During your first year at QMU, your goals are simple; learning how to be a student at university and making some friends. For some it is more complex as they have just moved out and living in halls or a flat without parents, others have moved to a new city or country and are navigating a new place and culture. Finding your way is essential for your happiness while at uni, find your tribe. Whether it’s making a couple friends or getting a part-time job that you don’t hate to death allow you normalise your situation and meet people in the same boat. Although marks don’t matter in first year, learning how to study, complete assessments and how to conduct research does. Make life easier for yourself by trying to do well as third and fourth year come around so fast, you’ll wish you focused more in first and second year.
Second year is all about balance. You should have now learned how to research, how assessments are conducted and found your preferred way to study (unless you are a DE into second from college). Everyone has their preferred study methods, early bird or night owl? Under pressure or with the speed of a granny? Getting it done early or last minute? You name it, everyone is different! However, those of you who leave assessments till the night before and study until 3am try and lose this habit as it is draining, stressful and can be a disaster. Second year is pushing the bar a little higher to prepare you for the most important years.
Remember university is 40% what you are given from lectures and seminars and 60% of what you do towards it, most importantly, reading! Reading is such a tedious thought but training yourself how to do it effectively without much effort will help you in the long run and can even be enjoyable.