RAG (RAISING AND GIVING)

By Haider Ali Janjua

About RAG:

Sheffield RAG formed in 1920 is a student led working committee at the Sheffield University’s Student Union. The committee organises several fundraising events throughout the academic year.  The aim of the events is to fund-raise as much as possible while having fun doing so. The participants not only take part in some amazing activities but get to help some wonderful local charities as well.  In order to participate in an event, you are required to buy a ticket and raise a particular amount for the event. You can choose to fund-raise for the chosen charity or the charity of your choice. There are two staff members who help the students organise the event, a community fundraiser and the RAG Intern.

Fundraising:

Students are generally quite scared of fundraising. They think they won’t be able to raise the required amount especially the international students as they can’t rely on their families to support them. Having taken part in different RAG events during the last 3 years, I can tell you that this isn’t as hard as it sounds. RAG team helps a lot in fundraising.  And if you spend a little time and effort, you can easily manage to raise the required amount. 

Here are a few ways you can fund-raise the money:

• Don’t be afraid to ask people for help as you are raising money for charity. Explain what you are doing, what the event is about and that their money wouldn’t be used to cover your event expenses. You would be surprised that people are quite generous and you would get help from people that you never anticipated.
• Promote your fundraising page as much as possible. Social media can be a huge help. Pin the status regarding this on your Facebook profile, tweet about your event or even send messages to people you know.
• Cook up a storm! Even if you are not a good cook, you can buy some cupcakes, decorate them and sell them at the student union concourse. For this though, you have to go to the RAG office and book a spot for your stall. Or if your friend is a good cook, join forces with them and fund-raise together. One of my friends raised money in 4 days by joining forces and cooking some delicious ‘kheer’ (a Pakistani/Indian dessert) and selling to their professors. Another idea is to hold a fundraising dinner and invite your friends to it.
• Use your strengths. If you are good at something, use it to get money. If you are a good photographer, you can organise a fundraising photo shoot. I used my Graphic Design skills to make posters for the fashion society’s event. The added advantage of this was that I was able to practice my skills. You can even write a blog post or an article for that! :D
• The RAG team organises a few things to help you fund-raise the money. The first one is called RAG Raid. You are given buckets and permits and you can go to the specified area in the city and ask people for money. At first it might feel scary but after a time you get used to it and have a great time. AS this is such a common occurrence, the locals even know about it and can be quite generous. Having a costume is a huge help! The second thing is the Street Team. You are given some glow sticks to sell at the union events. This is a very easy way to fund-raise.

Events:

Most of the events are team events. You can make a team with friends or if you are the only amazing person in your friend group, have no fear as the RAG team organises different socials where you can meet potential teammates. For the events outside UK, help is provided to international students for visa application. Some of the popular RAG events are:

Survival Night: Form a team of friends and test your team work in a series of games and challenges at a secret location. But beware! There might be some zombies or ghosts around to kidnap you!  Each team gets a base to defend. You have to protect your base from other teams while trying to steal stuff from your opponents. Points can be collected by winning different games organised during the night. The team with the most point wins a prize at the end of the night. The first year I volunteered as a Zombie. It was fun trying to catch participants and scaring them. The 2^nd year me and my flatmates took part in it and had an amazing time! We even managed to come 4^th out of 5 teams!

Spiderwalk: It is a 13 mile hike to the peak district and back. There is food and fireworks at the end point. It was one of my favourite events although the weather was rainy (as customary in UK) but the happiness you get from food and having accomplished something is worthwhile!

Rat Race: This is a joint event with the Bummit society. For this event you have to hitchhike to a certain city in UK while completing different tasks. The team with the most points wins an amazing price. Some of the tasks included running in the peace water fountains, getting your nails painted (only for boys) and selfie with a builder!

I was part of the sub-committee this year. My main task was to design the poster and the bible (Instruction booklet) for the event. Apart from that, there were weekly meetings to discuss and plan different tasks and also help with the marketing of the event by giving flyers at Student Union concourse and door knocking at university accommodations. I came to realise how much hard work is put in order to organise the event and learned organisational, team working, marketing and design skills.

