School Suggestions: Some Final Tips

Here are a couple quick ideas to help you get the most out of your university experience.

1- Learn to use the library. Often the prof with leave a copy of the textbook on reserve at the library. This means that instead of dishing out $70 for a textbook that you’ll never use again, you can get it for free at the library. This may be inconvenient, but it’s a real money saver.

2- Use the online resources. Your university probably has online access to all sorts of online resources, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and databases of articles and journals. You can search through these quickly, and they’re great if you have to write a paper in a hurry and don’t have time to search through books at the library. I wrote several research papers citing approximately 30 sources, all of which I found in the online databases.

3- Use the help centers. UPEI had both a writing center and a math help center; I assume most other universities will have similar things. If you’re just having a little trouble something and you don’t want to bother the prof, these institutions can give you the help you need.

4- Make friends. This one may sound a little basic, but University is so much more fun when you have friends in your classes. I had good friends in Math and Science, but I had to try and make friends in all of my Arts courses. I ended up meeting some awesome people who I really enjoyed talking to and discussing essay ideas with. It’s nice to have at least one acquaintance in every class, someone you can talk to about assignments and study with whenever a test is coming up.

5- Work hard. This one is self-explanatory. University isn’t easy. Just remember that anything worth doing is worth working at.

And this wraps up my School Suggestions Saturday Series (don’t you love my alliteration?). I hope I’ve helped some upcoming university students and some of you highschool students who are still considering if University is for you. Over the next couple months I’ll be blogging about my university experiences in a little bit of a more personal way. Good luck to all you students out there!