Keeping your PC updated

There is nothing worse than switching on your PC and seeing the dreaded "Working on updates" screen," especially if you have a major deadline a few hours away.

To make matters worse, you can't skip the update.  However, here's some tip to keep it under control.

Microsoft release Windows updates on the second Tuesday of the month around 10 AM PST.  That translates to around 6 PM UK time.  Non-security updates to Microsoft Office tend to occur on the first Tuesday of each month and firmware updates for Microsoft's Surface devices on the third Tuesday of every month.

Therefore, to avoid unnecessary interruptions to your schedules, it might be good to block a "maintenance" period for your PC.  That way Windows won't interrupt your work.

At this point, you might be wondering why do I need the updates?

People often put off updating their PCs thinking that the updates are annoying and unnecessary.

However, they are wrong.  Windows updates often patch a major vulnerability that allows hackers to compromise your PC.

While it may take a while to update your PC, maybe block off a day "holiday" to update it.  Your PC will thank you for it.

Tips for new students

First of all, congratulations with securing a place at a university of your choice.  All your hard work during GCSE and A-level paid off.  You are one of the 241,585 (32.6%) of 18-year-olds who gained a place in higher education. [UCAS] 

But now what? Here are some top tips ensure success at university.

After receiving your acceptance letter

Sort out your accommodation early

You have made your firm choice on UCAS and had sorted out accommodation to stay for the year. If you haven't yet already, this should be the first thing on your checklist. You certainly don't want to be homeless when attending university. While many universities guarantee accommodation to those that make that university a firm choice, on-campus residences are extremely popular and you might be placed in a hall miles away from the campus.  Many university towns also sport student accommodations run by private companies but they could be more expensive or further away from the campus than the University's own hall of residence.  When comparing your accommodation choices, make sure to factor in the cost of utilities as well as the cost of transportation.

Moving in day

Picture by John Benson

What to bring with you?

If you're anything like me, you will be tempted to just bring your entire room with you.  However, sometimes it might be more convenient to just buy the items online and ship it to the place of residence.  Signing up to Amazon Prime student allows you to get your Amazon shopping delivered to your door within one day.  

If your place is anything like mine you can start sending parcels there about 2 weeks in advance of your arrival.  That means that you don't need to load your car to the brim with stuff.  Your parents will certainly thank you for it.

If you do want to bring some items from home, here's what I would recommend:

• Duvet and duvet case
  It would be good to bring a warm blanket or duvet.  Universities in UK start in September and the weather would quickly become cold in the coming weeks and months.  Therefore, it would be helpful to bring a blanket or duvet with you.  In my experience, stores can run out of duvets especially on moving-in week since everybody would be clamoring to buy one.

• Enough clothing to last two to three weeks
  You don't need to bring mountains of clothing since almost all student accommodations have onsite laundromats.  If you want, you can bring your fancy clothes for parties or a suit or two for formal events.

• Extension cords
  Not all places have conveniently placed sockets so extension cords are sometimes helpful

• Laptop
  A laptop should be adequate for most students.  And bringing one from home means you are familiar with it.  If you don't have a laptop, have you considered buying a Chromebook?  These laptops are low maintenance.  I personally would recommend a Windows desktop and a Chrome laptop (Chromebook) rather than a Windows desktop and Windows laptop.  You can remote desktop into the desktop from the Chromebook.

• Bedsheets
  Many student sites recommend bringing a bedsheet but I would email or call the accommodation to make sure the bedsheet you bring fits the bed you have.  Also, if you don't know the size, use flat sheets rather than elastic ones as they can fit beds that are larger than the size they are made for, albeit not perfectly.

• Place an online order with your favorite retailer
  Many high street retailers allow you to place groceries order with retailers like Tesco or ASDA who would often deliver right to your door.  I often make my first delivery purchase the evening of my arrival or the day after.  It can work out cheaper or more convenient for them to deliver to you than for you to go to them.  Delivery savers by these sites would work out cheaper if you make multiple purchases.  In addition, you can share them with your parents!  You can ask your parents to part pay for the delivery saver and let them use the plan.  The caveat is that you both can't book delivery slots for the same day.

Getting down to business

Now you have all your fun during Fresher's week and its time to put your head down and study.

Organizing your work

Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

• Use online cloud storage like Google Drive or OneDrive to save your work
  More often than not, your university will be subscribed to Office 365, which comes with 1 TB of storage.  Make sure to back up your work to online cloud storage.  You never know when your computer might be hit by a nasty virus or suffer technical problems.  Also, working off cloud storage like Google Drive enables you to work from any computer, not just your own.

• Create a folder hierarchy and label each folder properly
  Don't randomly assign names to the folders.  This would make it hard for you to later find your work.

• Download your lessons and save them on your cloud storage or hard drive
  This may seem like an unusual tip but sometimes Blackboard (used by Swansea University) goes offline.  So saving your lessons would allow you to access the lectures even if your University site crashes or have technical problems.

Take notes

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

• Take plenty of notes during lectures
  Personally, I would recommend taking notes using a tablet to take notes.  This would enable you to store tons of notes without having to lug around tons of notebooks around.  If you can't catch up to the lectures, use your phone to take pictures of your lecturer's writing.

• Film your lectures
  This may seem a bit controversial so ask your lecturer before using your mobile phone to film the lecture.  Filming the lecture makes it easier for you to review them later on at your leisure.  A lot of Swansea Univerity courses use lecture capture to store the lecture slide along with the lecturer's teachings.  However, not all lecturers use it and the audio quality might be poor depending on how far the lecturer is from the mic.

Watch out for phishing email

University students are often a prime target for phishers and hackers.  I have made a handy article about how to keep yourself safe online.  Be sure to check it out.  Also, practice caution lest you hand over your student log in to spammers who use your account to spam other students and academics.

These are my top tips for Univerity.  Be sure to check out my other advice articles and pob lwc (good luck) with your future!