#20 I Don't Quit Blogs. They Quit Me!!

It has come to the time where us bloggers of MQUniHack are about to finish posting on our blog. For those of you who have not realised as we didn’t make it obvious, this blog has been a university assignment all along. Despite that, it has been a pleasure for the four of us bloggers revealing multiple uni hacks that would have hopefully helped you out during your time at university throughout the duration of our blog.  

As this is our last post, we have created a video for you all:

Here are a few words from all of us bloggers of MQUniHack about our experience of writing and publishing our posts:

“My experience doing all of these blogs has been interesting. It has been good talking about the different tips for university students and writing about some of my thoughts. The video was also pretty fun to film with the group.” ~ Jon B.

“As a student who's still learning to become more effective in many areas in life it was quite a challenging yet fruitful experience writing about studying tips, resources and other "life hacks" for uni students. This blogging experience has certainly broadened my horizon in the world of digital journaling.” ~ Michael W.

“During my time of writing blog posts, this blog has taught me many hacks that I didn’t know myself. As stated in my first post (#3) you know that I am passionate about gaining skills from assignments that can benefit me in my future, and I have gained so many new skills such as blogging from this experience.” ~ Aaron S.

"Participating in a blog has been a stimulating experience. I haven’t done a blog before so it has been a bit of a challenge thinking of what topics people will be interested about. Overall, discussing tips (“hacks”) for students has been enjoyable and I have learned a couple of new things myself!" ~ Aaron H. 

I and us other MQUniHack bloggers hope many of you readers of our blog have benefited from our posts, whether it is with your assignments, the planning and organisation of your studying, or internships.

Finally, we wish you all the best with the rest of your time at university or college.

#19 Student Advisors

Planning your university degree can be quite tricky. There are endless degrees available, countless majors and minors that you can do. So many options. Determining what units are required can sometimes be unclear, what are the required units I need to complete my degree? What electives can I do? What do I want study “for fun”? After all, you still need to work hard to pass.

 Most units have prerequisites so it’s very important that students look ahead and plan accordingly. If you are having difficulty with anything related to subject selection, there are student advisors who are always happy to go through your degree and answer any questions you have, just make an appointment! 

#18 Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. Rather than working on a task for an indefinite amount of time, the Pomodoro Technique is all about working in short, sharp bursts and taking regular breaks to ensure the freshness of mind.

How to Pomodoro

• Choose a task you want to focus on
• Remove all distractions
• Set the timer to 25 minutes 
• Work on the task until the timer rings
• Take a 5 minute break, then work for another 25 minutes
• Take a longer break every 4 sessions (around 20  minutes)

To be successful you must ensure you remove all distractions and focus completely on that task. No social media, email, phone calls or even interruptions from your friends (just tell them you're on a "Pomodoro"!)

#17 Tips on building University and Business Relationships

Having good relationships not only helps in business but also to have a better life. The people in your life have very significant affects on you. Genuine contact with people can also help your career be successful. You could even build a good enough relationship at university to start a partnership in business with them if you wanted to.

Successful businesses want to develop closer relationships with customers. The following are some tips for building business relationships:

• Be a professional friend to build a network
• Before asking for something, offer something
• Be prepared and to the point
• Be emotionally intelligent
• Be truthful and have integrity

If you are trusted and liked, you will be referred and recommended and that is a great way to do business!

Hopefully this has helped you understand why relationships are important. These tips will help you in your university life and to kick-start your career.

- Jon Barnitt

http://stopsellingvanillaicecream.com/effective-relationships-clarity/ 

#16 - Exams!

With only a couple weeks of term left, assessments are picking up and exams will shortly be upon us. This can be a very stressful time for a lot of students. Many feel that the final exam will either make or break them for their course. While this can be very much the case it is important to remember that if you don’t go so well, don’t stress. University exams aren’t the be all and end all! There will be plenty of other opportunities. Anyway, here are some tips for exams:

·      

• Plan your time wisely! – Work on your weaknesses, spend extra time on the units that need it

• It’s never too late to start – Whether you’ve been studying regularly since the beginning of term or it’s the week before, START STUDYING!

• Ask for help – Don’t feel embarrassed asking your tutor or lecturer!

• Check out past exam papers!

