Difficulty: Moderately challenging
Step1
Buy a calendar with large squares for writing extensive notes about your daily obligations, including your job and class schedules. Keep a small organizer or notepad with you to write down items to add to your calendar at home.
Step2
Read all class syllabi thoroughly at the start of the term. Mark down the dates when assignments are due and exams are held for each course on your calendar.
Step3
Determine which courses require a large amount of reading. Keep novels or other textbooks with you to read at work, on the bus or on breaks between classes.
Step4
Make a list of any research projects or problem-solving assignments you'll be doing and map out a study schedule on your calendar so you won't be caught off guard when work is due.
Step5
Find out about and mark on your calendar all social and academic club events or sporting and varsity events you will be required to attend.
Step6
Take into account long weekends and vacations and mark them on your calendar. Decide which projects or assignments you can work on at home and on vacation.
Step7
Allot time for exercise during your week, as a way to relieve stress.
Step8
Decide how much time you can give to yourself, or to your boyfriend or girlfriend.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 8/15/2006 The easiest thing to do is to get a datebook which has one full page per day and keep things organized. Give yourself a good three weeks head start on any project of any sort. Make a reminder for the project a good three weeks before it is due and organize how you are going to work things hard for the mid term, final, or paper.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Use downtime for studying. Make flash cards to use when you're walking between classes, carry your notebook with you to a doctor's appointment to read in the waiting room, there are lots of possibilities. Evaluate, at the beginning of the semester, which classes need more time than others. Even if you love your Spanish class, if it's easy for you, don't spend as much time studying it, especially if you know that your English class is going to require six papers over the course of the semester. If homework is a very tiny portion of the grade and only for completion rather than correctness, get it done but don't worry about it being perfect. If it's a huge part, make sure it's right before you hand it in.
Some classes will require you to read each chapter in the textbook a dozen times to get it down, others will just need some review of the powerpoint notes they give you to download. Don't skip buying a book, or reading it once you have, just because some previous class didn't use it much. Once you know a class isn't using the textbook, leave it at home and focus on other things. Adaptation gets you better grades than trying to apply the same study method to every class.
Finally, decide how important your grades are early on. Later, it can be nearly impossible to salvage a GPA destroyed by partying too hard. If you're not bothered by low grades, not intending to go to grad school, and otherwise disinclined to put a lot of time into it, that's fine. But given the amount of money you (or your parents or the government) are paying for this education, it makes a lot more sense to save the drinking for later in your life. Cheap beer now, or good beer later; along with nicer cars, nicer houses, and nicer everything else.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Study from 5-6 AM and PM on Monday and Wednesday.
Study at 7 and 9 AM or PM on Tuesday and Thursday.
Study Fridays in the morning and once before you go to a party.
Study Saturday and Sunday at night.
Laundry on the weekend or on Wednesday at night.
Dates on Tuesday and Thursday done during the day.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday dates are usually whenever.
Monday and Wednesday morning dates are usually good.
Go on caffeine (coffee, tea, cola) or sweet (ice cream, yogurt, cookies)socials on a first date.
Get a digital device (usually your cell phone will do) to keep track of dates.
A calender with big boxes below to write in dates for exams and projects.
Most importantly a digital voice recorder is a must for various reasons(record when the professor actually said when the exam was going to be).
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Most of the time, friends are the #1 distraction while trying to study. Learn how to politely kick them out of your room when it's time to study. Having a regular study time on Monday, through Friday will help keep your friends at bay. Trust me!
Anonymous said
on 4/12/2008 It helps to stop and take a deep breath...