With less than a month left until exams, it’s officially exam-studying season. If you’re anything like me, studying probably isn’t your favourite activity. However, there are a few ways to study more efficiently to ensure that you don’t waste…
Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way you planned.
For example, at the beginning of this school year, I promised myself that I would actively keep up with all the readings in all my courses. With midterm season come and gone, I realized that I fell behind in 3 of my courses while studying for midterms. I’m currently trying my best to mitigate the setback by doing my readings for at least 3 hours a day until I’m caught up with all my courses. Nevertheless, this setback was not planned!
It feels like I have a tower of readings to complete before I catch up!
Imagine you are a waiter/waitress. It’s currently rush hour at the restaurant you work at, and you have 24 plates of food to deliver to the customers in the eating area. Based on past experience at your job, you know that you can handle carrying 3 plates at a time. How would you deliver the plates to customers?
A) Take only 1 trip from the kitchen to the eating area – carrying 24 plates at a time.
B) Take 2 trips from the kitchen to the eating area – carrying 12 plates at a time.
C) Take 8 trips from the kitchen to the eating area – carrying 3 plates at a time.
Hey guys! In last week's post, I had vowed that I would go to the Academic Success Centre (ASC) during the drop-in hours to meet with a learning strategist to help me prepare for my upcoming midterms. A learning strategist is a trained professional who provides individualized academic support; they help you understand your learning style and guide you towards the appropriate strategies to maximize your learning efficiency. During the ASC drop-in hours, you can meet with a learning strategist for up to 30 minutes.
The ASC is located in the Koffler Student Services Centre building at 214 College St. Drop-in hours for this Fall semester are:
Tuesdays: 10a.m. - 12p.m
Fridays: 1:30p.m. - 3:30p.m.
Here is an account of my first-time experience with meeting a learning strategist:
It’s the middle of October and you know what that means? Pumpkin spiced lattes, a chilly breeze, Halloween décor, and midterms. Around this time of year, students often find their schedules filled with due dates, exams, quizzes, labs, papers, and assignments. During times like these, time is of the essence.
On that note, here is a life-hack to help save time: one of the most effective ways to maximize productivity is to minimize distractions. From personal experience, an hour of distraction-free studying is generally equivalent to 5-6 hours of distracted studying. Therefore, by staying focused, you can actually save a lot of time. So, how can you stay focused when studying?
Confession time – I'm a third year student at UofT, and up until now, I haven't really used any of the university services that were specifically designed to guide students towards academic success. It’s time to change that.
Growing up, I have always had the “I can do it myself” mentality. This attitude held me back from reaching out to university services. But recently, I came to a realization that I should have taken advantage of these services.
I denied my friend's offer to help me open this carton because "I could do it myself!" Clearly, I couldn't.
Do you ever catch yourself doing something that you 100% know you shouldn’t be doing? Yup… That’s me right now. Before you ask questions, let me explain.
This is usually how I watch shows/movies (when I shouldn't be watching)
This August, I had to present a business pitch to an entrepreneurial community. However, the night before the presentation, I decided to watch a movie. And then another one. Then suddenly, the unusual brightness of my room caught my attention. It was the sun. It was 6am and I had to leave my house within the next hour in order to make it to the presentation in time. It quickly dawned on me that I accidentally pulled an all-nighter before my presentation – and in that moment, all I could do was silently mouth “help me” at the sky, hoping that the universe would give me a break. That day, a very sleep deprived Slesha learned the consequences of staying up too late.
After recognizing the importance of a good night’s sleep, I took a vow to sleep earlier this school year – no later than 1am! Little did I know that “taking a vow” meant nothing without setting appropriate behaviour changing strategies in place. So I should not have been surprised when things didn’t go as I had vowed. Right now, it’s 3am as I’m writing this blog post… and I know I should have gone to sleep two hours ago. So, what went wrong?
Hey everyone – welcome back to school!
