navigate your y1 uni with these helpful tips🫧☁️

hey guys, I ended my first year in uni and would like to share some tips that would be great to know esp for the freshies! These are the things that I had to navigate and figure out on my own🥲 so I hope these would help you :)

🌤️For context wise, I was from #polytechnic and currently studying at a local uni.

1. Graduate Requirements (gather information)

There are certain modules you MUST take to graduate and would/would not be allocated to you. There are also modules you MUST take before venturing into the course and modules with prerequisite (modules you must clear before taking this class)

As a first step, it would be good to figure out your graduating requirements. They should be available from your school / faculty / Major website. Otherwise, there is ✨no harm✨ emailing the school + Reddit is your BESTFRIEND🥹

Slowly, as each sem goes by, do start planning/ consider modules you want to take and note down the prereq/relevant info through online or seniors/friends who have taken the module! (❗️remember there’s really no harm asking😌)

2. Planning + type of semester schedule

i don’t know about other uni, but my school has a website for you to select and plan your semesters (tutorials/lectures/ lab work ect.) For the first semester my school pre allocated most of my mod, so I would only need to plan my tutorial slots!

The most 2 common schedule types :

1️⃣Cramming all your tutorials according to the days you are needed in school (eg. If you have lec on monday and Wednesday, you would plan your tutorial around this 2 days as much as possible) —> would work for those who are working while studying! imo I tried this in y1s2, it was NOT it🔪

2️⃣Spreading out your tutorials (eg lec on Monday and wed but you would place your tutorials on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) —> this works better for me because I could take rest in between to also prep for tutorials better

Would definitely encourage you to try out both to see which works best for you✨

3. Check your email REGULARLY

Checking your school email often and making it a HABIT will prevent you from missing school events/urgent information like module registration!

Set some time to look through for module registration to make sure you do the necessary steps before and after mod reg to ensure you declare your majors😌

4. Don’t be afraid if you aren’t making a lot of friends (esp those who don’t stay in hall)

With most (at least for now) most of my lectures are online, and with only 4 tutorials (every 2 weeks)— there’s not much time to bond and to really make friends!

Especially for Y1, where I’m taking mostly common modules, I’ve met students and friends of vastly different majors, keeping touch with a handful of them is enough :) don’t stress about it🫶🏻

5. Locate your classroom/lecture hall early

If you are someone who gets lost easily (like me🥲), do arrive to class earlier to find your venue✋🏻😭I recommend coming to school 20-30mins early to LOCATE your classroom and to also FAMILIARISE the surroundings (eg. nearest toilet / bus stop ect.)

6. Find your study style/habit #StudyTips

this is really important for me esp when I want to study in school! I took some time and studied at different locations/ timing in school to see which suits me the best!

For instance, during crunch week, I would study at a cafe in my school that provided wifi/charging point/food/toilet/ moving- surrounding environment (I can’t stand environment with total silence) for the best environment to get my work done!

It takes multiple tries and experimenting to see which location works best for you! That being said, you do need to know the school well to find unpopular but good location to study😬😭

7) FIND HELP IF YOU NEED😭😭

I’m currently major that requires A LOT of essay writing. Because my poly course is more on design + science, it has been a long time since I’ve written an academic essay.

While I was very worried, there are always help available for you. For instance, my course has a programme where we could discuss with our seniors our points and essay outline/draft and they would guide you to make your essay more clear/cohesive ect.

Alternatively, you could also email your prof/ have a discussion with them on your essay to ensure you are on the right track and whether there are areas you could dive in more to make your essay more interesting! ( depends on your prof, ask before sending)

Ultimately, you would have to plan, read up and research ahead to make sure you have time to meet your prof, ect. and make relevant edits to improve and learn how to better write an essay!

Okay, that’s really most of it! If you have come this far, hope these tips help you❤️

#unistudent #universitytips #universitylife #university #universitytips #universitystudent