The holidays are over and that means one thing: school is back in full swing. Maybe you’re excited to be back in school or maybe you’re not, either way you’ve got a full term’s worth of ups and downs in front of you. This begs the question then: how to make sure that this next term is even better than the last? Maybe your fall term went your way and maybe it didn’t, either way, doing these five things will make sure that this winter term is your best term yet!
Learn from your Mistakes and Successes
Now that it’s a new term, it’s a great time to look back on the past term(s) you’ve had and learn from them. Did you do well in a course? Why did that happen? Did you do poorly in a course? Why did that happen? Making a list of what went well and what went poorly last term can help you identify where you can improve and what you should keep doing.
Take Care of Yourself
Sure it was a lot of fun being away from home, staying up late, and eating whatever you wanted to–this is, after all, one of the great things about university life. But it is the winter term now and perhaps all that wild living has taken its toll. It’s important that we remember to take care of our physical and mental health. Staying healthy will improve how you feel overall and will help you achieve your goals, academic or otherwise. Eating right, exercising and sleeping lots will improve your term considerably
Have Fun
While academic success is important, you’re still a human being and working all the time will quickly lead to burnout. University is a unique time in your life and since it’s winter term it’s the perfect time to take advantage of all it has to offer. Join a club, hang out with friends, learn a new skill, join a choir, take a dance class, find something to make your thing; your campus will have all of these options on it and more. Letting loose and relaxing will not only lower your stress levels and improve your health, it will also make school fun again and once school is fun again you’re well on your way to making this term your best term yet.
Keep your Stress Levels Down
Managing stress is a complicated topic and you will always have some stress associated with school. If you’re going to make this term your term, too much stress can’t be part of it. Dropping a course can be one of the easiest ways to make sure you are not too stressed, a reduced workload can allow you the time you need to relax and can make you much more successful in your other courses. Getting high marks in four courses looks much better on your transcript than average marks in five, it will also make you enjoy school much more.
Be Confident
You’ve got this! This is your term! You’ve now done at least one term and maybe more. University is an achievable goal and now you have some experience you should know that it is not as big or scary as you once may have thought it to be. Lots of people have success in university and you can too! If you are struggling, get help. Your campus will have lots of helpful resources for you to take advantage of.
This term is going to be your best one yet!