T.H.E (Treasure Hunt Europe): This is a week long inter-railing adventure in which you have to solve clues and riddles to get to the next stop. The participants are divided into teams and the winning team wins a huge prize. This year the event takes place in Italy.

Becoming a part of RAG committee

An AGM is held at the end of the year to select the committee for the next year. This is a good way to learn new skills and make friends. There are many different posts that you can apply for.

If you want to help but haven’t got time, you can become a RAG Rep. Rag Reps choose the events that they want o help at. They can have their own small events such as bake sales/ quiz night or   help at bigger RAG events (e.g. stewarding at Spiderwalk or becoming a zombie at Survival Night).

Study Advice for Students

By Haider Janjua

I looked back at my academic journey and decided to write some important points that I learned along the way which will help juniors to perform better in their studies.  Following are my observations:

General:

Work on Weaknesses: First and foremost, one should know their weaknesses. And try to improve them. For example, I always had time management problem during exams. In order to solve that, I used to distribute timings for every question before ahead.  If the paper was of 1 hour 45 minutes and I had to do 11 questions. I planned on doing 7 questions in 1st hour and the last 4 in the remaining time because the difficulty level increases with each question. Another example would be that sometimes students are not good at a particular subject. If you have a choice, don’t take that subject. If it is compulsory, spend extra time on it.

Confidence: Usually students who score highly in their O level fail to maintain their grades afterwards. The reason for that can be two fold.  Some students get overconfident and think that they would easily continue on doing well. It should be kept in mind that not only the difficulty level increases but also as students start college/university, they start learning about other different things and thus their choices and interests expand. So one should always keep in mind their goals and work hard to achieve it. On the other hand, some students can’t keep up with the expectations. Enjoy your success and then began from start and keep in mind that failure is not the end of life and the thought of failure actually leads to failure.

Extreme Attitudes: Some students spend all of the time buried in books while others are completely opposite and spend it all on parties/friends. Both the approaches are wrong as there should be sufficient time given to both tasks. Taking some time off and relaxing (playing, going to a movie, party etc.) eases and relaxes the mind. But just because you are in university/college and don’t get homework doesn't mean that you are relieved of every responsibility.

Hard Work: If you don’t work hard and burn the midnight oil, you won’t achieve your dreams. So find ways to force you to work.

Learn From Mistakes: It can be used for life in general as well. Nobody is perfect and somewhere along the way you are bound to make mistakes. Never fear it. Think and analyse what and how things went wrong and then work on improving it. For example, if someone fails a module, think of what went wrong? Maybe they didn't understand the course. They should think what they should have done and what they could do so that the mistake is not repeated. It might be because they couldn't understand it from that particular book. Issue some other book from the library. Or maybe it is because their basics are weak. Go back and do them again even if they seem easy.

Making Schedule and Following it: In my opinion, it is always better to make schedule. Because it relieves stress as you know that if you follow the schedule, you won’t have any problems during the exams. It should be made according to how you study. And sufficient time should be left everyday for de-stressing. Gradually build up the study routine. The first few days, study for one hour and then increase the timing gradually.

Attend Every Lecture: Don’t ever miss a lecture. Even if the topic seems easy or you already know the topic, still go to the lecture. There is always something we don’t know. Sometimes we know a very difficult question but get stuck at a simple beginning part because we missed an easy lecture. Always make your own notes. And do all the assignments/exercise questions. After the end of course, we usually don’t attend extra lectures. These are quite beneficial as the lecturers might give some good tips regarding exams (they usually do).

During Exams: While doing the exam, if you find some question a little difficult. Don’t panic, just leave it and continue with the rest of exam. In the end, try to do it once.  Revise all the information about a particular topic and you will get an idea on how to approach it. For modules including mathematical calculations, underline the important points in the question and then write all that information on the answer sheet. Sleep well before exam, relax, enjoy your time and be confident!

