Student Life

Many students live in accomodations at their school, which has lots of benefits: It’s a great way to meet new friends, it’s close to your classes, the cafeteria removes the need to do groceries or cook, and let’s be honest, it’s a great place to have a party. Although not everyone remains beyond their first year, because they’ve gotten used to the city and want a place of their own, other people stay longer, and some overstay their welcome!

If you’ve lived in at-school accomodations, share some of the best (or worst) experiences you’ve had, to give new students an idea of what to expect, or what they should do!

If you haven’t lived in at-school accomodations, tell us why and share any relevant experiences you might have had with friends who lived there.

When students leave their families to go away to school, they often gain a significant amount of weight. This phenomenon is often referred to as the “freshman 15”, since the weight gain usually happens in the students first (or freshman) year.

Reasons for the freshman 15 are numerous. Going away to school often means living in dorms or residence, where food is typically less healthy than what you ate at home, and is available at all hours. Students are often less active than they were at home. School usually  involves hectic academic and social lives that can leave little time for exercise.

What kind of advice would you give to new students about staying healthy when they go away to school?

As your schooling becomes more advanced, you have more freedom to control your own life. This is particularly true if you move away from your family.  You can consider pursuing different interests and trying new things. There are many opportunities both at the school or college, and within the community.  Join a group, join a team, volunteer for something, attend a concert, go to the gym, take up a new hobby, make new friends, go out with friends — all of these are perfectly valuable and important things to do. The school newspaper is often a great place to find out what is happening around campus. Your first job while at school is to focus on studying, but studying will be easier if you have balance in your life. Extra-curricular activities (depending on the type) can also be helpful later when applying for jobs and scholarships — decision-makers often want to see that you can balance your life and be active in your community. The key is to not allow the socializing and extra-curricular activities to hurt your grades. Time management is important. With nothing but studying, it’s easy to let things drag on because you’re so tired and there’s no reward at the end. It’s often easier to work hard for the next 3 hours to finish an assignment knowing that you have something fun to do in the evening.

What is your best tip for balancing work and fun at school?

An important step in managing your course load happens very early, typically at the very beginning. This is usually when the course outline will be handed out and explained, and it often tells you how you are going to be assessed. This will let you determine how much time you will need to spend studying, writing papers, and so on. You should think about this carefully to decide how much time you will have left for other activities: other classes, hobbies, or work.  If you take on too much, it will before impossible to do well. Sometimes you can do courses at later times, and this can help you balance your work. Other times you may simply have to set priorities and do less overall. The main idea is that if you take on too much work, you may fail at all of it: successful management means only doing the amount of work you can do successfully.

How do you manage your workload?

“Cramming” means trying to study a lot of material the night before an exam.  But trying to remember everything an hour before a test is almost impossible: so cramming is not a good idea. Instead, a better alternative is to study or take in little by little at a time. Many  courses  cover a huge amount of information, so you need a longer amount of time to review it all. Studying a week before the exam is usually a good strategy. It’s never too early to start studying. You can begin by reviewing the textbook and then your notes; then, you can think of potential exam questions and formulate study notes. On the study notes, summarize all of the key definitions, concepts and integrate examples. Highlight anything that you don’t understand and ask your teacher early. Don’t wait until the day before the exam to do this, because your teacher will be reluctant to help you then.  Studying early will help you with consolidating the material into your memory better and leave enough time for questions.

How do you prepare for tests/exams?

Teachers often use illustrations or notes on a blackboard or project to present core concepts. But just copying those may not be enough for future study purposes. When taking notes, it’s a good idea to highlight key concepts, write down a couple of examples that the teacher provides, even if they just say them and not write them, and even try to think of some examples on your own. Before class it’s important to read the assigned textbook chapters; although you may not fully understand the reading, it’s still good to read it because you can ask questions during class, or concepts that you don’t understand, may be clarified  as the teacher talks about them. Since you’ve already done the reading, during class, you can focus on listening to the teacher and perhaps not have to write so many notes, because you will already have a basic idea of the material. Shortly after class, it’s a good idea to spend approximately 30 minutes to review notes while they are still fresh in your mind. As you are reviewing your notes, think about any linkages that you can make between the textbook readings and the class.

What are your thoughts for good studying strategies?

As you grow up and take more advanced classes, there comes a point where attendance at class becomes optional. For example,  it is rare for anyone to record attendance at university classes. You paid for the class, you’re considered an adult, and it’s up to you whether you show up or not. It’s really tempting to skip some classes. You were up too late the night before, you find the lectures boring, you think you can just read the textbook, you have to work on an assignment that’s due tomorrow, you have to get groceries and do laundry, and the list goes on. Go to class! Try to stay awake! Pay attention! In most cases, if it’s important enough to be on the exam, it’s important enough to emphasize in class.  You’ll save time by attending class and learning what the teacher thinks is important. If you pay attention, you can often get a relatively good idea what topics are most likely to be on the exams, and get hints about what is expected on assignments or projects. Taking your own notes is also much more helpful than studying from your friend’s notes later on. The process of taking notes helps with learning and memorizing. You’ll remember details that weren’t written down and things will make much more sense when you study from them later. Professors also tend to notice who is attending class, paying attention, and participating. If a time comes when you need extra help or have special circumstances to address, they are more likely to be accommodating if they know you’ve been working hard all term.

How has your  note-taking changed since you’ve been at school?

As you become more responsible for your education, it becomes common to have to make your own decisions on scheduling  classes. When thinking about scheduling your classes, you can have several decisions to make about how you want your timetable to look. You may have breaks between classes, and you may have days with nothing scheduled. This initially sounds like it gives you lots of free time, but you’ll quickly realize that you’re busier than ever because you have a lot more course work to do outside of class time.  Sometimes for every hour of class time, you’ll have several hours of work to do on your own. This will vary slightly with different classes and may increase/decrease from week to week, but it gives you a rough idea. When scheduling classes, try to schedule them in blocks so that you’ll have larger blocks of “free time” to work on assignments. It’s really hard to get anything done when you only have an hour between classes. By the time you find a place to work and get settled, it’s time to pack up for the next class. If possible, try to make sure that consecutive classes are not located too far apart, unless you enjoy a 10 minute sprint (it’s more like an obstacle course, with everyone else changing classes too) with no time to refill your water bottle or to grab a coffee.

What is your scheduling strategy?