• Use your reading time - Plan what you are going to say, start with the questions you're most confident with

-    - Aaron H

·

#15 Daily Routine of having an Internship while Studying

A lot of people think doing an Internship would be boring, but in fact it isn't boring, it is pretty crazy if you work a lot and go to University a lot. A typical day of work and uni could look as follows:

7am - Get up and go to work.
8am - Have training at work for your Internship.
8:45am - Start working on the different things you would be required to do in your Internship.
10am - Workflow meeting with your work group discussing what work you're doing and what needs to be done to see if you have capacity to do more work.
10:30am - Keep working until lunch time.
12:45pm - Lunch time.
1:15pm - Go back to work.
5:45pm - Leave work and go to University.
7pm - Go to some classes at University.
9pm - Go home.

This is what a lot of days look like if you're doing an Internship Full Time and Studying. Hopefully this has given you an idea of what it's like to do this and to make your own decision if you would like to. Whatever you put your mind to, you have the ability to accomplish that.

#14 Trello - the perfect tool for project management

Looking for a tool to help manage your projects effectively? Trello is a tool you definitely don't want to miss! Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.



As a Drag & Drop Task Management Tool Trello is one of the best tool for team-based projects. Not only does it enable you to easily see the state of all the parts of a project, it also lets you easily assign tasks to team members, add checklists, attach files, and do other cool stuff. Trello is also a great tool for personal use. As you can see from the screenshot above I've been using Trello to keep track of my assignments. Each list represents a subject that I'm studying and each card represents the assignments that needs to be done. One feature that I really appreciate about Trello is its flexible tagging and labeling as I have created specific color codes based on priority (eg. red means very urgent tasks, and green means completed etc.)

Give it a try - you'll love it. Whether you're using it for team-based projects or for personal chores, you'll certainly benefit from Trello's intuitive and simple interface.

#13 5 Ways to search smarter online

1) Finding the URL of an image that you saved on your computer but forgot to write it down

 

Go to Google Images and click the camera icon that is directly next to the search button (magnifying glass).

 

Select ‘Upload an image’ and click ‘Upload’ once you have selected the image you saved.

 

The search result will come up with similar images.

 

 

NOTE: If you do not mind which website you cite as a reference, then select any of the URLs that show an image that is as close to the one you saved on your computer. Otherwise go through each search result and look for the URL of the website you know you got it from (if you forget the name of the website, you will most likely recognise the website URL when you come across it)
 

2) Finding content from 1 source only

If you wish to see articles about a certain topic from only one specific website, and excluding other websites from the search results, type ‘site:’ and then the URL, along with the topic you are searching for.

E.g. site:docs.google.com "Windows 7"

Note: Using ‘docs.google.com’ as a filter will allow you to view documents that you would normally not be able to view on Google Docs without the use of the filter.

3) Searching a topic (and excluding certain sub-topics at the same time)

Sometimes you will want to find content on a specific topic without wanting to read content about a sub-topic within that topic. For example, you want to find content about ‘inbound marketing’ and not show any search results that bring ‘advertising’ into the articles. To achieve this, type in the topic you want to find content about and then add ‘-‘ along with the certain sub-topic(s) you wish to exclude from your search results.

E.g. inbound marketing -advertising  

4) Searching for specific document types

You may think that the majority of least thought about ideas and concepts would be found on   scientific websites and the like, however not many students realise the least thought about ideas and concepts are raised in research papers written by scientists the world over. To be able to find research papers online (and the research papers as the only search result document type), type whatever topic you are searching for in Google and add ‘filetype:ppt’ after it to only see search results that are ‘PowerPoint Presentations’. Not all but most research papers are in the form of a PDF format, so use ‘pdf’ instead.

E.g. "inbound marketing" filetype:pdf 

 

5) Non-personalised search results

When you use any search engine, the results of your search are automatically displayed by how popular the site ranks against other sites, where the most popular result (because it might be the most helpful or any other reason) is displayed as the first search result and so on. However, if in an essay you want to bring up other ideas or concepts that no other student would think to bring up, this is the number one way to achieve that as 99.99% of students will be finding essay content from popular and high ranking sites (meaning everyone of those 99.99% will be talking about the same points as each other – you will be part of the 0.01% without somewhat ‘original’ points).