Particular Advice for University Students:

I find it much easier to study from paper notes instead of using my laptop and I think most of the other students feel the same way. Always print lecture notes before the lecture.

Don’t miss lectures because you will end up leaving all the stuff for the end of semester. And even if you manage to cram everything in the last few days, you might forget it in the nervousness of exam. + Not sleeping during exams would make you tired and tired mind works slowly.

Some tips regarding study:

First of all, find the best environment for yourself. For example I just can’t study in my room and I don’t like going to the library because it’s quite crowded and noisy. So I now study in my kitchen. Some people listen to songs while studying while others want a pin drop silence.

Make a schedule and a routine. It would save you from the unwanted stress associated with preparation.

For the actual study, different modules have different ways to study. The following points can be followed for every module. Read the whole lecture notes at first (you can do this during the lecture) then in the spare time during classes (so that your evenings are free) read the lecture notes again. But this time, write the important points in the margins in bullet form. For modules including mathematical derivations, have a rough notebook and practice doing them. Afterwards write the end result (the equation that you need) in a separate neat notebook. This is done so that even if you forget the equation during exams, you have a fair idea to derive it. You don’t have to write lengthy notes. You can just read the bullet points afterwards and if you feel any confusion, you can read the whole slide/ page again. Equations that you wrote in a separate notebook can be used while doing the tutorial questions.

This brings me to another important advice. Never forget to do tutorials and past exam questions. And don’t panic if you can’t do the tutorial/exam question. Check the solution and write it. This way you will understand how the question was solved and you will understand how to do similar type of questions.

Most exams follow a certain pattern. For example there could be a question for each of the topics that you studied or you can have a choice between questions from particular topics. So keep that in mind and prepare accordingly. If for a MCQ, you have to show the working and you are not getting an exact answer from the choices given. It is always worth a try to show the working and choose the nearest option.

In the end, always try to give your best because when you have done everything you can, you will be satisfied with the result!

The Course Choosing Conundrum

By Haider Janjua

One of the most important decisions that you make after your high school is to select what you want to study for your bachelors. This decision affects your whole life so it should be a well thought out and wise decision.

Having gone through the process myself, I have thought what advice would have been beneficial for me as far as choosing the course is concerned. So I have written the following points that should be taken into consideration.

In my opinion, the decision should be made during the summer after high school first year examinations. It would leave enough time for you to then concentrate on how to achieve the required grades for the chosen subject area.

The first thing that you have to ask yourself is, whether you are passionate about a particular course/ field or not? If you are passionate about something, already know a great deal about the subject area, you don’t have to go any further. Just work on getting the required grades and go for it.

But if you don’t have a particular preference then you have to follow a process to choose the right field of study. Most of the students already know the general area that they want to choose and have chosen their A Level/High School subjects accordingly. The most important thing that should be done is to research every possible degree course that you can apply according to your subjects. It would be a good idea to make notes for that. Write the degree course on top followed by a brief description. Add all of the modules that you will have to study and a brief description about them. In the end and it is an important parameter, you should include the details about the job prospects.

Research is important as you might find something that you never knew before but is quite interesting. Before coming to the university, I didn’t know that there were engineering courses such as Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering and Bio Engineering.

The next thing to do is to think about your strengths. Which subjects do you find the easiest? Even decide between subjects like maths and physics. Now choose the courses from your research which have the related modules to the subjects that you like. For example, if you find maths and chemistry quite easy the related courses that you can choose are maths, chemistry, chemical engineering, civil engineering and material engineering. If you like biology and yet you like maths bioengineering could be chosen.

For the next phase, in order to further narrow down your options, think of what would you like to do? Never choose a particular area just because your parents might want you to do that or you think that it would have better job prospects or it is termed as a worthy subject. Never choose something just because you feel like choosing that, always do research about the subject and choose accordingly.

By this time you would have narrowed your options down to two or three areas. If you know someone who is studying /has studied the particular courses, ask their opinion. It is because the person already studying the particular course has more knowledge about the area than you can have even after doing extensive research. Also think about the job prospects at this stage. Is it easier to get a job or not? Think about your home country and whether the course has good scope in your country.

