Hi, everyone. If you haven't seen any of my videos before, and you don't know who I am, my name is Alexandria or Alex as most people call me and I am now a third year student studying children's nursing.

In this video, I thought I would make a more general video talking about my personal uni essentials, everyone's uni essentials are different depending on how people like to study, but I'm gonna be talking about what I think are the main essentials for uni.

A lot of them are quite general, but a few of them, I kind of apply specifically for nursing students.

So I'm gonna apply uni essentials to online learning and to campus face-to-face learning as we are now back on campus, which is amazing.

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Get A Decent Bag

The first thing you're gonna need obviously is a bag.

Personally, regardless of whether you like to use a laptop to make your notes, or if you like to use paper or a notebook, bring a bag that is at least the width of an A4 piece of paper.

So you can fit a notebook in, you can fit a laptop.

You can fit both, your lunch, literally everything.

I think it's really important that you have a spacious bag.

'Cause you don't know what you're going to be taking home with you either, so for me, I have this beauty here.

I'm not gonna show you the front because it's an old bag.

It doesn't look as great as it used to.

This is the bag I use, as you can see, it's quite wide and it has different compartments in it.

I definitely recommend getting a bag with different compartments in, so you can keep like your toiletries, your books, your laptop as I previously mentioned.

Your stationary, all things like that.

Having a spacious bag is really important because especially if you've got a day where you're at uni for the whole day, it's really important that you can fit everything into one.

So you're not carrying loads and loads of bags around and you can still look stylish with it.

I would recommend a large handbag or a backpack, depending on what you're into.

Just anything that can fit a lot of stuff in it, but you don't want to be lugging around a bag that's too heavy.

So I would definitely look around, I've had that bag for years, but general kind of high street have shops do really good handbags and things like that.

Like Zara, H&M places, like that.

And then you can also go to just general backpack shops.

A bag is obviously your number one essential for going into face to face learning.

Notebooks & Organisers

The second thing is for my people who like to write, I am a writer.

I don't really like to use a computer unless I have to, obviously for like assignments and online learning.

But when I'm making notes in lectures, whether that be watching a lecture at my desk or watching a lecture live on campus, I like to use books, it's just the thing, you know, obviously you had to do it all through our school.

So I kind of kept with the habit and it's just easy just to use a pen and write down stuff.

I'm gonna cover this because it's got some personal details on it, but this is basically one of the books I use for one of my modules.

Every year of university, what I found was really easy for me, was to colour code my books.

For first year, for example, first year I had blue, second year I had yellow, third year and I now have purple.

I know which books I had for which year.

And I have one book for each module, which really helps me separate out all my work and organise myself.

And obviously, depending on the day and what lectures I've got in that day, I'll just put that book in my bag and I'm ready to go.

And they're really lightweight.

They're really lightweight.

It's literally the exact same ones that you use at school.

I just get them from Amazon really cheap, really useful.

And it's just the best way for me to organise myself.

So if that's something that you think would be helpful for you, I really recommend doing that.

You can get a pack of like 10 from Amazon.

They're not that expensive at all. Maybe like four pounds.

I would definitely recommend doing that if you are a writer.

Invest In A Laptop

Regardless of whether you are a writer or you're not a writer, a laptop is a thing that you'll need.

I think a lot of people, when it comes to uni, rave about getting a Macbook for your computer for uni.

I really don't think it's necessary unless you're the type of person that loves like gadgets and you're really into Macbooks and things like that, for all the other softwares and stuff that they have, then obviously by all means get one.

But I don't think it's necessarily, you can get a good working laptop that does everything it needs to do for literally half or even 1/4 of the price.

I've had this laptop since I was doing my GCSEs and now I'm in my final year of my degree and it still is amazing.

It's seen me through my GCSEs and my A levels as well.

And it works absolutely fine.

Use it for my lectures, use it for my assignments, doing online learning and training, it's so useful and it's touchscreen as well, and it only costs like £300 in comparison to some more expensive computers.

So depends on what you prefer to invest in.

But for me, obviously I'm more of a writer.

So having a flashy laptop didn't really bother me or matter to me that much like other brands of laptops, I think are fine.

So yeah, you definitely need a laptop, especially in this COVID age that we're living in.