To do this, once the search results are shown click on ‘Search Tools’ shown beneath the search bar and click ‘Verbatim’.

- Aaron S

#12 Different firms

There are many different firms you can look into working at when at university, or even better when you graduate. I work in an accounting firm while at university, which can be bad in a way because the pay is not great and there is a high turnover rate for Cadets, meaning a lot of people quit.

All accounting firms require or highly recommend employees to go to university. One of the main reasons to go to university is to get a better job really. I work at Deloitte. The way I got there is through having a Cadetship at a Mid Tier firm called Moore Stephens. They merged with Deloitte. That was kind of lucky for me because it is very hard to get into one of the big 4 accounting firms (PWC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG). I have heard some partners have even said they would not be able to get accepted into getting a job in the big 4 right now because the application process is so difficult and competitive.

If your in University and looking at getting a job in an accounting firm but don't get accepted into a big 4 firm, do not be concerned. Big 4 might sound good but really they pay the least because there is a higher demand for your job. Also when I was working at Moore Stephens everything seemed a bit more relaxed but at Deloitte there is so much work to do there is no time to relax.

What I'm trying to say is, it doesn't matter which firm you get a job in, there are always going to be positives and negatives, just try and look towards the positives :).

- Jon Barnitt


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deloitte.svg

#11 Bullet Journal - How to organise your life with one simple journal!

Bullet Journal is an analog note-taking system for organising your to-dos, ideas and appointments in one simple but powerful paper notebook. The video above shows you how it's done in a nut shell.

One thing I really like about the Bullet Journal system is its heavy use of shorthand notations and bullet points, as opposed to the longer entries we write in our traditional journals. By sorting entries into three categories: tasks, notes and events, you can virtually capture anything that life throws at you in this handy notebook (as seen below).

While this is just a quick guide, there's actually a lot more to the Bullet Journal system than you might think. There are ways to organise related bullets, tasks, notes, and events into a single organized theme, which is great for managing your projects. There's even a method for moving your items from one "month" to another "month" inside your journal seamlessly. So have a go and see how the Bullet Journal can greatly boost your productivity!

- Michael Wu

#10 Textbooks - other alternatives

Generally, uni students aren't known for being made of money yet university textbooks are ridiculously expensive. Most of the textbooks are excess of $100, with some being closer to $200. For full time students multiply this by 4 and you are looking at spending roughly $500 per semester, very pricey.

There are other alternatives to purchasing brand new textbooks for each class each semester. There is a usually a couple of copies reserved in the library which are available to be used however they cannot be removed from the library, a slight inconvenience. Another option is to look at purchasing a textbook with a friend, that way you can both share it and not spend an excessive amount of money. Also, there are second hand books out there which can be hard to find but check out eBay, gumtree, face book groups, and notices around the campus. Of course you can always try and go without a textbook if you feel you don’t need it, and the lecture materials provided are to your satisfaction. With the increase in eBooks, most textbooks have a purely online version available which is cheaper so have a look around the internet and you might even find you can download it for free...

Aaron H

#9 A modified approach to an existing studying method - remember content easier and quicker

A few days ago, that is, the day before I had a quiz, I knew I needed to study. It was one of those days that I started to over think my grades and what it would mean for all my units.  I was spending my time on Facebook and talking to one of my friends that I met two weeks ago. What a "productive" way that was to spend my time (NOT!), which I could have used to review more content. In the end she motivated me to study, which got me thinking once I finished studying… What is the quickest yet most effective way to study? 

#8 Email etiquette: how to communicate with academics effectively

As a student you often need to email your lecturers or tutors to ask them something about a subject or to make an appointment with them. It's very important be professional and polite when emailing your academics. To do this you should:

• use your student email
• say why you're emailing
• be precise in your request 
• avoid long sentences and use paragraphs if appropriate
• be courteous in your language
• use proper grammar and spelling
• avoid using slang or abbreviations 
• proof read your email before you send it

Here's an example of an effective email to a lecturer:

This is how not to email your lecturer:

- Michael Wu

#7 Time Managment

An important aspect of studying is time management. Whether you are doing full- time or part-time at university, time management is key to being successful. Not only is time management important with your studies, it’s also essential when you enter the workforce.

