3 Tips for Your First Week of College Classes
You’ve planned out this day in your mind dozens of times. You’ve hardly slept. Everything is brand new and slightly intimidating. Like most incoming college freshmen, you feel overwhelmed at the thought of classes starting.
No matter how much you’ve prepared, you may still feel unprepared. Here are 3 simple tips to help you feel confident and prepared as you head into this brand new experience called college.
3 Tips for Your First Week of College Classes
1. Find out where your classes are located.
Duh! Right? Surprisingly enough, many students might not think to check where their classes are located before attending classes. You can easily avoid the embarrassment of arriving late to a packed classroom by locating the class’s building and room number.
Printing out your class schedule will help you feel confident. Don’t rely on your tired and overwhelmed mind to remember each class’s location. You may even want to go the extra step and walk the route of your first day of classes the day before. When the sidewalks are packed with students heading in numerous directions, familiar landmarks can become extremely unfamiliar.
2. Purchase your textbooks.
You’ve probably heard this before: college is more demanding than high school. That includes the first week of classes. College professors usually require some reading during the first week of classes. Don’t be caught off-guard by this requirement! Be sure to rent, purchase, or (if you’re lucky) borrow your textbooks. You don’t want to flunk the first reading quiz all because you came unprepared.
3. Start ahead.
Refuse to start your year procrastinating! Most students (including upperclassmen) use the first weekend to socialize. While friendships are certainly important, spending time with them can be rescheduled. Homework has a definite deadline. Using your first weekend well is critical if you want to have good success in your first semester.
Start by completing the homework for your Monday classes, and if you really want to get ahead try completing all next week's homework for your Tuesday/Thursday classes next. Then organize your planner using your syllabi. Believe me, you will be incredibly thankful you got ahead.
You may be thinking: isn’t this a little overkill? By finding the location of your classes, purchasing your textbooks, and studying ahead for the following week, you are eliminating stress from your college experience. And why wouldn’t you want to reduce your stress? Start your year planning to succeed, not merely survive.
