Reflexion and Assessment on the Access to Language Course:

I was so motivated to do this course I actually moved from London to Edinburgh to study at Stevenson. This seemed to be the only Access to Languages in the whole of the UK.

I was firstly surprised that there was no test to get into the course. I had by last August applied and sat almost every Access To Humanities Course Test in London. I found the London colleges very competitive and the content of the courses looked tough. I got into to all but still needed the languages which Stevenson offered so I decided to move up here. Assuming the atmosphere would be the same in Edinburgh I was ready. I was surprised at first how slow the course picked up and did occasionally feel it was a little too slow. However, I did have to bear in mind that others in the class had been out of education for even longer than me.

All the teachers were very helpful and good at what they did. I had no fear of being left alone in anyway. Every teacher had a different approach on how to tackle the course. I liked Scott's approach in particular because we knew where we were, and were able to get through the various assessments at our own pace. The requirements we were meant to meet in his subject were achieved by all. I also particularly enjoyed History, I feel that I have learnt so much, and even though I am not planning to study it at university I have more of an interest in History than I have ever had. The essays Evan gave us to write were very helpful for preparing essay writing at university. I think that this course has also enabled us to really help each other as a class. For example if I have any problems in History Norman would be happy to explain things. This was an enriching experience which I feel I personally benefited from!

The language teachers are very good on this course. The Spanish teachers are all native! How fantastic, no student could ask for more as well as the opportunity to practise with inter- cambio students. Not many colleges offer this.

Although I found the overall course an enriching and positive experience, I did find it slightly slow at times and wished that the work overload was more regular. I would have also liked more IT training because I still think I'm rubbish. Maybe more drop in classes for students who need extra help or who are foreigners could be another idea to put in place. Marks would have been good too , we are marked at university and it would be a good notion of progress and targets to meet. Being penalised for late hand in's would maybe of helped some stay on track. Knowing which class room we would be in would have been nice, but that's more the college management than anything else. Sometimes class rooms were not big enough or too small.

I feel that I have progressed in every subject but the biggest step for me was the Spanish. I jumped from Higher Spanish to Advanced Higher having only been learning the language for a year to me seems like good progress! I feel very ready for university and I look forward to starting as soon as possible. My time management has also improved. It hasn't been ideal because I have worked a lot during this course but the advice from teachers has been used.

I feel that I have achieved study skills, working to dead lines, researching and also knowing what type of studying suits me best. As now a reflective learner, I come out of class and reflect on the main points of the class and ask myself " what have I learnt and how I am going to apply this in my studies". I am happy I chose this course, it would be great if Stevenson wasn't the only Access to Languages in the UK.

May: Firstly apologies because I have been away longer than expected and secondly I am slightly behind with my blog writing. So far I've plunged back into my routine and am trying to catch up on work.

Spanish has been very useful revising tenses and practising for the exam. We have had various translation work and essays to hand in which I have done. I feel that the exam is not so daunting. My major problem is time management. I am slightly slow and need to watch my time when it comes to the exam, I have also been practising looking up words in the dictionary, this is another problem I found was that I was slightly slow when it came to looking things up.

Literature: We are in the last stages of the assessment and I have handed in the comparative essay after having my first draft corrected. I find literature very challenging. As well as the literature techniques I have learnt how to structure a comparative literature essay. This will be very useful for other subjects when I get to university.

History: I am working on my history project and have managed to hand in the latest essays on time. The next exam will be in a weeks’ time. I have really understood the build up to the Second World War and understand how it all started. This period of History is very interesting.

I have also started to learn Chinese! It's so hard! I'm not sure if I will continue it next year. There is a lot of work needed to retain it. But a good challenge all the same.

Last two weeks of March summed up. Firstly sorry for being slightly behind, these past two weeks have been mad. I seem to have clocked up loads of hours at work this past month it's been so hectic! I somehow seem to be working full time and I have 2 jobs!

Anyway, reflexion on what I've learnt.

Spanish, we have been rehearsing for our Listening exam. It's hard because sometimes all you need is one word and bad pronunciation and I completely misunderstand the meaning of the talk.We have been working hard on the folio and I have handed in my first 2 drafts one on the "Lengua de las Mariposas", and the other in the "Memoria Historica". Both have been challenging but Interesting at the same time I have been made aware of what actually happened during the Spanish Civil War. I shall see what Jordi's feed back will be. At least I am up to date with my external exam we have our mock exam on Today and Tuesday. I think this will be very beneficial because it will be like exam conditions, and we will get a real feel for what we will be asked to do and it is good to see which areas I will need to work on more than others.