Part-time students have both uni and work to juggle, therefore managing their time efficiently is critical. If they fail to do so they can burn out or become highly stressed out with the deadlines of both university assignments and at their workplace.

pixabay.com

Full time student’s major problem is balancing time between subjects. Taking up to four units means a lot of work and assignments. Ensuring that time is adequately planned out is vital to ensure that there isn't a sudden rush to complete a number of assignments due in the same week or on the same day!

Some tips to ensure your time management is successful:

·         Plan ahead. Look at assignment due dates and plan accordingly

·         Be organised. Use “to do” lists if necessary

·         Prioritise. Do the more important tasks first or the tasks that will take the most time

·         Avoid overload. Don’t forget to relax, take short breaks to ensure you are productive

·         Be flexible. Know how to rearrange your schedule when needed. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Aaron H

#6 The lesser known aspect of your degree: Self-education

What many students do not realise during their time at university is that it’s what you do outside (or during your breaks between lectures etc) of university that will usually get you further with your degree. However, this blog is about hacks you can do at uni.

One of the highest returning investments you can make at uni is an investment into your own knowledge of a particular interest of yours. Reading books and articles that are relevant to your degree but not directly related, during your lecture and prac breaks, benefits you more than you think.

#5 Résumé tips for Internships / Cadetships

My thoughts about what employers would like to see in a résumé or CV are to:

• Keep it short/brief. It should not be longer than 2 or 3 pages. Employers don't have the time and don't want to go through heaps of pages about yourself.
• If you don't have much experience, you can just put little things down. For example things you've done at school, volunteering things and sports.
• Employers like to see a whole rounded person not just someone who has really good grades.
• Include other things like education skills, any sort of work experience, interpersonal skills, interests, references and any extra-curricular activities

You will need to be prepared for the recruitment process. Most Cadetship/Internship jobs have a recruitment process as follows:

1. The applications stage - to learn more about you
2. Interview process - Firstly a phone interview then a face to face interview
3. Testing - not a right or wrong, mainly testing your ability
4. Group assessments - case studies and presentations to show your team working skills
5. Networking opportunit

This might seem all daunting to you but if you prepare well you could get what you're looking for. You get out what you put in. The interview process is not there to trick you. It's an opportunity to find out more about each other. Hope this helps you to find what you're looking for! I used these sorts of principles and it helped me.

- Jon Barnitt

http://crushable.com/relationships/getting-a-job-and-dating-arent-so-different/attachment/bxp250202/

#4 Internships / Cadetships

I am writing to tell you some tips about having an Internship and the struggles you may go through seeing as I have experienced this for the past year and a half. Sometimes you will be very tired working a full day from leaving home at 7:30am and getting home times between 7pm and 11pm and then having to do Uni work after that. My best tip would be to go with the flow and not to get caught up with what you have to do, but rather think that you have a great opportunity to drive your career. It is good to keep a work/study/life balance. So I also lead in a youth group, which gets my mind off work and study. I also enjoy having family and friends time. These things help you not get too bogged down and help you to enjoy your internship. Another tip would be not to get stressed. Always be calm and act accordingly with all the to-do lists you will have. Remember to always stay positive and never give up. Have someone to look up to and to be your inspiration. I started my internship just before I started university so I guess some could say I am missing out on university life but others could say I am doing the right thing. No matter what you do, try to enjoy it!

Jon Barnitt

#3 Making your bare-maximum into your bare-minimum when it comes to assignments

I've wanted to take multiple risks so far with my uni assignments, not only to stand out from the crowd but to also develop the skills I will need if I want to be successful with app development in the future. One example was quite recent, where I had to create a website. How fun!? NOT! I've never really enjoyed making websites. However, me being me, I decided to do something that was more than the "bare-minimum" and learn more than I actually needed to from the assignment. I won't get all technical in this post, but I essentially challenged myself to create an 'app landing page', a website that helps market a mobile application that has already been developed or still in the idea stage. Simply because I’m into mobile app development and I think if you want to succeed in that one hobby of yours and make it a career, one should also teach themself the 'marketing' side of things.

As much as I would love to tell you all my idea, there are two rules for success: 1) never tell everything you know. Haha sorry guys... you will know my idea once I develop the app.