Whether this is your first year at university or you are a returning UofT student, this year is bound to bring many wonderful changes. You’ll inevitably learn new information, meet new people, and experience new adventures you haven’t even thought about yet!
Before I continue, allow me to formally introduce myself – I am Slesha, your new Academic Success and Equity blogger. I’m currently in my third year of computer engineering studies. I love photography, naps, and drinking tea. Also puppies … I love puppies! But you know what I really don’t love? Stressing about school.
Some classes are like meringues: light and simple. Some are more like chocolate cake: dense and rich, but very satisfying. Some are like sweet and refreshing ice cream that goes down oh-so-smoothly. Like custard, some classes are heavy and decadent. Others are like chocolate chip cookies, appreciated for their classic appeal. Classes that are like toffee are a lot to chew on, but still very pleasant.Can you tell I'm hungry? Picture Credit: 4-designer.comSome classes, however, are like the bran muffin. The bran muffin is an affront to delicious things everywhere; it is utterly dull and a waste of time and calories. To make matters worse, it sometimes has nasty little shrivelled-up raisins lurking inside. No one likes a bran muffin.Sometimes, you have to eat bran muffins though, don’t you? Perhaps when your sweet old Granny makes them for you, or when your local Timmies runs out of everything else, or when you feel like inflicting pain on those nasty little raisins. Sometimes, you just don’t have a choice when it comes to bran muffins.The same goes for bran muffin classes. You will have at least one over the course of your university career; everybody does. Maybe you’ll need it as a breadth requirement, it will be a prerequisite for something else you want to take, or it will be the only thing that fits into your schedule. There will be no escaping it. That’s how you’ll end up in a bran muffin class, in spite of its snooze-worthy subject matter, never-ending readings, miserable locale—OISE auditorium anyone?—and its professor’s annoying goat-like voice. March 13th is the last day to drop an S section course, so it's high time to decide if you want to stick it out or not. If you want or need to persevere, stick with me! I’ll try to show you how to turn a yucky bran muffin into a beautiful cupcake.Yuck. Picture Credit: sini.co.ukOkay, maybe not a cupcake, but at least a slightly-less-terrible bran muffin:
I had my first tutorial session last week. Being in my final year of an arts degree, tutorials are nothing new to me, but they still can fill me with a certain amount of anxiety. It seems every year I…
Hey guys! In last week's post, I had vowed that I would go to the Academic Success Centre (ASC) during the drop-in hours to meet with a learning strategist to help me prepare for my upcoming midterms. A learning strategist is a trained professional who provides individualized academic support; they help you understand your learning style and guide you towards the appropriate strategies to maximize your learning efficiency. During the ASC drop-in hours, you can meet with a learning strategist for up to 30 minutes.
The ASC is located in the Koffler Student Services Centre building at 214 College St. Drop-in hours for this Fall semester are:
It’s the middle of October and you know what that means? Pumpkin spiced lattes, a chilly breeze, Halloween décor, and midterms. Around this time of year, students often find their schedules filled with due dates, exams, quizzes, labs, papers, and assignments. During times like these, time is of the essence.
On that note, here is a life-hack to help save time: one of the most effective ways to maximize productivity is to minimize distractions. From personal experience, an hour of distraction-free studying is generally equivalent to 5-6 hours of distracted studying. Therefore, by staying focused, you can actually save a lot of time. So, how can you stay focused when studying?
Hey everyone – welcome back to school!
Whether this is your first year at university or you are a returning UofT student, this year is bound to bring many wonderful changes. You’ll inevitably learn new information, meet new people, and experience new adventures you haven’t even thought about yet!
Before I continue, allow me to formally introduce myself – I am Slesha, your new Academic Success and Equity blogger. I’m currently in my third year of computer engineering studies. I love photography, naps, and drinking tea. Also puppies … I love puppies! But you know what I really don’t love? Stressing about school.
