Hi rezzies! 🙂

It’s near the end of the first wave of midterms, and I would say you have emerged from the worst of university testing. Why do I say that? It is because you now have a taste of what there is to come and have gotten some insight on what to expect for future midterms and finals. If you have done well, awesome! Keep working hard to keep up the good work. If you haven’t done as you would liked (or like me, who bombed the first midterm), do not fret. Even now as a third year student, I tend to do worse on my midterms and learn from my mistakes for the final exam. Every course is different, and now with living on residence, scavenging for food, scheduling time for friends, clubs, homework, exercise, studying, and sleep… it is all about studying efficiently, specifically, and resourcefully. This is what I mean by that.

Studying efficiently:

This is one of the main struggles about studying. You can sit on my chair for 3 hours, but do you actually get a full 3 hours worth of studying with no distractions? Or, is it possible that you went to grab a snack, check your phone, go on Reddit… I don’t know. Time sometimes just escapes from our grasp and that’s not what we want. Due to the time crunch that exists in university, we must block of time to study effectively. Whether it be studying in your room (don’t fall asleep!), the basement of Koerner (Tip: there is no reception on the bottom-most floor! Great for silent studying) or sitting down at the Great Dane (where there is some background noise), do what works for you. And I do recommend you to change it up and try new study spots to explore your option.

Studying specifically:

Just because you bought a $100 textbook doesn’t mean you have to read and memorize it from cover to cover. Just because your prof introduced you a complex derivation, doesn’t mean that they are going to be testing you on that. I have had courses that taught theory and tested on questions and applications. If your prof says something is going to be tested… trust them! If your prof makes learning objectives… use them! You really have to be specific on what you skim and what you memorize. This will save you a lot of time to allocate to other parts of your life and helps reduce stress or feelings of being overwhelmed.

Studying resourcefully:

For most of you, the courses that you are taking have been in existence for many years. Due to this, there are many students who have taken the same course as you, potentially with the same professor, that can give you some insight on how they structure their exams. This is extremely vital because sometimes your way of studying doesn’t completely correspond to the prof’s way of testing. I would reach out to upper year students if you know any, and if not, ask your TA to connect you with an older student in the same faculty! They also may have old notes handy for you to take a loo at.

Here are some other resources:

1. AMS Tutoring
2. Khanacademy or Youtube
3. Office Hours
4. Emailing professors and TAs
5. Forming study groups

Happy studying, my friends! I wish you best of luck and remember: university is a marathon, not a race.

Cheers,

Steph

Follow