Studies Are Upon Us Again

[Kitti]

Whether you're still slogging through or long finished, what is your #1 tip for doing well in school?

 

[Aero Blue]

Long finished. Here. Perspective is written from a former North American Tax/Accounting/MBA/MST student - business and finance, as opposed to arts or science. By design, flawed or otherwise, some parts of academia, particularly sciences, are very different (and holy shit strenuous) and not all of these will hold true for them.

Offering more than 1, because, honestly, school is fucking important. of it is also shared with the philosophy that school's primary functionality is as a transition, one of a few possible stepping stones to a bright career and future. That doing well in school is also about setting yourself up for your career.

1. Find a nice place to study. Preferably, return to it whenever you can. Establishes a good environment and routine. Speaking of routine, eat well, go to sleep as consistently as you can, find time to exercise.

2. Work ahead. (duh)

3. Network. At a certain level of academic achievement, your network of people becomes far more significant than how much marginally higher your GPA is than the next person. Want jobs, opportunities? Know people. Join a frat (many of which are unfairly maligned) if you have to. Make friends. Attend employer fairs. Party. People are more fun than you imagine, and human interaction is good for long-term happiness in any case.

4. If you're looking to enter the accounting/finance/business field, at least in North America, you're putting yourself at a severe disadvantage if you don't gain at least like 1-2 years of relevant work experience by the time you've graduated. I straight up wasn't even allowed to hire an intern out of university that didn't already have that.

If you go to an accredited university, employers are literally throwing themselves at campus to try and recruit people. You absolutely need to try for an internship, in my honest - if somewhat dramatic - opinion. And, work experience provides a very new and helpful context for your studies, and I'm sure this applies outside of the business and finance field.

Edit:

5. Talk to your Professors. Many of them can be quite nice, helpful, and honestly? Do you know how easy it is to coax extra marks out of Professors? It's fucking ridiculous.

6. University can be stressful. Many universities have free mental health programs for you to take advantage of. Do. Thinking well is helpful for studying well.

 

[junebug]

Get the proper amount of sleep. Period. No all nighters or staying up super late. No can do.

 

[Spekkun]

Practice makes perfect. It's obvious but so many people don't do it :"D myself included sometimes. Last year, I dedicated myself to doing 15 practice problems a day for Calc and the rewards were amazing. I was hardly stumped on exams and quizzes and, if I WAS stumped, I always had SOME work to show for it. I was more comfortable with the subject, which is my WORSE, and I felt less stupid.

ALL WINS!

 

[Dipper]

All I can say is... Reward yourself with the fun times. Don't do the fun times before the hard times. Agonizing, yes, but totally worth it.

 

[Shiri]

Eat well-balanced meals, sleep regular hours, exercise. And if you're a college student er, do your best at these? Finals pretty much throw life out the window. ._.

 

[Blind Hemingway]

Don't eat the cafeteria food.

 

[Draugvan]

Front load your work. Pound out half that essay as soon as you get it in week one. You DO NOT want to be playing 'catch up'.

Other things of note - get some sleep. Ditch your friends aka study alone.

 

[Draugvan]

Long finished. Here. Perspective is written from a former North American Tax/Accounting/MBA/MST student - business and finance, as opposed to arts or science. By design, flawed or otherwise, some parts of academia, particularly sciences, are very different (and holy shit strenuous) and not all of these will hold true for them.

Offering more than 1, because, honestly, school is fucking important. of it is also shared with the philosophy that school's primary functionality is as a transition, one of a few possible stepping stones to a bright career and future. That doing well in school is also about setting yourself up for your career.

1. Find a nice place to study. Preferably, return to it whenever you can. Establishes a good environment and routine. Speaking of routine, eat well, go to sleep as consistently as you can, find time to exercise.

2. Work ahead. (duh)

3. Network. At a certain level of academic achievement, your network of people becomes far more significant than how much marginally higher your GPA is than the next person. Want jobs, opportunities? Know people. Join a frat (many of which are unfairly maligned) if you have to. Make friends. Attend employer fairs. Party. People are more fun than you imagine, and human interaction is good for long-term happiness in any case.

4. If you're looking to enter the accounting/finance/business field, at least in North America, you're putting yourself at a severe disadvantage if you don't gain at least like 1-2 years of relevant work experience by the time you've graduated. I straight up wasn't even allowed to hire an intern out of university that didn't already have that.

If you go to an accredited university, employers are literally throwing themselves at campus to try and recruit people. You absolutely need to try for an internship, in my honest - if somewhat dramatic - opinion. And, work experience provides a very new and helpful context for your studies, and I'm sure this applies outside of the business and finance field.

Edit:

5. Talk to your Professors. Many of them can be quite nice, helpful, and honestly? Do you know how easy it is to coax extra marks out of Professors? It's fucking ridiculous.

6. University can be stressful. Many universities have free mental health programs for you to take advantage of. Do. Thinking well is helpful for studying well.

The points values for all our science papers got fucking standardised. Meanwhile BA students were earning 35 points per class compared to our 15 points ;_;

 

[JB]

Finished school about a year ago. Best advice I can give is to enjoy it while it lasts. Don't take the schoolwork too seriously. Do what's required of you, meet good people (your peers and professors alike) and make time for play.

Have a healthy balance of both, obviously, but the camaraderie you have in school (both higher education and high school) is something much desired after you're finished and it just doesn't come as easy anymore.