Tuesday Literature, we seem to be really picking up the pace with the Literature, I have finished the heart of darkness and written some notes about it. Madeleine wants us to find another book which we have to compare with a love poem by TS Elliot and the Heart of Darkness. This will be very valuable work because we will learn how to use literature comparison it 3 different types of literary texts. Hopefully we will get a real grasp of comparing and analysing literature.I am delighted to have been introduced to TS Elliot I really like his style of writing and will definitely by a book of his.

French all exams are finished.

Communications: I have been signed off by Scott and I think I did ok in both my presentations. Well, I shall see at the outcome. I did one presentation of the basic Salsa step and the second presentation on the link to depression and diet.

I didn't really feel nervous whilst doing them but then again there weren't that many people in the class, and I had really prepared my speech.

History: Evan has now been back for two weeks and we are picking up on the Renaissance and the French Revolution. Really interesting, I think we will have a couple more essays left to do before the end of the year. This is the last week before the holidays and I'm off to El Salvador where I will do some thinking about my history project. I'm thinking of doing it about the Civil War which broke out in the 80s there. Not sure yet...

That's really the most of it in a nutshell, Communications, French signed off.

Literature, History and Advanced Higher Spanish to go now.

I have decided to go to Heriot-Watt, I did get refused from Bath as expected, still pleased about my decision though.

3rd week of March

Well, the choice of universities is not going to be difficult I've been accepted at Heriot-Watt for the Interpreting and Translation degree and I've been accepted at Manchester for exactly the same course only Heriot Watt is so much better. I've so far been refused from London, St Andrews, and I await Bath's refusal anytime soon. I'm a little upset will admit that I would of liked a broader choice because my only choice is Interpreting translation or nothing! Great! :-(

Anyway, reflection on the past week. Monday I did my Spanish oral exam, I do hope I did well in my Advanced Higher I'm aiming to get an A for both French and Spanish. I find the translation really hard. So most of the class is now focused on passing the exam. We are starting some research on "La memoria historia in Spain which is interesting discovering Spanish history. I have translated my essay for Jordi and handed it in to him on Friday.

Literature I have almost finished reading Madeleine’s book" The Heart of Darkness” I find the description in the book so intense It's quite hard to follow the plot. We are analyzing the descriptive passages and literary techniques used within the book, so the main idea now is to apply what we have learnt in the past months of this course to an actual piece of literature and write a critical analysis of the book. Why the author uses this particular technique at this particular moment of the story and what effect does this have? I am waiting impatiently to practice more of this.

Spanish on Wednesday, we are practicing the listening test for Advanced Higher Spanish. This seems harder than I expected the people speak very fast and having to sum up the main ideas in English in a short amount of time is quite hard I need more practice!

Thursday Scott, communications, well all presentations are ready and a lot of time has been invested in doing these presentations .I hope I will be able do them both on Thursday as well as the discussion I have with Emma about immigration in America. It looks like I'm up to date and can get this unit signed off.

Friday history still no Evan, did a little research about the Renaissance. Easier to do in class. Working alone demands such discipline. When you research alone the key thing to retain is stick to the subject you are researching, as it's very easy to drift off else where on the web...
Also being able to suss out fast what a document is informing you about as well as the credibility of the source itself. A lot of history documents are very long winded and could be resumed in 2 sentences the skill here, is to distill the information or points from it as quickly as possible.
Good training though thank you Evan!

Second week of March

Second week of March. Still waiting on UCAS I am the most impatient person in the world so this is proving to be stressful and annoying not know where to go...
Monday Spanish: both Monday and Wednesday, we did a practice run with Jordi for my external exam. It went fine and I need to put in a few more subjunctive words and revise the future I’m still nervous about the test though ,I will be going at the end so I hope the examiner will be tired and not ask me too many questions!
Tuesday in Literature we read a bit more of the book and looked at the history of Congo and the Belgium colonization which was interesting. It's something I knew nothing about.
The book is proving to be a little deep and not really my cup of tea but I always think of it as a new knowledge and hopefully we will be starting to analyze it which is a new skill to acquire. I await this moment with impatience.
In French I did my power point presentation which went really well. Funny it was almost easier in French than it is in English or Spanish!
We then we went on to read about the French colonization and the DOM TOMS
Again I don't know much about the relation France had with the Carabeen.Apparently there has recently been a vote there for a new French policy because with the European goods exportation law in the Dom toms are costing France a fortune and France would like to get rid of some of its financial responsibility there. I also learnt about Haiti, very sad history.
I have 2 more assessments to do in French this week and next and that will be me done!
Communications I have finished the last two written assessments about presentation skills. Still working on my presentation which I hope that by the April holidays will be sorted. I would like to get some more work out of the way before the Easter break, easier said than done!
I think the progression of the communication class is good we have built up a range of skills needed for higher education in a very logical progression. This particular sequence we have been evaluation what a good presentation should look like as well as looking what not to do. The outcome of this will be shown by our own presentation and Scott will be assessing to see if we have learnt how to do a good presentation based on the previous presentations we have been assessing in class. It's a very good idea but again we can only be so good with little experience practice will make perfect.