In the end, use your gut feeling to choose from the final two/three choices and may the odds be always in your favour!

Languages For All

By Haider Janjua

Bonjour!!
Comment ça va? Moi, ça va bien.

I have always been interested in learning about different cultures and love travelling. And how great is it if you can speak the language too + you can also use it as a secret language (for that you will have to force your friends to learn as well).  So as I told you earlier about the wonderland that is the countless emails we get, I came to know about Languages for all.

So if you want to learn a language but you don’t have unrestricted module choice in your course and you haven’t already enrolled in a language module, you can learn a new language without any extra charges. Yes you heard it right, ABSOLUTELY FREE! This is a great thing for engineering students who normally don’t get module choices + it also increases employment chances.

French

The languages that can be learned are French, German, Italian, Arabic, Latin, Portuguese and Spanish. These language modules are provided by Modern Languages Teaching Centre (MLTC). Staff and members of public can also study these. There are different levels of study, so you can either continue with a previously studied language or start from the beginning. Registration event takes place in the 1^st week of the 1^st semester (try to get there early because if you get late there is a huge queue and you might not be able to choose your preferred language). You can either choose to study for 1 semester or register for both. There is also registration through E-Mail links in 2^nd semester so you don’t have to worry if you didn’t choose both semesters during the 1^st semester. There is a two hour class every week followed by a one hour lab. You can choose from different time slots; the only requirement is that the lab hour should be after the class. Some classes are late in the evenings so you don’t have to worry if you are not free during the day.

Another great thing is you don’t have to sit for the exam if you don’t want to. You can still have it HEAR accredited. But there are some requirements: you have to attend at least 70% of the classes and there are 2 essential home works each semester that you have to do. In addition to these, there is an independent study record (2 listening and 2 reading exercises) that you have to submit by week 11 of every semester.

Revision Time

The pace is quite fast and you do have to work extra other than the classes. But by the end you will not only able to learn a new language and learn about new culture through it, you also get to meet students from different courses and even able to eavesdrop during the boring bus rides!!

So if you are interested in giving language a go you can go to the following website and get further information. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mltc

À bientôt! Au Revoir!

Scouting for All

By Haider Janjua

During my first year, I came to know about the Part Time Jobs and Volunteering Fair from one of the countless E-Mails we get (I think I am the only student who somehow takes time to at least read the subject every day and then delete! :)). The fair takes places usually in the 2^nd or 3^rd week every semester.

I had a great time during the fair while lots of freebies, signing up for almost everything and somehow managing to evade the countless dominoes people trying to bombard me with vouchers. Soon  I came to this stall which was of “SCOUTS” and, being interested in outdoors adventure sports, I signed up to volunteer.

After a few days, I was contacted by the 142^nd Fulwood Scouts and I decided to volunteer as an Assistant Scout Leader. Scouting is a worldwide organisation which helps young people to develop physical, mental and spiritual skills through different fun activities. It has a strong focus on outdoors and survival skills. I chose the beaver scouts on Wednesday (because Aerospace people have this gigantic amount of classes, especially first years, so a free Wednesday afternoon is lucky). Beaver Scouts are children between the ages of 6-8 and it is the smallest group. 

The main job of Assistant Leader is to help the group leader in organising various activities and then, in turn, help the beavers during these activities. Sometimes you are given the task of managing the record as well.

Lego night with the beavers

We meet on Wednesday evenings for an hour. The session starts with a short game while the beavers are arriving. Then there is the main activity and near the end, beavers are given some biscuits and juice. In the end there is a closing ceremony after which parents have to drag the beavers home (literally).

Pet shop visit

Closing Ceremony

Let me tell you about some of the activities. Last week, we did tie dyeing (I am so excited to get my handkerchief this week!!) and the week before, we made towers from waste bottles and boxes (it’s hard to convince a beaver to not take the tower home when he is clinging to it and wouldn't let it go). The best thing is that you also get to do separate things. I have played Quasar (Beaten easily by children), helped them decorate Christmas bulbs, went for a walk and to a pet shop, made a mini movie to send to Aussies and even wrote a script for a beaver’s puppet show.

