I didn't cope too well because I'm quite easily distracted so for me when I had to get an essay done I literally have to shut myself in a room and lock the door and turn my phone off so I couldn't get texts from my friends saying 'Oh let's go to the SU tonight.' I just had to cut off all contact because I knew the minute someone came knocking on my door I'll be like 'Oh yeah I'll just do this when I get in' and you're not going to do an essay at two in the morning when you get in. So for me it was just completely cutting off all outside contact and just staying in my room or I'd go to the library in the corner where I knew none of my friends could find me and then just sit there and work cos the moment I get distracted then that's it I'm off, I'm off.

I didn't really have that when I was at school because you're at home on your own and your friends aren't all around you to like distract whereas in Halls there's just always something going on and a lot of people fell through that. They couldn't resist the temptation to go out, which is why a lot of people in Hall didn't carry on to second year, they dropped out. So that's one of the main pitfalls of uni, first year, just falling short of what your potential is.

It's a bit of a waste that I think so many kids don't realise that, because they hear all about the social side of uni, there's not so much emphasis placed on the academic side. I mean they know they need to get a degree and everything but you don't think too much about that especially first year. It's a lot of partying, getting to know each other because you don't want to be the one that doesn't make friends you want to be in the thick of things. You want to experience everything, you don't want to have to hear about it the next day or saying 'Oh I should have been there' and you're like 'Oh no I was studying.' You don't want to be known as a boring person in your first year at uni, you want to be fun. So you know you need to maintain a good balance between partying and the academic side.