Introduction
First-year at university can be quite intimidating. You don’t entirely know what to expect because it’s a different ball game. And it definitely doesn’t help that your seniors keep telling you that your high school GPA will drop at least 15%. Thanks a lot, seniors! 😝
With all of these negative perceptions in mind, it can be difficult to prepare yourself to experience post-secondary education. To help you with the process and succeed in your first year (and prove your seniors wrong), here are some tips to adapt your high school study techniques to university 🌟
🔍 Research
The ultimate difference between high school and post-secondary education is that you learn content significantly faster in post-secondary. For instance, each of my university courses covers 1-2 chapters a week! In high school, we typically took a month to cover 1 chapter!! 🔖
As a result of this difference, students often discover that their time is limited at university. This is why your study techniques need to be adapted; you simply won’t have the time.
🎯 I recommend you begin by researching study strategies used by university students! Consider: are your current strategies effective and time-efficient? And if you have the time (or rather the patience), try some of the strategies out in the summer! Pick up a random topic and test out the strategies to determine if they work for you.
Once you’ve narrowed down several strategies that demonstrate potential, you will be more prepared for university. Determine which strategies are relevant to each of your courses and you should be good to go!🧸
💡Start off Strong
Now that you’ve considered several new strategies, try them out at the beginning of the year! Since this is your first year at university, you need to rebuild your confidence in academics.
The most feasible method is to simply start off strong. For every assignment, every pop-quiz, and every midterm, study hard and give it your all; aim for stars (as they say)! 💫
By starting off strong, you are alleviating a lot of the pressure you face during finals. If you begin a course with high grades, the final can only do so much damage (and it won’t because you will work hard)! It’s very reassuring to have that support from the beginning of your semester 🌱
🌳 Let yourself Adapt
The final tip I want you to consider is how life loves to throw us some curveballs. No matter how much you prepare, you might find that it simply doesn’t work out for you! And that is completely okay.
Allow yourself to be open-minded and reflective. Be open-minded about how you may need to change your techniques again and be reflective about the best methods to improve those techniques during your first semester. Be lenient with yourself because this is a difficult transition 🌱
Have faith in yourself that you will figure it out!
I hope these tips help you prepare for your first year in university! Please drop any questions you may have in the comments section. I will do my best to help you out :)
Good luck! You got this!💛
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