Friday I did a little research about the Renaissance for Evan. As well as thinking about a historical question for my history project.

It's the first week of March! Time flies! Busy week, last week.
Tuesday as I mentioned we had a literature assessment about analytical reading I think this was the last phase of introduction to literature. Madeleine gave us a book to read" Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. I've read the first 20 pages despite the small print! I'm impatient to see what exactly we will be doing with it in class. I've come across some unfamiliar vocabulary in it which I am writing down and looking up in the dictionary as I go along.

Spanish finally have to do the Advanced Higher assessment so I have prepared my oral assessment and I need to communicate with Jordi about when I can start doing my extra assessments. I'm happy to progress even more in Spanish but the extra work is scary! The key to this is organisation because I feel a lot of work on the horizon after the Easter break!
French, I have done my power point presentation and await tomorrow to perform in class. It should be ok just need to revise the spiel. I then have Reading assessment and writing assessment in the following weeks this gets it out of the way.
I am also doing a course at the open university of Edinburgh French and European Politics. I have chosen to do this to see if I would enjoy studying politics and International relations at university, this could help my choice.
Communication with Scott! Lots of work: assessing people's presentation skills as well as analytical thinking. The programme we watched was about spiritualism. We had to work out the main arguments and points. During that hour I learnt how to take notes of the main points whilst watching the programme, as well as analysing the main ideas and proving their effectiveness.
We have 2 more presentations to do and I have chosen to do a talk about healthy eating and nutrition.
I need to work out a plan and do some research, the question is how can I put my point across clearly? As well as which main points do I want to talk about?

Friday history; this is new for me religion I draw a blank I'm trying to suss out dates and locations. We will be doing the Renaissance in Italy. We have some research to do for the next couple of weeks. Research is good I feel that I grasp a lot more researching stuff myself.
However we watched a TV programme and I learnt that the Renaissance was mostly in Italy and it sadly by passed Scotland what a shame! The French architecture was inspired by it as well as artists. The Churches and architecture also changed .

Last week of February

Holidays are over and back to school it is!

In the holidays I didn't manage to do much I had to cover quite a lot for work and then ended up going down south.

Anyway, fresh start back and straight into a literature assessment! I don't know how I did, didn't really feel that I had enough preparation at all. Analyzing sentences doesn't seem to be my forte.

åWe shall see, we now have Heart of Darkness to start to read for next week, which looks interesting. During the assessment I did come out with knowing what and inversive sentence is so that os one thing I won't forget.

In French I have finally started and finished my powerpoint presentation about women's rights in France. I have to do that on Tuesday. We have also arranged dates for all of the following assessments with Anna. In the class on Tuesday we covered francophone and the political relations France has with Africa, I found the text challenging and real interesting I felt that I came out having learnt a lot.

Wednesday, Spanish revising the past tense also deciding whether to do the advanced higher or not... A lot more work... The only advantage of doing this extra work is the progress I will make if I do it. I'm still not sure.

I really need to do some research on the subjunctive to understand it better. I find it confusing no matter how many times Jordi desperately tries to explain it to me! I don't even understand it in French or English let alone in Spanish! I have been revising the past so now this week I shall attempt to do the same for the subjunctive.

Tomorrow we have Scott and I have finished the assessment we were doing a couple of weeks ago when he was off sick. We were assessing presentation skills, we have to give a presentation fairly soon and I guess we are advised to follow some of these guidelines.

Scary thought, but again I’m sure once you get the hang of them it will be fine. Practice makes perfect!

History we have started Europe, interesting we haven’t really gone into any depth yet.

I’m still wondering about my history project which topic to do but most of all what historical question to ask. I would like to do it on the civil war in El Salvador and finding resources seems ok. I have already ordered two books form Amazon as well as two from the library. It’s a topic which really interests me as I was in some way very much part of it,this is why I would like to discover more and work on it.