Ending First year at Uni: What Advice would you give yourself 1 year ago?
What advice would you give to yourself 1 year ago, before you started university?
I'll start.
1) Time Management: Working hard is great, but be mindful of how little time you are spending to relax. There's a balance to be made about this, exhaustion is a real thing. Make sure you find time for you ( I found myself really burning out). On the flip side, if you are partying a lot in the first year, I would recommend that you start the assignments well ahead of time so you can enjoy yourself and get work done. I know some students who wouldn't look at the brief until 48 hours to go and became very stressed out, pulling one nighters a lot to complete which are just unsustainable.
2) Exceptional circumstances requests: If something happens outside of your control which will impact your ability to complete coursework, don't feel the need to push through for the sake of it and absolutely use the requests for an extension. Do it as soon as possible. That time that you request gives you a chance to breath and process whatever you are going through, and you are not a bad student for asking for support with this. Life happens and you're allowed to ask for help.
3) Refreshments: If you can, bring a reusable coffee/tea mug which you can fill up at student services. I spent a lot of money on coffee, when I could have brought my own tea/ coffee sachets and kept them in my bag. Also invest in a decent water bottle to fill out at water stations around campus, another way of saving the pennies. You may also have little time between lecture to lecture/seminars, so buy some snack bars ahead of time for you to mönch. Feeling hungry is not great for lecture or seminar attention spans.
4) Perfectionism: This is a personal one. In spite of getting grades which were something to celebrate, I almost always found fault and nitpicked 'Oh I was x% away from a first ' etc. I was always passing my modules and was my own worst enemy, especially as my first year doesn't count towards my final grade and only really needed to pass. You are not your grades, try to celebrate your little wins more.
Feel free to add more
I'll start.
1) Time Management: Working hard is great, but be mindful of how little time you are spending to relax. There's a balance to be made about this, exhaustion is a real thing. Make sure you find time for you ( I found myself really burning out). On the flip side, if you are partying a lot in the first year, I would recommend that you start the assignments well ahead of time so you can enjoy yourself and get work done. I know some students who wouldn't look at the brief until 48 hours to go and became very stressed out, pulling one nighters a lot to complete which are just unsustainable.
2) Exceptional circumstances requests: If something happens outside of your control which will impact your ability to complete coursework, don't feel the need to push through for the sake of it and absolutely use the requests for an extension. Do it as soon as possible. That time that you request gives you a chance to breath and process whatever you are going through, and you are not a bad student for asking for support with this. Life happens and you're allowed to ask for help.
3) Refreshments: If you can, bring a reusable coffee/tea mug which you can fill up at student services. I spent a lot of money on coffee, when I could have brought my own tea/ coffee sachets and kept them in my bag. Also invest in a decent water bottle to fill out at water stations around campus, another way of saving the pennies. You may also have little time between lecture to lecture/seminars, so buy some snack bars ahead of time for you to mönch. Feeling hungry is not great for lecture or seminar attention spans.
4) Perfectionism: This is a personal one. In spite of getting grades which were something to celebrate, I almost always found fault and nitpicked 'Oh I was x% away from a first ' etc. I was always passing my modules and was my own worst enemy, especially as my first year doesn't count towards my final grade and only really needed to pass. You are not your grades, try to celebrate your little wins more.
Feel free to add more
@AliceRoseGuy thankyou for starting this thread! I am a recent Bath graduate so thought I would jump in here to share a few tips I would give anyone just fresh out of first year 
Working hard is important – but not as important as your health and happiness. During my first year I had the tendency (like many, many others students) to put a lot of pressure on myself to achieve the best grades I possibly could at university, afraid of falling behind my peers. However, I now understand that working for long periods with limited breaks is more likely to hinder your productivity than increase it. If you feel yourself burning out, take half an hour. Grab a coffee, check the ‘flat chat’ on Whatsapp, listen to a song or two. When I allowed myself to do this more in second year, I found I could get more out of my study sessions as well as enjoying them more 😊
Explore societies. I was always put off the idea of societies as an introvert and held the assumption that 'socials' meant partying with a large group, which made me nervous! However, in second year I found Bath University’s Baking Society, which challenged all my assumptions. Every fortnight we would meet for cake decorating workshops, Bring Your Own Bake evenings, Great British Bake Off screenings – and most of our ‘socials’ were held in coffee houses and novelty tea rooms – a completely different atmosphere to the loud parties I associated with these groups. So, I would advise first years to fully explore what’s on offer and go in with an open mind – you might just be surprised!
Set realistic expectations for yourself. Aiming to do your best is a great mindset to have at university. However, if having done your best you do not achieve a first or top grade for that assignment, that’s okay 😊. University definitely involves more self-management and independent working than at school, but that does not mean you should push through alone (completely agreed @AliceRoseGuy). If you are finding an assignment difficult (rest assured this is also normal!), then try chatting to your coursemates about it – its likely many of them will be feeling the same. Get to know your personal tutor – schedule regular meetings with them, talk to them about your difficulties – they’re there to support you and point you towards help if you need it.
