finding a balance between your academic, work and social life, whilst also keeping healthy
• dealing with issues such as revision, missed deadlines, stress and personal problems
• learning how to be wise with your money and reduce the amount of debt you could have

We hope you’ve enjoyed the experience and now feel better equipped to do it all for real. Remember, wherever you are UNIAID is here to help you out.

Hungry for more? There’s a whole load of info on surviving life at Uni out there. We’ve had a hunt around and compiled a list of brilliant resources to help you out, available now from the All About U site.