learning to study

I am proud to say that today I made two great discoveries that I really want to share with all the other soon-to-be-panicking first year students. As my calendar fills up with assignments, quizzes, readings, etc. I decided to start trying out some of the much advertised “academic tactics” (can’t think of a better word, any ideas?)

Discovery #1 – studying in the library!  seriously, today I was a little bit early to class and instead of coming back to my room I decided to venture into the Xwi7xwa library (right in front of the Geography building). It is, as Morgan would say, AMAZING! All the books and the silence and the studious faces somehow magically prevent you from using facebook or skype or whatever it is that you use as a distraction from reading. Now I don’t have to think about the tempting bed or friendly neighbours anymore :). Please, please, please try it! 

Discovery #2 – LEAP! or at least a tool in LEAP. It’s called Assignment Calculator and this is how they explain things for you to make it easy:

1. type in www.leap.ubc.ca
2. with the mouse scroll down until you see a little clock with “Assignment Calculator” written next to it
3. clic on the link
4. fill in the date when your assignment is given and the date when it’s due
5. Voila!
6. or, as I would explain it, clic here

OK, this will break up your assignment into little actions with dates, so you can actually do a little bit at a time. BUT! that’s not it! you can set it up so that it sends you e-mails reminding you everyday of what you have to do. If this is not enough for you I don’t know what to say… at least you’ll feel bad and you’ll have to think about it every time you get an e-mail!