#and *I* want to take an advanced database class. my other database class fucking ruled i love SQL

[demo-ness]

my old advisor was """restructured""" a while ago and my new one can be SO frustrating. they spent several emails working on the assumption that i had veteran benefits, for some reason, and in our most recent interaction they just full on ignored my question about whether a class i wanted to take would be viable or not. WHAT DO YOU THINK WE'RE HERE TO DO, MAN

[banyeet]

Studying Tips from a Bad Student

Print out your syllabus.

Carry it with you.  Highlight readings when they are assigned and cross them off as you complete them.  

Put in the dates of all your assignments the first day of class.  Make special note of overlapping assignments/exams.  3 midterms and 2 papers due during the same week?  Better to know 2 months in advance instead of 2 days.

Pick 1 office hour for each class that works with your schedule.

I never ever went to office hours before becoming an adult.  Honestly, I hate commuting, and I don’t like spending my free time on campus.  So if I’m going to attend tutorials or office hours, there better be a damn convenient time for me to go.  

Pick one time for each professor that you feel like you don’t mind attending, and highlight/write down that information where it’s easily accessible to you.  Do this during the first week of classes.  

If you can’t find a regular office hour time that works for you, immediately contact your prof or TA to ask how they feel about e-mailed questions or scheduled appointments for when you need help.  Once you hear back with their alternative, make note of it in that same accessible place so you know what your options are when you have questions.

Take notes by hand.  

I type way faster than I can write, and I’m sure a lot of you are the same.  This is partly because your brain isn’t processing what you’re writing down in the same way as when you physically write it out. Trust me, it makes a difference.

Also, I found that if I handwrite notes, I am more likely to go back and look at them again later on.  What I like to do is write the notes out in class, and then review them either that night or the following day and highlight, bold things, doodle relevant icons, generally make them look pretty.  That way, you’re reviewing them but it’s also fun.  Spend some time before the semester starts to get a pen you like to write with, and maybe some coloured highlighters and post-it notes.  Interesting things are easier to keep looking at.

Don’t write out exactly what’s on the slide.

First off, if your professor isn’t the type to post slides before/after a lecture, ask if that is a possibility.  There isn’t always time to write everything down during lecture, so it helps if you are able to fill in the information you missed after class.  If you don’t want to ask in person, an email is usually okay.

Listen to what is being said in relation to the points on the slide.  Usually, what’s written on the slide doesn’t even make that much sense, because it’s only enough information for your professor to remember what they wanted to say.  Or it’s written in a way that is unclear to you, so you might want to word it differently so you understand it during review.  

Once you get the main point of what you’re suppose to learn, write it down in your own words.  When studying, you can compare your own notes to the posted lecture slides.  See if they still make sense when compared to each other.  Flag things that don’t make sense, so you can ask for clarification during office hours.

Block time.

Plan time every day for school work, even if nothing is due.  It doesn’t have to be much.  Maybe 45 minutes on weekdays, and 2 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.**I’m taking 2 classes (and working 37 hours a week) right now, so obviously if you’re taking 8 classes you’ll need a little more than 45 minutes a day lmao.  

Stick to it; hold it in high priority.  Avoid making plans during your blocked time as much as possible.  For example, if you have Saturdays blocked from 11am to 1pm, and your friend wants to have lunch at 12:30, ask to reschedule for after 1pm.  It might not shock you that this isn’t a deal breaker in most cases.  

Plan leisure time.

Do your friends typically like to go out on Friday nights?  Do you like to play video games or watch a show during a certain time of the week?  Remove those time-slots from the equation (i.e. Friday from 8pm to Saturday at 11am no longer exist in your schedule).  

Plan your blocked time around that.  That way, you never have to feel guilty about having fun during that time, because it wasn’t available for schoolwork in the first place. **obviously do this in moderation.  Don’t block off 10am-10pm every day for dicking around, or you won’t have time for anything else.

Plan to procrastinate.

If you are an avid procrastinator like me, plan time for it.  One thing I learned quickly about functioning as an adult is to plan everything.  E V E R Y T H I N G.  If you don’t plan for it, it’s either

a) not happening, or b) happening anyway and fucking up your whole schedule.  

So start homework and assignments way early.  I was terrible at estimating time.  Things I thought would take me 25 minutes usually ended up taking me 2 hours.  Dinner plans I thought would end at 8pm ended up lasting until 10pm.  But only finishing 30% of what you planned to get done isn’t the end of the world when you started 2 weeks earlier than you normally would.  You have more blocked time tomorrow.   **don’t let this happen every day.  As I mentioned, your blocked time should take priority over everything else as a general rule.

Print off assignment criteria.

Nothing pisses me off like losing marks on technicalities.  The layout of your arguments wasn’t in the right order.  Your essay only hit 3 of the 5 points it was meant to.  You cited in MLA instead of APA format.  You were mean to include information from a list of specific sources, not ones that you found in the database yourself.  None of that is an indication of whether you understood the material or not.

So before you start,

print the criteria, and read it thoroughly. 

Read it again, this time highlighting things you feel are important to hit.  

Most importantly, keep it next to you any time you are working on your assignment.  Refer back to it often, especially if you feel stuck or run into an obstacle.  

When you’re done, check off the highlighted instructions as you confirm that you’ve met them.