The life of a university student is nothing less than a rollercoaster ride. From the day you begin to the day you graduate, you are overwhelmed with everything university has to offer that it might just get away from you. Exams, assignments, peer pressure are all factors that lead to the downfall of university students. Hence it is vital that you take precautions to manage all aspects of university life in order to be organised and successful as a university student. What follows are some of the things you can do to achieve that.
Do not procrastinate
This is one of the worst things you can do. It also happens to perhaps be the one thing that is common to most university students. The freedom that you get is overwhelming, hence you always feel as if there is time to do what you have to do. This is your brain butting things off assuming you can do it. You can, but keep in mind that the quality of the work will drastically reduce. Not only that, the stress caused is avoidable and unnecessary. Hence whenever you get a task to perform, do it as quickly as you can. Finish it at least a day before the deadline.
Therefore manage your time well and stay focused.
Study and stick together with your peers
University life can be miserable if you face it alone. Hence make sure you are with the right people during the few years you spend there. This is especially useful for academics as studies show that people learn more when working together. There are many avenues and opportunities to get together with friends. You can form reading buddies, where you to study together in class or outside class. With such group of classmates, you can share ideas, practice exam questions and challenge one another academically. You can also joint other student clubs that can help you meet different people and broaden your learning scope. You can also hang out with your roommates when you’re back from classes.
Exercise and stay fit
The academic workload is relatively high and taxes your brain. However, when your brain is stressed, and your body is stagnant, it is unhealthy as a whole. It is vital that you regularly exercise to stay active and productive. The best way to stay on top of this is to take part in a sport. There are regular sporting activities on campus that you can join, or you can make it as a habit to go to the gym every day or more realistically every other day.
Experience all aspects of the university
Studies aren’t everything when it comes to the life of a university student. In fact, without the extra activities, you could get stressed and not enjoy university at all. It is said, ‘work without play, make Jack a dull boy.’ Also, if you want to be groomed as a right graduate, then you have to allow the university to go through you and not just go through the university. This means, besides study, you should try to be part of different parts of university activities – joint students societies and volunteer groups, participates in sporting events; if you cannot contest for a student union office, joint a campaign group to assist a friend.
Remember, there is a season for all of these activities, which make it easier to divide time between your study and some of these school activities. Hence make sure you spend the time to explore the school and learn from the experience, many of which will help you long after school.
Concentrate in class
This is something most students take for granted. Most do not go to class at all, while others do not concentrate thinking they could always catch up later on. However, if you do focus in class, this makes you need relatively less study time later on, which leads to more time available for other activities and less stress. So, if you concentrate during study time, first and most important, it will boost your comprehension level and second it will create time for you to participate in other extra-curricular activities.
Whatever happens, just take it easy
This may be the most important piece of advice you hear. Whatever goes wrong, remember that it is not the end of the world. Everything you do in university is an experience that will teach you about something to better prepare you for an even harder challenge. You may try hard in a particular course to make an A+, but for one reason or the other, you land on B+ or even B, that’s fine. Work to understand what went wrong to be able to deal with it in the future. Friends can disappoint you. Take it easy and forget. You may run out of money (this is the common situation students often find themselves). Be patience and seek help from good friends. Don’t borrow too much, and live according to your capabilities. It’s all part of the experience, and it will be over sooner or later.
As a university student, you have a thousand challenging facets of life that you have to go through. All you need is: always work hard, focus as best as you can on your study, and do things with the ultimate aim of succeeding. But do not be afraid to fail.
