A new semester is an opportunity to start fresh 🌱 There’s a mix of excitement and dread in the air; everyone is looking forward to seeing their friends after vacation, while also preparing for the stress that often accompanies a new semester.
Starting your semester strong is important to set the tone for the rest of the school year! This can mean re-vamping yourself entirely or simply reflecting on your past academic year. Either way, you want to start the semester feeling ready for what is ahead!
Here’s how I prepare for every semester! 😇
⭐ Reflect on Yourself
At the beginning of every semester, I like to reflect on my past semesters and goals for this semester.
Here are some guiding questions to consider:
What study strategies worked well last year? What didn’t?
Is there a certain academic goal you would like to achieve?
What type of person do you want to be?
What will your life look like outside of academics? Social life? Extracurriculars?
💸 Create a Budget
Unfortunately, school is typically a pricey investment for most. You may have tuition fees, housing fees, and even textbooks to buy!
Create a finance system to estimate potential costs and track your continuous expenses. It is important to consider whether you plan on working throughout the system and start applying for jobs in advance. In addition, will you be applying for student loans or opening up a new bank account? These are all important topics to contemplate before the academics start getting rough!
Personally, I like to use a spreadsheet system to track my expenses (see below).
🛍️ Go Shopping!
Next, it is time to gather the different tools and materials you need to make this semester the best yet!
Personally, I like to consider what type of organization system I will have for the semester and purchase the school supplies needed in advance; romanticize this by purchasing supplies that are within your budget, while also being something that motivates you. For example, I purchase aesthetic gel pens from Muji every year.
You can also consider your style! Perhaps, a shopping trip for clothes is in your future? A new semester doesn't just allow you to start fresh in academics—it also allows you to re-vamp yourself if you need a little change in your life!
💻 Research your Courses
In the first week, I like to research my courses on several different platforms to know what to expect:
Rate my Prof and Reddit to view students’ experiences with the class and the professor
UBCGrades (or your school’s course grades) to understand the difficulty level of the course based on course averages
Course syllabi to learn about assignments, exams, grading, and weight of different assessments
Youtube to expand my repertoire of study strategies for various courses
🗓️ Construct your Organization's System
Before the first week of classes, I like to prepare all of my organizational systems for the school year and romanticize the process with personalization:
Google calendar - I choose a colour palette and prepare various colour-coded calendars. I also input my courses into the calendar!
Notion - This platform is my personal choice for a planner, so I spend a great deal of time designing it to be efficient and cute. I include a database for all my tasks (color-coded, of course!) and pages for course notes.
Binders - I prepare a binder with a pretty cover page for each course.
Laptop Folders - I create a folder for each course to store class materials, such as lecture decks, assignments, and more!
🧑🤝🧑 Reconnect
School is more than simply academics. It is also a time to build connections with others and learn more about oneself in the process.
In the weeks before school begins, I like to re-connect with friends to see which classes we will have together—trauma bonding over university classes hits differently. I also schedule hangouts with my friends to feel excited about school again!
School can sometimes be a little more bearable when you have people to do it with 🙂
That’s it for me! I wish you the best with your new semester. You’re going to kill it :)
All my best,
N
Comments