Since the beginning of September, I’ve bussed to and from campus, taking up about 1.25h of my time everyday. This is not much compared to most, and I am in no way complaining about our transit system. I saw something amazing today, and that is why I’m taking the time to let you know!

I was one of the many people standing on the bus. A mother with a 3 to 4 year old child comes onto the bus, and keep in mind this is during the university rush when we are all packed like sardines in a can. As the “standing line” progressed further and further towards the back of the bus, several university students took the time to ask the mother if she wanted to sit! Props to you if you do this! To make it even more amazing, many of the university students weren’t even the “priority seating” area. They took the time to stop whatever they were doing (music, texting, daydreaming, reading, etc.) and asked the mother kindly if she wanted a seat. In the end, she declined all of them because she was getting off soon, but the feeling she must have gotten :’)

Another thing I notice is that many students DO try to “move as far back as possible”, a phrase many of us commuters know by heart. Many do say thank you to the driver. These little things that one does truly do make someone’s day. So try to make it a habit to do nice things because it makes you and the people around you feel better (especially during Midterm season, when all hell breaks loose)!

Give yourself a pat on the back if you’re reading this and you do this! You deserve it.

Wow it’s been a long time. I feel so bad, but then again I had 3 midterms this week, 1 in-class essay, 2 online assignments, and one lab this week. But after going through a hell of a week, I’ve reflected on some of my study habits and you might want to know what I came up with.

1. Spend 1h of your day going over any trouble spots in any of your courses. Midterms test EVERY concept learnt, so chances are if you have something you don’t understand, it’ll be tested.
2. Sleep! If you’re the type of student who likes to cram, then you have to find the balance between cramming and sleeping. Not enough sleep will hinder your performance, and if you study when you’re tired, you’ll end up blanking out and forgetting everything you’ve looked over.
3. Don’t fall behind on your work. If you have a Chemistry lecture and a Physics lecture on the same day, go home and do a couple problems and review the notes. This way, you’re learning as you go instead of a day or two before the exam.
4. Reflect! After every exam, try to think about how to improve on your study habits and what went wrong/what didn’t go wrong. There’s always room for improvement!
5. Pre-read with focus! If you pre-read by flipping pages, you are wasting time. Really think about what big idea they are trying to convey, and try to come up with a question or two. You don’t need to memorize anything, just have the material in your head. As a side note, profs do expect you to pre-read before class, so if you always feel lost during classes (because of the tough examples or because profs don’t spend much time explaining) that’s probably why.

Well, my first round of midterms are over! Time to start on my work early, and prepare for the second set (after a solid 10h sleep though!).

Is that really correct? It’s only been A WEEK? Like I’ve been saying to many of my new friends, it’s felt like a month has gone by. This feeling does not originate from lectures or labs, but from the sheer amount of information that university students need to process in a short amount of time.

Apart from that, I’m loving university! There are so many people from all over the world that have come to one place to study. University is truly the place for learning. The atmosphere inside libraries is one that is not felt anywhere else; all students, calm and focused, are processing information and digesting material that has been or will be covered. To put the speed of things into perspective, Calculus 12 (a high school intro course into calculus) in its entirety will be covered in roughly 4 weeks.

You guys don’t want to hear me go on and on about how TOUGH university is, so let me highlight some key points that I found extremely helpful:

• DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Do it right after you learn the material, that way it sticks in your mind better. Although there isn’t actually homework assigned, you need to do the homework in order to finish weekly quizzes. If you don’t understand a question, spend 5 extra minutes on it, and if still nothing, then leave it. Come back after you’re done your other work and attempt it. If you still don’t understand the material, then go to Office Hours. Which brings me to my second point.
• OFFICE HOURS! They are extremely extremely useful. The profs are very kind and understanding and can usually see where you are going wrong in a couple of seconds. Be warned, however, if you are going to ask how to do a question, please do spend some time trying the question. It will not be like high school where they spood feed you your answers. Explain your process to them, write out your work, and they will correct you where necessary.
• LIVE ON RES (if you can)! I’m quite jealous of my friends on this one. You really get the full university experience if you live away from home. Libraries are a couple steps away and you get to meet people living in the same building as you! This is a plus especially in 200-300 people lectures where it becomes quite difficult to meet new people (because you usually sit with different people each lecture).
• SHAKE HANDS! Don’t be afraid to shake someone’s hand. This is the best way to introduce yourself to someone sitting beside you in a lecture. Just casually turn your head, make eye contact, say your name, and that’s it! Although you may not remember the person’s name after a couple of hours, you will definitely remember their face and that’s an excellent start!
• GET OFF FACEBOOK/9GAG/REDDIT/YOUTUBE! They’re ok…when you’re on your break. Don’t open these when you work because they’ll distract you! Don’t go on Facebook to stalk that new friend that you’ve just added because their most recent status update won’t be a question on an exam! If you really want to get know someone, make an effort to find them before/after a lecture to talk. Find balance between academics and these, and you will be one happy student!
• CHECK OUT YOUR BUILDING BEFOREHAND! It’s ok to get lost, it happens to everyone. But don’t be late for a lecture. Ever. Especially if your class is only 30-40 students big. It’s quite distracting when you’re walking around, trying to find a seat, and unzipping a million zippers before you finally manage to take your notebook and pen out. Come on, get your act together, you are PAYING for university. As an analogy, try thinking about going to a movie. Would you be late, would you sit at the very back, would you sit at the very front where you have to look up until your neck gets sore, and would you want to miss that million-dollar action scene in a movie you’re paying hundreds of dollars for? NO! Hell no!
• PREREAD LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT! This one is B.I.G. What you’re doing is absorbing the material into your brain before the prof does his/her lecture. You don’t necessarily have to understand 100% of it (50-80% would be good) before the lecture, but make sure you understand the concepts. This will remove TONS of stress from your life. Analogy: Imagine going to…let’s say France. Yes, you could probably get by with some fancy French-accented English, but you would be STRUGGLING to ask for whatever you need (say, directions, washroom, food). But let’s say you took a BEGINNER’S COURSE in FRENCH. At least you have some background knowledge in French so you can understand the structure of the language enough to decipher half of a sentence. You could even throw in a couple excuse me’s and thank you’s!
• GO EARLY TO YOUR FIRST CLASS/FIRST WEEK OF CLASSES! Get used to the movie-theatre like style rooms and the small surfaces on which to write. Experiment on where you like to sit. Sure, the front row is good SOMETIMES (you actually get to see the prof but who said the back was bad? At the back, you are eye level with the screen, so that may save you a lot of neck pain. The best seats in the theatre are always front and centre right (not first row but maybe 1/4 up and centre, just a suggestion)?

Let’s end this with quote that sums up this post!

“Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today.”

-Thomas Jefferson

My next post will be about applying to UBC and what a Grade 12 student (or any equivalent; any student that will be applying to post-secondary this year) should prepare for and tips on how to succeed!

Hope you enjoyed my post! =]