While my winter break wasn’t entirely restful (especially considering my last final was over at 4 p.m. on December 22), I really cherished all the moments I was able to spend without having a pile of work to do. But what meant the most to me, is the time I was able to spend with my family, both immediate and extended. Personally, I always struggle with the transition from Hoboken to home or vice versa. While I miss my family dearly now, it has also been really great to reconnect with all my friends at school these past few days. If I’m being honest, sometimes balancing relationships while I’m busy can be just as difficult as balancing all my schoolwork for me. While I’m still trying to work on a solid schedule where I call my mom every week, I do at least have a pretty good handle on managing my coursework.
While the “in-season” of classes is generally the same from semester to semester, it is important to go into each semester with somewhat of a clean slate as far as expectations go. Because different courses cover different topics and material, it is unreasonable to have a mentality of “well last semester was this way, so this semester should be the same.” Personally, last semester wasn’t my favorite because I didn’t really enjoy my major-specific courses as they covered topics not relevant to my intended career outcome. However, for this semester, I am constantly reminding myself that last semester does not define what this semester will be like and that the classes I am taking now are not at all related to any classes that I’ve disliked in the past, so any previous semester doesn’t really have anything to do with my success, happiness, or learning outcomes this semester.
As always, I am staying mindful of my studying techniques and making adjustments for different courses as needed. (Tons more about my different study techniques on thestute.com/category/opinion/lifestyle-hacks.) So far, after only having been to each of my classes once, I have already revised my in-class note-taking techniques to best fit my needs for this semester. I always find that a more in-depth note-taking/study tactic needs to be used for classes where the material doesn’t come as easily to me as it does for others. Even though sometimes it feels discouraging to need to rework my methods, in the long run, it allows me to better retain learning material and knowledge.
Honestly, one of my biggest recommendations is investing in an iPad and Apple Pencil. I found that for all of my classes this semester, it is what I’ll be using since they’re all delivered via slides, so with the iPad I can annotate right on the document. I don’t have a fancy iPad, just whatever the regular one is (I think mine is 8th generation), and with the Apple Pencil, it came to be around $350. I was previously under the impression that buying an iPad would be closer to $1000, so if you were in the same boat, I would say it’s definitely something to reconsider.
While school and classes are obviously important, I think it equally (maybe even more) important to also focus on enjoying these four (or five) years in college and really taking advantage of all the opportunities campus has to offer. The main thing I’m talking about here is investing in relationships, whether they be friendships or professional relationships. College is one of the easiest times to make friends since everyone is going through a similar shared experience as well as a good time to network for the future with both students and professors. While focusing on school is great, make sure to also have a strong focus on becoming involved on campus and meeting new people. Enjoying your time and investing in personal relationships in college can be just as important in the long run as academics.
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