Two students, Leah and Marcus, discussing a project about how

Section 3. You will hear two students, Leah and Marcus, discussing a project about how students manage their money, with their tutor. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25. TUTOR: Leah, Marcus, your survey looked at how first-year students handle their finances. What surprised you most? LEAH: Honestly, how little planning most people did. We'd expected students to be careful because money's tight, but the opposite was true, most had no budget at all. MARCUS: And the biggest single expense wasn't what we predicted. We assumed it would be rent, but for students in halls the rent's fixed, so day to day the biggest drain was actually food, especially eating out and takeaways. TUTOR: Interesting. How did you collect the spending data? A questionnaire? MARCUS: We started with a questionnaire, but people are hopeless at remembering what they spend, the answers were guesswork. So we switched to asking a smaller group to keep a spending diary for a fortnight. LEAH: The diary was much more accurate, though it was harder to get people to stick with it. TUTOR: A classic trade-off, accuracy against convenience. Now, did you look at where students get their money from? LEAH: We did. Most relied on the student loan, of course, but a striking number, nearly half, also had a part-time job, and a smaller group got regular help from parents. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30. TUTOR: And the emotional side, did money worry them? MARCUS: Very much. What came through strongly was that financial stress affected their studies, people said they couldn't concentrate when they were worried about running out before the next loan payment. TUTOR: That's an important finding. So what would you recommend? LEAH: Two things really. First, that the university runs a short, practical budgeting workshop in the first week, before bad habits set in. MARCUS: And second, clearer information about the hardship fund, lots of students in trouble didn't even know it existed. TUTOR: Both very sensible. Now, for the report, I think you should be upfront about the weaknesses too. What are they? LEAH: The main one is the sample, it was quite small, only sixty students, and all from one department, so we can't really generalise. MARCUS: And it was a single snapshot, spending changes across the year, it's much heavier in the first weeks of term. TUTOR: Good, name those clearly. Let's look at your graphs. That is the end of Section 3. You now have some time to check your answers.