What I learnt from my first month at uni
Hi everyone, welcome to day three of my week of masterposts to celebrate my 4000+ follower milestone. Today I will be sharing some things I learnt from my experience of attending university. I made this list after my first month at uni and hopefully you can get something out of it. Enjoy : )
If you learn best by watching lectures at home rather then at uni then don’t feel bad about that. Everyone is different and different things work for different people. I prefer watching them at home because I like to be able to pause the recording and take notes or clarify information by going back. Either way just make sure you somehow listen to your lecture!
parking away from campus (somewhere safe, I can’t stress this enough!) feels like a pain on that 20 minute walk each day, but it’s the only time you know you will exercise, unless you find the time and motivation to schedule it in, so be grateful for that.
Tutorials feel like an utter waste of time. And yea a lot of them are, especially if you, like me, work best by yourself using study techniques you know best. However, try to attend all tutorials, you might just get a bit of good advice or learn something that is not on the PowerPoint slide.
You don’t need to bring a laptop to Uni to be productive. In any spare time I have on campus, I go to the library and I’ve found ways of being productive that don’t include legging around my laptop and breaking my back. I prefer to bring my notes and flash cards and revise over them using my revision technique I’ve grown to love. You may look around and be the only one without a laptop but that doesn’t mean you aren’t working as hard.
Focus on you, not forming new friends. This isn’t high school anymore, you aren’t a loner if you don’t have a friend in that one class or all your classes. Personally, making friends triggers my anxiety a lot and my university has a way of stressing the point of making friends but I think they have missed the mark, instead they should be focusing on making students practice self-care and compassion, not forcing them to make friends so they don’t ‘drop out’.
Make time to see your high school friends! I love seeing mine, it’s just like the way it was before. Talk to them about how they are finding the transition to uni, you’ll be surprised how many of them can relate to your experiences.
Don’t get addicted to campus coffee, you’re a Uni student not a billionaire, you don’t have money to be buying a $5 coffee a day, just make it at home for the love of god.
Don’t buy a handbag! Please, if you have any ounce of self-compassion please by a backpack! I bought a $100 handbag because it was large enough for my laptop and used it once before it threw out my back! Please don’t waste your money like I did, just use a backpack, you won’t be unstylish for it and your back will thank you.
Bring and umbrella and jumper everywhere! Uni has its own climate basically and lecture theatres are freezing.
Plan your time table so that you have 1 day not at Uni and 1 day that you can miss if needed. This is a life saver for when you’re sick or have a ton of work to do.
Make sure you know what is and what is not compulsory so you don’t end up like me and getting an angry message from your tutor for missing a compulsory tutorial and then having them not like you for the rest of the class.
Wear comfy clothes and don’t worry about makeup! No one cares what you look like at all and at the end of the day you want to be comfy in the many hours of lectures and walking around campus.
Make flash cards after the class! Don’t be like me and have the stress of doing them in your Easter break, just spend the half hour and make them the day of, it will help solidify the information and save you the trouble later.
Hack: don’t read the whole textbook chapter, especially when short on time. Just find chapter reviews/summaries online, they are a life saver and tell you all the key concepts without all the extra information that you don’t really need.
I hope these tips help you and if not that they were at least entertaining, remember this is all just from my personal experience, you may disagree with what I have said and that’s totally cool, different things work for different people.
Have a wonderful and productive day and I will see you tomorrow for day four of masterposts : )
