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in reading week of my first year, half way through first semester. total things attended: 4. no clue what's going on. people often say first year is relatively unimportant - is this true?
/ how easy will it to be get back on track with my course?

I.just read a lot and turned up to the things I was meant to.

Mithered staff a lot for extended feedback on written work.

Hey @studiousdon230, I took first year seriously and found it very important especially when writing essays and doing my work as I noticed a significant improvement in my work over time, and come second year I was able to better spot mistakes and definitely learned lessons since the first year which helped land me a better grade. First year allows you to make these mistakes in your work, find your work style, gain writing skills, critical thinking etc.

Good luck, I hope you feel on track with everything and enjoy your studies

Becky

thank you for your response, would you mind elaborating on said habits? i fortunately, (or now unfortunately) did not require any effort at gcse and a level, so i lack many study skills. i plan to fix my sleep schedule, attend lectures and create a timetable for work outside of them, but are there any other things you would suggest?
thanks

Hi @studiousdon230 ,

This sounds like a great starting point!

Getting into a routine really helps to separate work and life as well as manage your time.

I know this gets said a lot but only because it is true, start work early. Starting work early does not necessarily mean start to write your essay, it can mean start by highlighting the key words in your question then do some reading on the topic for a while before you even start to form a structure for your essay.

Finally, having goals is great but planning how you are going to achieve them is essential to achieving them. For example, over the summer my sleep schedule was all over the place! 2-3 weeks before uni started I worked out what time I wanted to be in bed by the time uni started and compared it to my current time. Lets say I was going to bed at 12pm and when I want uni to start I want to be in bed for 10pm. I started off by making sure I was getting ready for bed/relaxing a couple hours before 10pm so I would get used to/into the habit of getting ready at that time. The first weekish you probably won't sleep by your goal time but as you wake up at the same time each morning, you will end up going to sleep by your goal time. I do apologise if this was a bit confusing! My main message is this, plan how you are going to achieve your goals so you are more likely to achieve them but keep it realistic!

I hope this helps and good luck!

Alia
University of Kent Student Rep

in reading week of my first year, half way through first semester. total things attended: 4. no clue what's going on. people often say first year is relatively unimportant - is this true?
/ how easy will it to be get back on track with my course?

thank you for your response, would you mind elaborating on said habits? i fortunately, (or now unfortunately) did not require any effort at gcse and a level, so i lack many study skills. i plan to fix my sleep schedule, attend lectures and create a timetable for work outside of them, but are there any other things you would suggest?
thanks

@studiousdon230

You sound like you have a good plan.

I would suggest making time in your timetable for societies/life admin/down time so that you are not trying to work all the time and then becoming unproductive because you're not approaching your work with a fresh mind, but do make sure that you are putting in enough time to get the work done!

I would also suggest becoming familiar with your university library (best places to work, opening and closing times, books for your subject and additional resources available to you e.g. academic support services, referencing guides, and journal databases.

Read ahead of lectures, ask questions and think about how you work best, so if you are more productive in the mornings then get up early to work, if you know that you work better in the evenings, get your life admin done during the day and use your evenings to work, in other words, utilise your time to your advantage.

Finally think about how you learn best VARK and try to apply this when revising.

Hope that helps,

Oluwatosin – 3rd year student – University of Huddersfield

this is just the advice i was looking for.
thank you