Holly
University of Bath
Working hard is important – but not as important as your health and happiness. During my first year I had the tendency (like many, many others students) to put a lot of pressure on myself to achieve the best grades I possibly could at university, afraid of falling behind my peers. However, I now understand that working for long periods with limited breaks is more likely to hinder your productivity than increase it. If you feel yourself burning out, take half an hour. Grab a coffee, check the ‘flat chat’ on Whatsapp, listen to a song or two. When I allowed myself to do this more in second year, I found I could get more out of my study sessions as well as enjoying them more 😊
Explore societies. I was always put off the idea of societies as an introvert and held the assumption that 'socials' meant partying with a large group, which made me nervous! However, in second year I found Bath University’s Baking Society, which challenged all my assumptions. Every fortnight we would meet for cake decorating workshops, Bring Your Own Bake evenings, Great British Bake Off screenings – and most of our ‘socials’ were held in coffee houses and novelty tea rooms – a completely different atmosphere to the loud parties I associated with these groups. So, I would advise first years to fully explore what’s on offer and go in with an open mind – you might just be surprised!
Set realistic expectations for yourself. Aiming to do your best is a great mindset to have at university. However, if having done your best you do not achieve a first or top grade for that assignment, that’s okay 😊. University definitely involves more self-management and independent working than at school, but that does not mean you should push through alone (completely agreed @AliceRoseGuy). If you are finding an assignment difficult (rest assured this is also normal!), then try chatting to your coursemates about it – its likely many of them will be feeling the same. Get to know your personal tutor – schedule regular meetings with them, talk to them about your difficulties – they’re there to support you and point you towards help if you need it.
Holly
University of Bath
Some advice for the STEM wastrels:
Try to get sunlight within the first few minutes after waking up. Roll up the blind and look outside - or, even better, go out for a morning stroll before breakfast. Just a minute or so. Neuroscience benefits.
Why let the dishes pile up? You'll have to wash them later anyway. Same applies to lectures and tutorial work. For coursework: read over the whole thing the day it's set. You don't have to do it then, but allow yourself to understand the scope of the work that must be done.
Using a safety razor reduces razor burn and is much cheaper. Cut in the direction of hair growth.
Proper nutrition gives you more energy and prevents your mental health taking a dip. Try to hit your micros. www.cronometer.com is a useful tool for this. I'm not saying to eat a healthy diet or even not to get fat, but give your brain the nutrition it needs to make connections efficiently.
Even when you feel like you have coursework piling up, you still have way more free time than you will as an adult with a 9-5 plus responsibilities. Act accordingly.
Attend all lectures, tutorials and workshops. Universities want people to graduate with 2:1s. It'll be very hard to fail if you do everything asked of you. No, I'm not including supplemental reading in this.
And lastly: you understand how you perform academically better than anyone else. Don't let your parents or coursemates or bad exam results in first year knock your confidence. That being said, don't lie to yourself.
Try to get sunlight within the first few minutes after waking up. Roll up the blind and look outside - or, even better, go out for a morning stroll before breakfast. Just a minute or so. Neuroscience benefits.
Why let the dishes pile up? You'll have to wash them later anyway. Same applies to lectures and tutorial work. For coursework: read over the whole thing the day it's set. You don't have to do it then, but allow yourself to understand the scope of the work that must be done.
Using a safety razor reduces razor burn and is much cheaper. Cut in the direction of hair growth.
Proper nutrition gives you more energy and prevents your mental health taking a dip. Try to hit your micros. www.cronometer.com is a useful tool for this. I'm not saying to eat a healthy diet or even not to get fat, but give your brain the nutrition it needs to make connections efficiently.
Even when you feel like you have coursework piling up, you still have way more free time than you will as an adult with a 9-5 plus responsibilities. Act accordingly.
Attend all lectures, tutorials and workshops. Universities want people to graduate with 2:1s. It'll be very hard to fail if you do everything asked of you. No, I'm not including supplemental reading in this.
And lastly: you understand how you perform academically better than anyone else. Don't let your parents or coursemates or bad exam results in first year knock your confidence. That being said, don't lie to yourself.
Original post by Meltboy7778
Try to get sunlight within the first few minutes after waking up. Roll up the blind and look outside - or, even better, go out for a morning stroll before breakfast. Just a minute or so. Neuroscience benefits.
I found that having the curtain a way in which the sunlight will hit my face at sunrise, definitely helped me to get up and out of bed earlier.
Of course, going to bed at the right time and initiating a circadian rhythm overall helped. The earlier I went to sleep, the easier it was for me to pull myself out of bed and into the shower and out of the door.
Original post by University of Bath
Explore societies. I was always put off the idea of societies as an introvert and held the assumption that 'socials' meant partying with a large group, which made me nervous! However, in second year I found Bath University’s Baking Society, which challenged all my assumptions. Every fortnight we would meet for cake decorating workshops, Bring Your Own Bake evenings, Great British Bake Off screenings – and most of our ‘socials’ were held in coffee houses and novelty tea rooms – a completely different atmosphere to the loud parties I associated with these groups. So, I would advise first years to fully explore what’s on offer and go in with an open mind – you might just be surprised!
One thing I regret is not making it to the society fairs at the beginning, which I missed out on, so I will defo give this a shot at my university.
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