The idea was way out of my depth and I had no clue how to do it. The only thing I knew, the stress of not knowing how to make my idea a reality motivated me to make it happen even more. It took me three whole days to figure out one line of code that made something complex look embarrassingly simple, and then the rest came easily after that. Every time I got something to work, it was time for me to make a copy of the project folder on my USB, edit the copy and keep the other as a backup. In the end, I found the assignment pretty fun although I wouldn't want to do it again unless I really had to.

(Image licensed under Creative Commons by Celestine Chua - https://www.flickr.com/photos/celestinechua/11583890763/)

Most importantly when it comes to assignments, decide whether doing more than the bare minimum is worth losing a few marks over the new skills you can gain - the more you have of one thing, the less you have of another. Oh and that reminds me, doing more than expected might even present you with some incredible designs and proof-of-concepts you can show off in a portfolio in the future.

Here are a few tips for thinking about ideas for upcoming assignments:
1) A pretty obvious one, relate your assignment to something that INTERESTS YOU!
2) Make your assignment RELATE to what you want to do in the future
3) If you are an ambitious person, CHALLENGE YOURSELF
4) BE ORIGINAL, otherwise IMPROVE ON SOMETHING THAT ALREADY EXISTS
5) Before you start, VISUALISE doing the assignment in your mind. This helps you identify problems before you even start the assignment (yes, it really works)

- Aaron S

#2 A personal reflection: study-life balance

One of the first things that really stood out to me when I began university was the amount of time and choice I had with my study. There was no rigorous structure I had to abide by. Nobody telling me what I had to do and when to do it. It was a whole new world, a welcome change from high school. 

A problem I ran into (and a common problem for all) was enjoying myself too much. I neglected my studies to have a raging social life. I would have something to do every day, from hanging with friends to soccer training, uni work was always pushed back. I think it’s important to have a good balance between both worlds. Non-stop studying can be very draining, and you don’t want to risk losing relationships by ignoring your friends and family. While completely neglecting homework/assignments/study will eventually result in extra stress and potentially a failure in your units. 

So enjoy the new found freedom with your studies, just remember that a good balance is the key to success! 

- Aaron H

#1 Let the Hack Begin!

Are you looking for ways to study more effectively and make university life an all-round experience? If so you've come to the right place! MQ UniHack is a resource aimed at providing you useful and practical tips to help you get the most out of your university experience. We’ll be writing about various topics, including but not limited to:

• Hacking your study. Learn more effectively with less time and develop good habits for studying.
• Participating in extra-curricular activities such as Global Leadership Program and student societies to round off your studies and get practical experiences.
• Kick-starting your career. Develop a unique personal brand and promote yourself more effectively.

To put it simply, we write about life hacks that are essential to university students. Whether you study at Macquarie University or not you’ll certainly find useful information on our blog that will help you succeed at university and beyond.

Now a quick introduction of our awesome bloggers:

Michael Wu
I'm on a journey of discovering my voice in the midst of our dynamic business world. Studying a Bachelor of Business Leadership and Commerce I enjoy getting involved in activities and projects that add value to other people. When I'm not glued to the screen I enjoy playing basketball and reading books.

Aaron Hutchinson
Hi, my name is Aaron Hutchinson. I am 19 years old, in my 2nd year of studying at Macquarie Univeristy. I am doing a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in marketing. I would consider myself a laid-back person, but can be very passionate about sports.

Jon Barnitt
Hello. My name is Jonathan Barnitt but you can call me Jon. I am almost 20 years old. I am studying a Bachelor of Commerce Professional Accounting at Macquarie University. I'm in my 2nd year and hoping to finish in 2 and a half years time. I am working full time in Accounting. I like to work hard and play hard. Weekends are the best. I like doing things with friends and family, it doesn't really matter what it is.

Aaron Steven
Hi, I'm Aaron Stone. Currently a 1st year student studying Information Technology, majoring in Software Technology at Macquarie University.
Apart from my deep interest of developing mobile applications that relate to sport and saving lives, I love to make others laugh and smile whenever possible. If you haven't met a triplet before, you have now....

We hope you find this site helpful to you! Feel free to reach out at any time.