In the midst of exams, the question of where to go study is a daily decision. If you do decide to leave your living space and head over to the UWaterloo campus, here are some of my favourite study spots on campus!
"The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." - Randy Pausch
While looking out at a first-year university lecture, you may encounter dimly lit faces of hundreds of students typing madly on their laptops, eager to preserve every word uttered by their professor. Now, if you were to walk over to an upper year university course, you may be met by less frantic typing or students who have taken to pencil and paper notes. Over the course of my undergrad, my note taking skills have evolved, and I have learned a few things along the way. Here I will discuss the different methods to take notes during lecture.
One of my biggest challenges while writing is to do just that. In a society where we move on from one idea to the next rapidly, such as ten-second snapchat stories or brief tweets about our day, it is easy to lose focus on a task. Although there are a variety of things that can distract me from my work, I have narrowed it down to the top three and how I have dealt with them to increase productivity.
Essay exams often test you on the big picture concepts of a course. The idea of writing an essay in one sitting, especially without knowing the question in advance, may seem like an impossible task. Preparing for these exams may seem intimidating; however, essay exams can become a bit more bearable with some good preparation.
When someone hears mention of the 3 Rs they usually think of reduce, reuse, and recycle (I do at least). Well, I am here to tell you that there is another list of Rs you should look into if you want to survive university! The list consists of being reasonable, being responsible, and being rational. If you do not like using schedules for organizing your time, these 3 words will help you manage your time and think through choices you have to make.
I’m sure you know the stressful feeling when midterms are either just around the corner or already happening. As midterms come around the corner, it feels like students simultaneously take out their blinders, put them on and think “no distractions, only study”. Everyone becomes machinelike; you feel as if you can read the notes someone else studied the night before because they are etched so deep into their brain that you can see it in their eyes.