How To Keep Up

Here are some super important stuff you need to know before you jump in.

There are always going to be assessments, you'll always be required to be on your A game, let me explain.

You will be assessed every week and these grades will go towards your final grades which go towards your GPA and for some courses, these assessments will start on Day 1, e.g. The Sciences, like Physics

There are courses that last half a semester, your first exam for most of these courses will be your final and only exam, you only get one chance, don't mess it up.

One of these such courses is COMP1126, it's final exam will be in October. Yup, you only have 6 weeks between exams and some of you will have finals next month.

A good rule of thumb is to attend all classes in the first two to three weeks of classes to get a feel for everything and for the schedules to be finalized because it's likely that class times and locations will change.

There are assessed labs, tutorials, seminars and even lectures. So if you're thinking of missing any in the first two weeks of school, you've better had read my guide on getting to know your classmates, because you'll need your connections.

Not all courses have mandatory attendance, some courses require no attendance at any class, all that's necessary is that you do the exam.

What Am I Saying?? Not go to class?? Am I crazy?? How is that even an option!?

Well now that I'm done scaring you, I'll show you how easy it is to keep up and even stay ahead of your class (preferably).

Lectures - You're supposed to read the material before you go to the lecture so that you can ask questions and have anything you didn't understand clarified in class in front of everyone because they probably either didn't read or don't understand either.

Tutorials - You're supposed to do the tutorial work before the tutorial then go for confirmation, reaffirmation, and understanding anything you didn't before. These are key to passing exams, skip your tutorials and you may be in for more than you bargained for, even if you don't go to lectures, try to go to the tutorials.

Seminar - Same as tutorials, read ahead

Labs - if you can start the lab ahead of time, because it may take longer than the allotted time and you generally only have the allotted time to complete the lab. Do some pre-reading, seek help from your upperclassmen beforehand. Often times this is the best option.

Now here's what no one wants you to hear, no one wants you to listen to, no one wants this advice given to you.

You're going to have to skip classes to get good grades.

Now this isn't true for everyone, but things will come up in life, you'll be inconvenienced, other courses will interfere, and this is where you'll have to decide which classes you're going to have to skip in order to have the highest rate of success, time management is key. Also frankly some lectures are a waste of time, some lecturers only read from the slides. You'll be better off reading on your own in these instances, but always go back to the next lecture you can afford to or keep in touch with your classmates to see whats going on.

Now that that's all out of the way, I cannot reiterate this enough, YOUR SENIORS ARE YOUR FRIENDS. They'll help you figure out what no one else in your class can or even explain the topic better than your lecturer.

Basically the key to keeping up is to read, read a lot and even read ahead, you can go to your lecturers in their office hours and ask them questions about what you've read about whats going to be in the next lecture so you don't have to go or even go talk to them about a previous lecture or other class. The same goes for other classes like tutorials you can do them ahead and get your answers checked to avoid going to the physical class, but confirm this with your instructor first, they may be planning something extra in class.

Well, I hope this has been helpful, just read and you'll be fine, 3 hrs a day should be fine for most majors. It's good to solidify what you learn in the day before you go to bed, it'll help you remember better. Also practice, you need to apply what you read.

Oh, another thing YouTube is an excellent resource. I'll be uploading some videos for Computer Science Students myself, I'll see if I can find other Seniors to link you to. My Channel is Sir Mario https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOvkYAeCn4hjYNGEarQelgA

Don't forget to check ourvle at least 3 times a day for updates with your courses.

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay tuned!