Have you ever wanted to be a bat? 

We’re not talking batman here – I have no advice about how to deliver vigilante justice. No, we’re talking about proper bats – cute little things with wings that scream until they find food. 
​
Whilst I also scream until I get fed, I don’t find myself thinking about bats all that often. And when I do, I don’t think I have too much in common with them. 

It seems like I was wrong. Humans and bats have more in common than I suspected. 

The purpose of this article is to try and present learning in a new light – to show that learning can be a powerful and enjoyable tool for life. I’m not talking about any specific area of learning – this isn’t an argument that you should become an expert on the mating cycles of sea-slugs. 

​This may well seem like a strange concept – you might ask “why on earth would I want to love learning?” Learning is, after all, school and university, endless classes, exams and stress.  Isn’t it? 

No. 

Schools are once again open. Dust is being scraped from desks, mice are finding themselves evicted from projectors and teachers are trying to remember how to write. 

You’re going back to school, after maybe a year of learning from home (or in bubbles), separated from your teacher and your friends by a screen and the whims of the Wi-Fi. So, how on earth are you expected to concentrate? 
​
You’re not alone if it appears overwhelming. A key point to remember is that everyone is in the same situation as you. Even your teachers will be a little stunned by so much human contact. 

Hopefully the past month has given you a bit more clarity as to how your school/ college is assessing grades. You may have been getting more essays or homework set, maybe a new set of mocks have been announced or are even happening now. Either way, it’s safe to say that it’s best to complete each piece of work to the best of your ability. In this blog I’ll be talking about some tips and tricks you can use to keep working through a school of twenty back-crunching zoom calls whilst trying to prep for upcoming exams.

So, firstly for general revision and keeping focus: we have to remember that this doesn’t last forever. A-levels/ BTECs/ GCSEs will end, and so will all this work you're doing… I promise! Yes, we don’t know when or how we’re getting assessed exactly, but when school finishes in 5 or so months this will all be over and a new chapter awaits. The likelihood is these academic grades will be finally determined around May/June time, so summer and sunshine is only a few more months away!

We know that making real-life decisions and the whole UCAS commotion is basically a year away, but before you know it these choices will be getting all up in your face and demanding attention. Then there's all the exams, revision, coursework, birthdays/bar mitzvahs/weddings and cat gifs... it's never too soon to get focused.

Besides, what's sixth form all about anyway? If you can work out where it's heading, it gives the next two years more purpose, more focus — perhaps even more fun and success.

What we're saying is that, however early it seems, now's a great time to be thinking about two of the big questions: what do you want to study and where do you want to study it

When distance learning is necessary, many students and teachers consider it a challenge. In reality, it can be a very useful tool which can provide students from all over the world with the chance to learn. Whether they don’t have access to education otherwise or a worldwide pandemic has taken place, distance learning can become a great alternative for everyone.
​
In order to make it effective, though, teachers are not the only ones that need to find ways to keep it interesting. Students should also find ways to make distance learning more interesting in order to get something from it. Here are some tips to help you achieve just that.

Worried about all the fake news and conflicting information when it comes to Covid-19? (Yes, we always sing it to the tune of Come On Eileen, too.) Us lot at Push are no doctors or virology experts, but we can remind you of a few fundamental things…
​

• Whether you want to bore yourself to death with dulcet tones of Happy Birthday, or you’d rather something more exotic like Bohemian Rhapsody or Britney’s Toxic, make sure you’re scrubbing those grubby digits. Around 20 seconds is recommended. 
• Keep in mind that washing your hands as regularly as you can is far more effective than bulk buying all the hand sanitiser in the world (and then flogging it on eBay).
• Take sensible precautions, like sneezing into tissues and binning them, coughing into the crook of your arm, and keeping general good hygiene.
• Avoid heading out if you feel a bit under the weather, even if you’re sure it’s just a cold or a sniffle.
• Call the dedicated NHS hotline, 111, if you’re worried about yourself or someone else.

Now the boring obligatory bit’s done with, what about the rest? Are school closures likely? What do they mean?

We've all been there. 

You've got your exams coming up, you've got your coursework needing to get submitted. You sit down to work and before long you find yourself with your phone in your hand, scrolling through social media feeds or killing five minutes on the latest game, because five minutes isn't going to hurt right?

But five minutes every half an hour soon builds up.

Before you know it you're having to cram revision, rush your coursework and in turn become stressed and don't want to do the work. A vicious cycle if there ever was one.

Been there. Done that. Every student can say this when it comes to meeting assignment deadlines that just come up too fast.

Maybe you have procrastinated a bit too much; maybe you have spent too much time working that part-time job or partying; maybe you are just that dis-organized person who is not a master of calendaring. All of a sudden it hits you.

​You’ve got a deadline for an essay, a paper, a project – whatever – and you are now facing the prospect of either getting it done or taking that poor/failing score. 

​Spending a semester abroad to study is an incredible opportunity that can change your life. It’s important to be aware of certain mistakes people make so that you can avoid them and make sure that your time abroad is as rewarding and exciting as it can be. 

Procrastination can be a serious productivity killer. It can get you into all sorts of deadline troubles, leading to frantic keyboard tapping and energy drink fuelled all-nighters.

It’s not just you – besides the most diligent and proactive of us, we’re pretty much all in this together. Picture the High School Musical number, except none of us want to dance right now. Maybe later.

So when the Independent reported on a uni student who blitzed through her dissertation project in a single night, mere hours before her deadline, we can’t say we weren’t a bit awe-struck.

