University is all about being able to teach yourself, with a bit of encouragement and coaxing from your professors. Having moved away from the rather restrictive structure of a school day, in which you actually have to do some work every day, and receive endless amounts of guidance, students often feel like they’ve been dropped in at the deep end.
However, this new-found freedom does have its benefits: you can sleep in, and miss the odd lecture or two without a nagging voice in your ear forcing you out of bed despite the god-awful hangover you’re embracing.
The best way to deal with this is to find a comfortable position between the two, which allows you to do well in your exams at the end of the year, without forcing you to become an anti-social hermit holed up in your room working for 17 hours of the day (that’s what final year is for!). Here are some tips on how to do this.
Attend lectures
Let’s be realistic, the basic knowledge you’ll get from this with a little bit of outside work a week is going to get you that 40 percent you need to pass. So, if you do nothing else, this is the way to spend your study time. Lectures force you to actually be somewhere at a certain time, and you will find exams a struggle at the end of the year if you’ve only been to three or four in the entire academic calendar.
Accept social invitations
Yes, there are going to be times when you think that you could just do a couple more hours’ work instead of going out in an evening, but in the long run you will regret making that decision. Second and third year are a bit of a step-up academia wise, so getting your fun in in first year is really important to your university experience. Plus, you don’t want to end up feeling isolated, as that will hardly help your work or your mental state when exams come around.
Do not stress
Easier said than done, yes. But although university is a big challenge after having sat your a-levels or completed a BTEC, the exams are manageable. Plan your revision well, make sure you still see daylight in term three and everything will be fine.
Finally, don’t let yourself get too caught up in getting insane grades or too panic-stricken if you don’t see them happen. First year is all about changing your lifestyle, adapting to new people and getting to do what you love, so enjoy yourself and put worrying on the back burner!
Do you have any tips for students dealing with university exams in first year? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: Dean Hochman / Flickr
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