************************* HOME ************************* Welcome to University! For a lot of students, this is their first time away from home, their first time in a big class and their first time where they have teachers who don't know their name. The goal of this website is to help first year students not only cope but actually thrive and be successful at university. Some quotes about university life and success to get you pondering about the next 4 years of your life: "Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." - Leonardo da Vinci "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." - Maya Angelou "The aim of the college, for the individual student, is to eliminate the need in his life for the college; the task is to help him become a self-educating man." – George Horace Lorimer "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." - Vidal Sassoon "Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals, and then to work toward them every day, will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor." - Brian Tracy Navigate through the pages of this website to get some great tips, tricks and coping mechanisms for life at university. ************************* TIME MANAGEMENT ************************* The number one thing that is going to make you successful at university is organizing your time. You are going to have deadlines that must be met. University teachers don't extend deadlines nor do they allow you to miss assignments and make them up a few weeks later. Deadlines MUST be met. Learning how to meet deadlines is a life skill that will help you not only in university but also after you leave school. It no longer matters if you were the smartest kid at your high school, from now on, what matters is that you do the work and get it handed in on time. Here are some ideas to help you stay on top of your commitments at university: - Get a calendar. It can be an online calendar or a paper calendar but make sure you have one that you can keep with you at all times. - At the beginning of each term, take your course syllabus for each of your courses and put every due date (quizzes, assignments, tests) into your calendar - Create a daily schedule. Allocate specific time slots for studying, attending class, socializing and relaxing. Stick to your schedule as much as possible to help you develop a routine. - Minimize distractions. Find a quiet and secret spot on campus where you can concentrate without interruptions. Turn your notifications and limit your time on your phone during your study sessions. - Follow the "3 daily tasks rule". Write down 3 things you are going to do today. Such as: work 15 minutes on the poster assignment in CompSci1033, study 10 minute of Calc1000 and do the laundry. Pick 3 items each day that you know you will get done. Write them down and try to cross each item off your list by the end of the day. The best thing about this approach is that you might start working for 15 minutes on your poster but find you are making progress and then work for 1 hour and get it done. Just start each item at least! To get more help with time management skill contact moretimelessstress@time.com ************************* WELLNESS ************************* We know you have heard this many times but it is very important to take care of your physical, social and mental wellbeing while at university. Physical Wellbeing Social Wellbeing Mental Wellbeing Physical Well Being Eat Well: Food can greatly impact your energy levels, mood and academic performance. We know it is super convenient but try not to eat fast food every day. Drink several glasses of water a day. Avoid sugary foods. Move Well: Grab a friend and go for a hike along the river. Western has trails all along both sides of the river, explore the nature right here on campus. Go to the rec center. Remember that any type of physical activity will improve your brain function and help you do better on exams. Sleep Well: Stick to a regular bedtime if possible. Try not to have caffeine or alcohol 5 hours before bed. Get up at the same time every day. Turn off your phone an hour before bedtime. Sleep in a quiet, dark, cool room. Social Well Being Engage Well: Try joining a club at Western, if you join early, you will not be the only new person. If clubs aren't your thing, try volunteering at the USC food bank or for Western's Foot Patrol. Chat Well: Find friends that share common interests and check in on your friends every once in a while. If you are on residence, don't sit in your room all the time, try sitting in the common lobby, someone might sit next to you to chat. If you're not up to chatting in person, stay connected with friends and family online via Zoom calls or social apps. Mental Well Being Think Well: Focus on what YOU can control. When you are feeling overwhelmed, try to find one thing that you can control and get 'er done. For example, if it is raining outside, you can't do anything about that, but you can clean up your room to give you a tidy space to get your homework done in. If you have 4 assignments due at once, you can't do anything about changing the due dates but you can start working on one of those assignments to, at least, get one off your plate. If you have two midterms next week, don't stress, instead think "If I open the textbook and read chapter 7, I will be ready for 25% of the midterm". Breath Well: What gives you happiness? Is it reading, listening to music, colouring or breathing in fresh crisp air? Figure out what sparks joy in your life and make sure your weekly schedule has a time slot built in to allow you to do that little thing that brings you happiness. If you are feeling anxious, as lame as this sounds, 3 big, very deep breaths in and out will calm you down. Try it during exams or when you are feeling overwhelmed. Again, more ideas that may sound lame but really will help are a big stretch or sitting by a sunny window. Laugh Well: <<> ************************* TIPS & TRICKS ************************* Here are some ideas for how to be successful at Western. Attend every class. It sounds obvious but studies have shown that students who never skip classes do better at university. If you are not a morning person, avoid taking 8:30am classes as you will be more likely to skip. You may find this hard to believe (or you might find it easy to believe), but Professor Laura never skipped a class nor missed a class for illness while she was doing her undergraduate degree in Computer Science and she lived on the south side of Commissioners Road in London. It was a long cold bus ride in 1985 to Western campus! Find an awesome place to study, here are some great spots at Western: - There are tables outside of Prof Laura's office that are almost always empty. - The tables on the main floor of North Campus Building at the east end of the building. They get lots of sunshine in the morning and overlook the river and you might even spot a deer. - Black Walnut Cafe located in the Collip building. It is only open from 9 to 3 Monday to Friday but it has the best oatmeal cookies in London and it has some tables if want to study there. - <<>> Space out your studying. While it seems like cramming before a big exam is the best way to do well, studies have shown that rather than doing 8 hours of studying the day before a big exam, do 2 hours each day for the 4 days before the exam. For each of those 4 days, spend the first 15 minutes reviewing what you learned the day before. Practice, practice, practice. Auston Matthews did not get good at hockey by watching Leafs games, he got on the ice and skated. The same is true for math. You won't get good at calculus by watching your professor solve a problem, you need to do the problems yourself. Do as many practice questions as you can bear. In a 2010 study, Henry Roediger compared three groups of students, one group just reread the notes, the second group wrote questions about the material and the third group answered questions about the material that someone else had made up. Those who answered questions did the best, those who reread the notes did the worst. Teach the material to someone else in the class. Studies have shown that students who teach the material to another person gain a deeper understanding of the material. Try to buddy up with someone in the class and review the material together, test each other, use pictures and flash cards, mix it up, make sure that the other person understands the concept as well as you do. You will both gain from this approach. Read the announcements and the course syllabus. 99.9% of professors at Western are lovely people who want you to do well. They have no problems answering emails, especially when it is about helping you figure out a mistake on an assignment or helping you understand the course material. But if they are being honest, they do get tired of certain types of email questions such as "I have to miss the lab, can I make it up at another time?" or "I have 3 assignments due this week, can I hand in your assignment a day late?". Questions that are redundant or already addressed can become taxing. Thus, try to be the student who has read the syllabus, knows they aren't allowed to make up labs, so why even ask the prof and also knows that the assignment has been posted for over a month, so really the professor should not be giving extensions. Professors love answering questions to help students do better in the course, they don't love questions where the student is looking for a way to get around the course rules. <<>> ************************* REFERENCES ************************* <<>>