You need a working laptop.

If you don't have access to one or you can't afford one, then you can use the library or university, or you can use your local library.

But yeah, it's really important that you have access to a computer and some internet.

So definitely essential in the times that we're living in.

Pens, Pencils & Stationary

Back to writing again, obviously an essential is having a pencil case.

I'm not gonna show you my pencil case because it is an absolute mess, but I just keep my essentials, my black pens, rubber, highlighters, highlighters are essential, colouring pens.

You literally never know what you're gonna use.

So I like to keep my pencil case like stocked up. That is really important for taking notes.

And maybe you wanna copy diagrams and things like that, like, particularly for things like anatomy, physiology for nursing students, or even medics or anyone doing a healthcare course, that is really important 'cause you might need to colour in a diagram.

I know I've definitely had to do that over the past two years.

So I would definitely recommend getting a pencil case and stocking it up.

In terms of note taking and keeping organised, the last three things I'm going to recommend as a part of my uni essentials are just really important for organising yourself, knowing when you need to do certain things and just important for filing things away and can also help with revision as well.

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Post-Its & Flash Cards

So the first thing is simply post-it notes.

I am a sucker for post-it notes.

Colour-coded ones, you can literally get them anywhere.

Sainsbury's, Tesco's, WHSmith, anywhere.

I stick them in my mood board and just to write little reminders or to make little checklists.

And it's just right there.

It's nice and bright if I'm revising and I want to write little bits of information to remember, I can colour code it with these, they are amazing.

And obviously there's loads of them when you buy them.

So they last forever.

Also flashcards, flashcards obviously for the obvious reason of using them for revision, you can organise them into writing down different topics.

Maybe have a question on one side, answer on the other and colour code them for different topics or different modules.

I also use flashcards to write down reminders or things.

So I have a flashcard on my wall right there, telling me when all my exams are for the next year, just so I know what I'm working towards.

And it just helps me to stay organised.

And it's not as big as a piece of paper and it's prettier 'cause you've got different colours, but I've run out some of the colours anyway.

But yeah, I would definitely recommend getting these and you can get them literally anywhere.

Staying Organised With A Binder

And the last thing I would recommend, especially as a nursing student is getting a binder.

Now you can get a binder for anything.

So if you wanna organise your notes, if you don't want to write them in notebooks like I do, but I specifically use a binder to keep all my certificates in.

So as a nursing student, if you are one already, you will know that we do a lot of training courses and a lot of simulation and practical sessions.

And for a lot of those, we get a lot of certificates and things like that.

I have this binder, which I've split into every year, if that makes sense, so I have a section for first year, a section for second year and a section for third year, which I've just started obviously.

I call this my skills portfolio.

I separate this with the colourful bar, with the colourful sheets.

And I keep all my certificates for my first aid training, life support, moving and handling, any little training sessions or online training courses that I've done.

I print out the certificates.

I keep them here just as a record, 'cause you never know when you're gonna need them.

And it's also nice to look back and see your achievements kind of all filed away nicely in one place.

Sometimes I also print out my assignments and I put them in here as well, just as a reminder of how far I've come and just to keep everything in one place, because things get lost online, things get lost in files, in documents.

And I personally like to have things hard-copy live in the flesh, so this is my baby.

And if you're gonna do something like this, I would recommend starting right at the start of your course, because otherwise it's gonna take you forever to organise it, and that's what I did.

I started at the beginning of the course and I'm gonna keep adding to it until I finish.

Just Make Sure That You're Fully Equipped

If you haven't thought about any of the items that I've just spoken about, it might be worth thinking about looking into buying them or thinking about getting something similar to help with your organisation, to help with revision and to just make sure that you're fully equipped.

I know a lot of people who have already started uni by now.

So this might be a little bit late, but there may be some things that you've forgotten and some things that might be useful to you as you go along your course.

I hope the video was useful.

Those are my go-to uni essentials that I use pretty much all the time.

Let me know in the comments below what your uni essentials are, because everybody's different.

Everybody has different ways of learning and organising themselves.

So I'd be really interested to know what you guys do.

And let me know if this video has been helpful as well.

If you are starting uni soon, or you have already started, I hope it's going well and I wish you luck.

And I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in my next one, bye.

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