A Gist of Term One at Bellerbys

Posted by David

Arriving at this alien country for the first time on my own finally seemed surreal when I stepped out of the taxi, sighting the residence door with Pauline (our residence supervisor) welcoming me and my friends. Having put down what seemed like 5 tons of luggage in my new home, I was instructed to proceed to the office for some registration work. 

Seconds after that, the ‘Term 1’ timetable was given to me.  As I briefly skimmed through my schedule, I spotted : English class, 2.20 pm. I literally sprung up and marched aimlessly into my first class which was starting in 5 minutes, whilst downing a sandwich in three bites. 

This totally epitomises the frenetic ambience of my first term.  It certainly did not help that I was still getting used to the time difference; I woke up at 4am everyday and slept at 6.00 pm for the whole first week!  How I wished I could arrive earlier instead of the second day of Term 1.

FES 1, Pure Maths 1, Mechanics 1, Matters & Waves and Art.  These were my subjects during the term. Mr Bentham, my jocular Mechanics teacher, is also my personal tutor, who has helped me in every possible way throughout my UCAS application procedure.  Ms Jenkins, (we call her Lorna), was my zestful yet systematic English teacher who never fails to amuse me in every classes.  I was also lucky enough to have Dr Grant, an extremely ardent physicist, as my Matters & Waves teacher. 

The remaining teachers (Art, Pure Maths) were the quick-witted Mr Nix and the amazing mathematician, Mr Jepps, who coincidentally have the same first name as me; David. How weird is that?  I have three ‘Davids’ in my term reports, where two Davids report about the other.  In general, I think that all British teachers are naturally affable and convivial.

Now that I have mentioned term reports, we receive two reports by the end of a term.  They respectively outline our academic performance as well as our conduct in class in the first half of the term and the remaining half.  We also had a mid term test (we call it ‘mocks’) along the way.  Moreover, due to Bellerbys partnership with ‘billions’ of universities, we were privileged and lucky enough to be able to attend a convention held at Bellerbys Cambridge.  During that time, students had the opportunity to know more about their choices of universities first-handedly and at the same time, catch a glimpse of the sister campus.

In my opinion, the principal challenge of this cardinal term was to get my portfolio prepared.  In contrast with the other courses, architecture students are expected to send a portfolio of their work to the universities of their choice, besides the grades from the exams.  Consequently, I have spent quite a couple of weeks squeezing out all the creativity I possibly have to create a versatile range of work in hopes to impress the universities.  Despite the countless drawings, colourings, modeling, you name it, it was a rather fun process.  I will blog an insight into my portfolio as one of my future entries so as to share with you my experience.

By the end of Term 1, I sat for the Foundation Exams.  I was rather let down by my Mechanics and FES papers, especially when the errors made were extremely careless ones.  It had definitely been a long time since the last exam I have taken in Malaysia.  Nevertheless, I am still grateful with my accomplishment and looking forward to push myself even harder in Term 2. Kudos to all my dear teachers, who have skillfully woven those extensive syllabus into my brain in such a short time.

That’s all from me now. More to come : my daily routine, an insight into my architecture portfolio, kickstarting Term 2 etc.

Thank you for reading.  Au revoir!

P.S : I just finished my Maths test a few seconds ago.  Having an Electricity test tomorrow and an English test on the following day.  Term 2 is definitely not as sparing as I thought in terms of time.

Signing off.

 

David is studying Engineering Foundation at Bellerbys Brighton.

Comments

[David Kam]

Hello David!!!!! Yes, we have talked before in the ASA agency, with Winnie and Amelia. I was from Kuala Lumpur. Remember, I was the architecture student who was asking you if I should be taking the art or engineering foundation course. I also showed you my two yellow books of achievement from my high school and you were saying that you were surprised that I could dance too! :) Thank you so much for the words of encouragement. Very glad and thankful that I have met you. Do visit the blog often. (I have been flooding Louise's[website editor] inbox with my entries. Poor her! :P) All in all, I am glad that my penning could help the younger students, not only to consider this amazing college as their next academic platform, but also to give them a glimpse of college life as well how to choose the right course :)

Keep in touch!! :D

[David Few]

David I really did enjoy reading your blog, it brought tears to my eyes as I sit in my office in Bangkok. Perhaps I had a hand in you ending up at Bellerbys, did we meet in some part of Malaysia? was it KL or Penang or one of my more exotic locations as Kuching, KK, Miri or even Sibu, I would love to know..We share the same name, yet another David and I am the Recruitment Director for Bellerbys that spends his time flying all over the World recruiting students like yourself to the College, so the chances are we have met, your face is familiar and you may remember having a chat with me or meeting me at your agents office. Do let me know which city you are from and who was your agent, i am sure they will be proud of what you are doing and entertained by your blog which gives me a great insight into your life at Bellerbys. Keep up the good work and thank you for inspiring so many new students to consider Bellerbys!! and let me know the answer to my question! Best wishes David Few.