Puppet show and Bell ringing

It is not only a way of relieving stress from all the university deadlines looming but also a lot of fun. It actually builds your confidence, teamwork and leadership skills which are quite essential for any job. It can also be included in the HEAR (requirement is 10 hours in an academic year which is quite easy) + being an international student, you learn a lot about English culture (Guy Fawkes Night, Pancakes Day etc).

And this is not all. You also get to know some amazing people. So I would advise you to try and squeeze in some time for volunteering. And scouting is not the only thing you can do. There are countless other activities and stuff that you can choose from. Just go to the volunteering office in student union and get to know about all the exciting stuff or go to the volunteering fair at the start of the term like me!

Haider aka. Woodpecker (Yes we also get to choose animal/birds names as well!)

Meet our International Engineering Ambassadors: Haider Ali Janjua

Name: Haider Ali Janjua

Department: Aerospace Engineering

Course: BEng Aerospace Engineering

• Background 
  My name is Haider Ali Janjua. I am currently in my 2^nd year of BEng Aerospace Engineering.  I am from Pakistan. I like travelling and I am very interested in learning about different cultures and languages. This is my 2^nd year taking French as an extra module and I plan on taking Arabic language during my 3^rd year. I also like to read and want to develop my writing skills. Photography is another thing that I have great interest in and I am a part of universities’ photography society. Recently I have started learning graphic and web design and I like it a lot.
  
• Why did I choose The University of Sheffield 
  
  Firstly, I chose Sheffield University because of its ranking for my course. It is one of the best universities in UK for Aerospace Engineering.  Another reason was that I wanted to live in a scenic place and Sheffield is not only the greenest city in UK but is also close to Peak District (a must go area for tourism). Also Sheffield has a perfect blend of a city with a small place community feel as well.
  
  
• Most enjoyable thing about my subject at The University of Sheffield
  Aerospace Engineering is a multidisciplinary course which means that we study all the different types of Engineering. For me this is the most enjoyable thing as at one moment we are studying Heat Transfer and at another we are having soldering/circuits labs and the next moment we are watching some really cool videos about composites, metals and processing of these.  In addition to that, we have classes with different engineering students.
  
  
• Teaching and study methods at Sheffield
  Teaching methods here are quite different from my home country. Here we are responsible for our own study and are required to study independently. There are two lectures and a tutorial (to work on the example sheets) for every module each week. Team working skills are hugely stressed upon. And I like working in groups to write reports for labs and giving presentations.
  We all have been allocated a personal tutor who is there to provide information and help us if we have any problems during the study.
  
  
• Opinion on Sheffield as a city
  Sheffield is the 3^rd largest district by population but it’s quite calm compared to my hometown which is a small place. But I like that as I have always liked peaceful places.  It is also known as the steel city of UK because of steel production. It has a very good bus, tram and rail network and cities like Manchester, Leeds are quite nearby (football lovers would be quite happy). Most of Sheffield is a green space and it has numerous parks and gardens. A strange thing is that most of the shops close at 6 pm even in summer. The best thing is the people of Sheffield; they are very friendly and helpful. Advantage for people from Pakistan is that there is a large community of Pakistanis in the city and it is easy to find Pakistani restaurants and halal food. The only thing that I haven’t gotten used to it the English weather. It rains a lot!
  
  
• Benefits of The University of Sheffield than any other University
  Sheffield University has a very good employer satisfaction rate and one of the best universities for engineering in UK. Another big benefit is its Student’s Union which has been voted the best student union in UK numerous times. There is some event or another going on at every time of the year. And you could easily find something of your interest.
  
  
• Advice to prospective studentsDon’t be afraid to talk to people and ask questions. Have fun, take part in different activities and there are loads of societies. But learn time management and study hard and you won’t have any problem.