University 101: Ready, set, go!
It is better to get organised now instead of waiting till the eleventh hour.
Welcome back to school, freshers! It is your first day at university and already, much to your surprise, it is not too different from those middle school days when you would enter the sixth grade, all excited and energised in your new crisp uniform (trendy summer collection, in this case) to meet the new teachers, check out your fellow students and get acquainted with all the cool things that you will be taught in that academic year. Like writing with an ink pen (chuckles) and algebraic equations to name two.
Unfortunately, on reaching undergrad/grad school, many things tend to change and that too for the worse. For instance, you don’t have your mother’s finger to hold on to to get away from the baleful glare of the dreadful History teacher who had always discriminated against you for never attending her lectures. And next on the list is, of course, the ghastly syllabus or the course outline! Once the professor ‘bestows’ that on you and you realise the amount of effort you are required to put in, you will long for those good old times when your biggest concern was the mere value of ‘x’.
In spite of all the stress, there is still one element that makes the life of every college going student all moonlight and roses and that’s the fact that every semester you get to start from scratch! So what if your GPA for last semester was a mortifying 2.1? You can shrug it off because that new professor doesn’t know anything about that. In his/her eyes you are simply a brand new student who has what it takes to reach the top.
This surely gives us all the more reason to take advantage of every new semester throughout our university life. Thus, to be on a safe side, it is better to get organised now instead of waiting till the eleventh hour. Here’s how to do just that!
Resist the urge
Missing the first few days of the semester is not okay- get this into your head. The material that you learn at the beginning of the semester might be the key to understanding later material. So try not to slack off during the first couple of weeks. “The first day of any class is very important as that is when we tell our students what is expected of them and introduce them to the grading policy and their subject requirements,” says a professor of political science, Mrs. Sultana. Moreover, the work load is not that heavy in the beginning. Avail this time to map out the semester ahead. Think about how you will maintain motivation throughout the entire semester. By doing so, you will really find yourself in a position to excel.
Attend lectures
The best way to get on that new professor’s list of hardworking students is to be present in every class and take notes. “Last semester, I failed the media and society midterm. Why? Because I studied only from the handouts whereas everything in the exam came from the lectures which I never bothered to attend,” says Ayesha, a student of Mass Communications. On the other hand, another student of the same class, Tooba Altaf, says “I was the only student to score the highest in that exam because I skipped none of the classes and made sure to note down everything I heard.” So be attentive and develop the practice of taking notes.
Get a head start
Begin early, read ahead- It’s as simple as that. Stay one reading assignment ahead of the class. If that sounds too complicated then at least look over the material which had been taught in the last class that you attended within 24 hours to retain all the information and develop a better understanding. “Students who consider revising and researching the topics discussed in class definitely prove to be better participants in class discussions and also end up being the high achievers,” says a History professor at Karachi University, Miss Samarah. This practice will not only allow you to see the bigger picture but will also highlight the areas which make no sense to you. Hence, you can always request the teacher to help you clear out your concepts. “I have never liked my History classes and therefore, I never thought that falling behind in reading or researching would make much of a difference. As a result, when there was only a week left for the exam, I was on edge because I had no idea what I was studying,” says a student of economics, Farhat Baig.
It is often easy to become over-confident, especially when the temptation to bunk lectures is high. Before you start a semester, make sure you have your priorities right and your goals well in place to ensure that you end up where you want to be, not where you are placed.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2011.