Tips and Tricks of the Student Trade

1. Bragging about how you went out to the bar on Halloween and then failing your accounting midterm is not impressive. Accept that there is work to be done.

2. Don’t feel sorry for yourself – there is always some other student with more work than you. Just suck it up, put in the time, and do it. If you work hard your marks will reflect that.

3. Try to do your assignment on your own before working with friends. When you all work together you generally end up getting the same answer, which could be wrong and no one would bother to check. If you do it alone first, whether you get the right or wrong answer, it allows you to explain how you’ve done it which helps you learn. If you answer was wrong, you can see where you went wrong for future problems. Take it from me, doing the problem with 5 people does not mean you get the right answer.

4. Don’t add up the total percentage of what a week’s worth of assignment and exams are worth. You will end up (in business at least) with a number obscenely large, such as 120%, in any given week. This number will consume your every waking moment and you will dream of it at night. It will scare you more than any horror movie you’ve ever seen. Trust me on this one.

5. Buy a huge dry erase calendar that shows two months at once. This way, you can keep track of what's due and when; even (maybe!) get ahead of the game. Actually viewing when things are due in jumbo bright pink letters never allows you to forget due dates (even at midnight). You can still put something out of your mind when it's written right there in front of you, but it's a lot harder. Also, putting the percentages under what’s due helps you prioritize you assignments and exams accordingly. However, whatever you do, do not allow yourself to give into the temptation of number 4. It causes more stress than it’s worth.

6. Go to your seminars! I cannot stress this one enough. Almost all of my seminars give marks for attendance which normally total 10% of your final grade. If you go to all of your seminars you are guaranteed the full 10%. Many people do not go because they “don’t have any questions” or they think seminars are “a waste of time.” Questions or no questions, come final mark time you will be glad you went when you see a nice 80% instead of a 70% - or even a 50% instead of a 40%. You don’t have to be a genius to see how much of a benefit those extra, and essentially free, marks can be. All you need to do is show up.

7. On the other hand, in lectures, do not waste space for the sake of wasting space. I am talking about people who bring their laptops to class and do not take a single note. Instead they find Facebook and MSN to be more appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I am a laptop user myself and I do have a bit of a wandering mouse in lecture from time to time, but I never miss important information on account of having my headphones in and am watching the latest fad on YouTube. If you are not intending to take even minimal notes, please don’t come to lecture. Often you just annoy and distract everyone behind you who can see everything you are doing.

8. That reminds me of another point – don’t think that what you do on your laptop in class is private (no matter how well you position your body in front of the screen). I can personally guarantee that there are at least 5 people at any given time watching your every click.

9. Get to know your professors. I once had a professor who admitted that if she liked you she would mark you better than people she didn’t like. I have a hunch that many professors do this but just don’t admit it to the students. Moral of the story: get everything in on time and talk to your professors. You will get on their good side and maybe even swing an extra few marks out of them!

10. Don’t let extracurriculars rule your life. If you enjoy doing them by all means continue. I’m talking about the people who let sports and various other voluntary school governments take priority over their schoolwork. I know people who say that they have “too much to do” and therefore don’t have time to do their schoolwork. I think that, for many people, this is an acceptable excuse. “It’s okay for me to fail Anthropology – it was only an elective. Besides I got to go to another university to row for a week!” I’m here to tell you that it’s not. Not even by a long shot. Many students tend to lose sight of why they are at University or College – to learn! Not to row, or to become the treasurer for a non-profit restaurant on campus. They are great things to put on a resume for sure, but they are not the reason you are going to school (or at least I hope not). You are at a higher educational institute to become educated. You are paying to be there to become educated. So my final piece of advice to any new student is to put school first – where it belongs. If you think you have time for a part-time job, or for any extracurriculars then by all means do them. Just don’t sacrifice your goals in life - aka a degree and a future career - just because you like to do a little something on the side.