Well, freshmen, did you wait for September 1?! Now you are full-fledged representatives of a special social group – students. And to remain students for another five years, and not be expelled from the university after the first exams, we prepared some useful recommendations from the older comrades. Most students still struggle to accomplish all the college tasks, so they may be interested to buy assignment online.
Peculiarities of studying at College
You need to attend lectures. Unfortunately, the hypothesis that “a student is an adult who independently controls the personal learning process” does not stand up to the test of practice.
Practice shows that most students remain overage schoolchildren. And if you do not control the attendance of lectures and seminars by these youngsters, there will be five “nerds” in the audience.
Therefore, no matter how contrary the principle of checking those present is to the principles of university education, most teachers practice it.
Find out right away what you need for admission to the exams. Some tests and exams are allowed only on condition of writing an abstract, report, essay, control. Preparation is always needed here. Essays are an important part of entering any college, so you need to pay special attention here. If you doubt that you can prepare yourself for a test or essay, then it is better to turn to tutors or experts who provide write an essay for me service and then there will be no problems with preparation.
Shove the textbook… well, somewhere on the back shelf. Do not hope that the textbook will help you prepare for the exam. This is another key difference from school. A textbook is an auxiliary tool, and the main sources of knowledge at the university are lectures and literature, with which you will prepare for seminars. Of course, it is not necessary to throw away the textbook altogether – as a base, it will do quite well. Just keep in mind that the textbooks that you will be given are most often outdated. New ones need to be searched in the library, bought, or downloaded online (if possible).
And some teachers specifically race on exams for their lectures. However, some read lectures according to a textbook.
Get ready to work with literature on your own. The purpose of the university is to teach you to receive information independently, to give you self-education skills, and, preferably, form your scientific thinking. The textbook gives a basis, lectures structure the material and help to sort it out in your head on, and an independent search for materials among articles and monographs.
Some of the materials you will find on the Internet, but much has not yet entered the World Wide Web. Therefore, you will have to stomp into a university, regional or specialized library, make extracts, and photocopies. In the information age, knowledge becomes obsolete very quickly. A professional needs to study to remain in demand, and for this, you need to have self-education skills.
One way to measure the rate of obsolescence of facts is to look at the citation index of scientific articles. If a publication is not cited, it most likely means that it is irrelevant or outdated. For example, as a result of studying publications in Physical Review journals representing different fields of physical science, it turned out that half of the publications cease to be cited after an average of 10 years, and, say, in nuclear physics – after 5 years. The half-life of the book (in the sense of citations) is about 13 years in physics, 9.4 years in economics, 9.1 years in mathematics, and about 7 years in history and psychology.
Find out what seminars, colloquiums, essays, notes, tests, term papers, and other mysterious stuff are. Megatons of unfamiliar or completely unfamiliar words fall on the freshman, under which new ways of testing knowledge are hidden.
Tune in to a new learning rhythm. Lessons of 45 minutes and long breaks are a thing of the past. Now you will have to attend lectures, and the break will only be enough to run from audience to audience.
Find out when the exams start, how the “assignments” are handed over, as well as (just in case) the rules for granting an academic pass. And find out all this information not in December, but as early as possible.
Do not forget that you can be expelled from the university for violating discipline. The reason for the exclusion may be particularly violent drunkenness in the dorm (for example, throwing the refrigerator out of the window), and violation of the law, and even excessively active political activity (for example, a single picket in front of the administrative building demanding the resignation of the rector). If they don’t expel you directly, they will create conditions under which it will be very problematic to pass the exams. So get a grip on yourself.
Try to understand that you are already an adult and you are responsible for the results of your studies at the university. Keep in mind, no one will chase you with reminders of lectures and seminars. And there will be no calls to parents with the question: “Where is your child, is he sick or is he playing truant?” Become independent.
Work for the test. At least give your best for the first two exams. Then it will be easier: the better your prepare, the more loyal the teachers are to you.
Is your head swollen with advice, freshman? Wait, this is just the beginning. If you haven’t broken it down yet, read the recommendations that will help you live up to the exams and survive them.
Tips for first-year students
Learn to benefit even from boring lectures. To do this, you need to learn 1) to listen (and hear), 2) to concentrate. These are very useful skills that will be useful to you in life.
Learn to take notes. There is no need to verbatim lectures word for word. Isolate the main thing, develop your system of abbreviations and conventional signs understandable to the brain. Take notes logically, structurally.
Use the voice recorder and other gadgets wisely. Don’t rely on the achievements of civilization 100%. Firstly, deciphering a lecture from a voice recorder is a chore. Imagine: you’ve sat out the lecture, and then you have to spend the same amount of time transcribing the recording! Is that reasonable? Recording the lecture is suitable only for audial (people who perceive information best by ear). Secondly, teachers dislike students who turn on the recorder and continue to sit with an absent look.