And incredibly stressed on her behalf. But still. Impressive. 

Everyone loves Matilda, right? Whether it’s Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations and the heart-warming tale of Danny DeVito and Mara Wilson (now a Twitter icon, honestly…)’s unbeatable Hollywood depictions, Roald Dahl’s creation is a timeless classic.

Not to mention we’re always here for a strong female protagonist. With vigilante magic. But we digress.

Two Manchester-based parents are advertising through a freelance tutoring service to find a tutor willing to dress and act the part of the unforgettable Miss Honey, Matilda’s sweet, nurturing schoolteacher to tutor their daughter. 

​Getting a job, apprenticeship or a place at your dream uni might seem like pretty terrifying concepts right now, but they don’t have to be.

You might think you have no skills and a dire CV or personal statement, but you’re completely wrong.
​
Everyone’s got something that will wow employers and admissions tutors, whether it’s dedication, time management and people skills earned from a weekend shop job or paper round, or sacrifice, compassion and maturity from being a carer to younger siblings or family members. 

Sometimes it might feel (rightly so, often) that our favourite tech is holding us back when it comes to coursework productivity or exam periods.
 
Go on, try to tell us you’ve never thought “I could work on Algebra, or I could check Insta stories…” or “I should really do this Physics past paper as exam prep, but after just one more episode of Game of Thrones…”

​Never heard of the Access to HE Diploma? It’s a Level 4 HND qualification specifically designed to help students who don’t have traditional qualifications like A Levels or Scottish Highers to get into university or other higher education.

We’re lucky that mental health awareness is ever improving, and the stigmas and taboos are slowly being lifted. But that doesn’t mean we live in a perfect mental health utopia, so it’s important to look out for yourself and plan ahead if uni’s in the cards for you.
 
One of the most important things to do if you suffer with your mental health is to look out for universities who have a strong support network for students and their mental health issues.

The web is full of dodgy types and one that students in particular should avoid are the essay cheats – or, as they’re sometimes called, ‘essay mills’.

The situation they prey on is common enough. An essay is due next week and you’re finding it too hard or you haven’t done the reading or there’s some thing else more important right now – your job, your boy/girlfriend, a different essay or even just a party. For a few quid (in fact, often quite a bit of money), you can make the problem go away. You can buy a ready-written essay, dissertation or even PhD thesis online and pass it off as your own.
​
Of course, the shysters offering this service don’t advertise that they’re there to help you cheat. They describe them as “sample essays” to “inspire” or “inform” your own work. However, they also describe them as “plagiarism-free” (so that, in theory, unis won’t spot it’s not the student’s own work). Why would they say that unless everyone knows the real score?

You know perfectly well this isn’t ethical and you shouldn’t do it. But, if morality isn’t enough to convince you to do the right thing, here are six reasons why you should never cheat. 

We’re an addicted generation, we know. Where would we be without Scottish Twitter, or Facebook’s Love Island memes? Doesn’t bear thinking about.
 
Even so, social media and the devices we access it through aren’t always good for us. For one, they may be harming the quality of our sleep. The cold, blue light that smartphones, tablets and laptops emit is conducive to keeping the brain engaged and awake, so scrolling for an hour before bed to wind down might not be such a good idea. 

​We all know there's a variety of ways to get things to stick in your head: texts books, spider diagrams, post-it notes, mind-palaces, reading out loud, singing your revision and even sleeping with your notes under your pillow (note: we have no proof of the last one...).
 
If you have a basic understanding of how memory works you can incorporate this into the way you revise. 

​Did you know that all of your senses can be helpful when you revise for exams?
 
Some studies have found that if you always suck on Polos while revising the ins and outs of Biology, or wear the same perfume when thinking about French sentence structure, it can help encode what you're memorising. This is because all our senses are linked and they all make pathways into the process of remembering.

​This, however, should only be used alongside your regular excellent study skills otherwise you'll be sat in your exam popping Polos and praying to a confectionery god. Not a good look for anyone.

​Now that we’ve talked all about how essay mills are out  it would be pretty unfair of us to leave you high and dry when it comes to getting down to the nitty gritty of essay writing.
 
Before we start, have a look at Edinburgh Uni’s PhD student Tim Squirrell’s blog – it’s full of great insider tips on writing a top-class essay. He even has a handy TL;DR version:
 
For the terminally lazy:

1. Find 10-20 relevant books and articles from the reading list and/or Google Scholar searches. Well referenced Wikipedia or Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles are your friends for both understanding and writing about a topic (read and cite the references, not the articles themselves. Obviously.).
2. Skim the relevant sections for relevant quotes.
3. Write down those relevant quotes.
4. Have a think, put the argument and essay together.
5. Your essay is done.

For the full version, which is jam-packed with fab first-hand tips, head to Tim’s blog.

​As a nation of young people raised on social media and the spotlight surrounding its many “influencers”, it’s no wonder that social celebs have made household names for themselves. They’re trusted. And they know it. So it’s no wonder that social media celebs have come under fire over the past few weeks because of some shady ad endorsements. 

If you've already started your uni career, you now know that textbooks are the necessary evil that slash at your alcoholic beverage budget. If you're just about to start, let us tell you now: you've got to pay for these bad boys all by yourself and they're nothing to laugh about.

Sometimes lecturers have a reading list as long as your arm, and borrowing from the library just won't cut it when there's 60 of you clamouring for the single dogeared copy of Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. ​​