College – Week 1 – What to do? (by Bryan Tan)
Do you want your first week of college to be the beginning of a great year? If you do, here are the 10 must-dos during the first week of college.
10) Buy your books – You have to buy all the textbooks you need right away as the lecturers will probably start giving reading assignments or homework during the first week of college.
9) Bring everything necessary – Textbooks, notebooks, foolscap papers, stationeries, laptop… Bring everything you need. (Refer to 10 Items to Survive College)
8) Know where your classrooms are – The campus is huge and there are many classrooms and lecture halls. Make sure you know where your classrooms are. Go to college early on the first day and find out where they are. Remember, do not be late. Being late on the first day isn’t a great way to begin college.
7) Avoid getting lost on campus – During the first few days of college, you are still a little unsure where everything is. Therefore, you might get lost on campus. You wouldn’t want that to happen, would you? So, what you can do is spend some time and walk around to find out where everything is located before your classes begin. That will help you to avoid getting lost on campus.
6) Make friends – Get to know your classmates/college mates. Make friends with them. You might need their help in time to come. Besides, having friends in your class makes it easier when you are trying to look for group members for group assignments or group presentations. A college life without friends would definitely be the last thing you want.
5) Look for a study spot – There are many places in college where you can study alone quietly without any disturbance. Choose a spot. It can be in the library, in the corner of an empty lecture hall, under a shady tree or somewhere else entirely. Remember, choosing a quiet place allows you to study better.
4) Check your schedule – Don’t forget to check your class schedule or timetable before classes start and bring all the books you will need. Although textbooks are not really necessary in classes (handouts or other materials will be given), you should still bring them for your own reference.
3) Attend all classes – Some students think that real lessons won’t begin during the first few days of college and will choose to skip classes, but the fact is most lecturers will begin teaching on the very first day after making brief introduction on the course or the subject. If you miss the first few classes, not only will you lose attendance marks (yes, attendance marks are given in most colleges), but you will also fall behind and have a hard time keeping up. So, do attend all classes starting on the first day.
2) Fill in your calendar – Once you have been told by your lecturers about doing presentations or assignments, deadlines will be given. Fill the major deadlines in your calendar to make sure you won’t turn in your assignments late. You can also fill the exam dates in the calendar so that you won’t forget about them. Knowing where all of them are helps you to allocate/manage your time effectively.
1) Plan well – You can spend time going out with your college friends, but you need to manage your time well in order to have a balance college life. You should spend 70% of your time to study and 30% to play and hang out with friends. If your play time is longer than your study time, chances are you won’t be able to get good grades in college. Without good grades, you are not likely to enter your university of choice. So, allocate your time wisely to find a balance between studies and play time.
Follow these tips, and I can ensure you that your first week of college will certainly be the beginning of a great year!
10 items to Survive College (by Bryan Tan)
As a college student, you have to know what are the things that you need to bring to college. After studying for more than five months in a college, I have come up with my own list of items you will need to survive college. I believe they will certainly prove to be very useful.
1. Laptop – Every college student needs a laptop. It doesn’t have to be the most advanced model out there in the market; you just need a laptop good enough for you to complete your assignments and presentations (many lecturers prefer your assignments to be in both softcopy and hardcopy). However, IF YOU CAN AFFORD to buy a laptop with a powerful processor, a hard-disk with higher capacity and a longer battery life, why not? It certainly cost more, but it has better functions compared to the wallet-friendly (cheaper) laptops.
2. Mouse – Of course you can still use your laptop without a mouse, but don’t you think that using a mouse can enhance/speed up your performance when it comes to doing assignments?
3. USB flash drive – A USB flash drive/thumb-drive/pen-drive or whatever you call it is a must-have tool in college. You will need to use it for transferring and backing-up files. Besides, you can also use it to share music and videos with your classmates. An 8 or 16 GB thumb-drive will suffice.
4. External hard disk – Likewise, an external hard disk is also used for storing and transferring files. It has a bigger size, but its memory capacity is much larger than that of a thumb-drive (common external hard disks sold in market have 500GB to 1TB memory capacity).
5. Mobile phone – You will need a mobile phone to communicate with your parents, college friends, classmates and sometimes lecturers. You have two choices when you consider buying a mobile phone.
a) More affordable: A regular mobile phone that has all the basic communication tools you will need.
b) More expensive: A smart-phone (Apple iPhone, HTC etc) that can be a communication tool and also an entertainment tool.
6. Mp3 player – Long study hours in college can be really tiring. You can listen to songs with your mp3 player during recess or after classes to relax yourself. You can also listen to songs while reading books or doing assignments in the library, but remember to use earphones so that you will not disturb the others. A basic mp3 player that cost around RM100-150 can be easily found in the market.
7. Scientific Calculator – Most mobile phones nowadays have the calculator function in them; you can use them for simple calculation. However, a scientific calculator is needed when it comes to serious and complex calculation (especially for science students). Besides, you will not be allowed to bring in your mobile phone to the examination hall during exams; you will have no choice but to use a scientific calculator by then.
8. Notebook/Foolscap papers – Bring a few notebooks (not the computer notebook) and a set of foolscap papers to college, you will have to use them to copy down notes, do tutorials and so on. I strongly suggest you to take down lecture notes in a notebook instead of scribbling them down on foolscap papers. Why? That’s because you will most probably lose a few of them when you are trying to study for your tests. Well, if you really insist on using foolscap papers to take down notes, at least organize and keep them in a file to avoid losing them!
9. Cables, adaptors, chargers – Remember to bring the cables, adaptors and chargers you will need, you don’t want your mobile phone and laptop to run out of battery when you need to use them, right?
10. Power strip – Believe me, you really need a power strip, or else you and your classmates will be fighting for the few sockets you could find in class to plug in your laptop chargers.
The Extra no.11
11. Broadband modem – This is not really necessary, but if you are fed up with the extremely slow Wi-Fi connection in college, you may consider having a broadband modem to provide you a faster and smoother internet connection. Unlike the normal modem/router, a broadband modem is tiny (slightly bigger than a thumb-drive) and you can easily bring it to college.
