My promises for Semester two (Raphael)

Hi everyone, and welcome to semester two! The second half of the University year starts today, and we’re all revving up for a new timetable and new subjects that we will study for the next 12 weeks.

I’ve been looking forward to this new start for a while now, ever since I got a bit overwhelmed mid-way into semester one, and I’m looking forward to putting into practice some of the lessons I learned back then. Here are my five promises for the new semester:

1. Start in Week 1
   The main thing I’ll be doing, to fix one of the main problems I had last semester, is to start work on day one. Things are so much easier when you are up with the class, and even being one lecture behind can really ruin your momentum and confidence when it comes to understanding what’s happening. I’ve got my books already, and I know what kind of study I’ll have to do for each subject, so I won’t loose a week (or three) just figuring out what’s going on!
2. Don’t be in a lecture with no clue what’s happening
   One thing I’ve learned is that every lecture is important at University. It’s not like a class at school when sometimes it’s just silent work; there is something new and important taught in each one-hour session. So I’m going to try my best to assign time before and after lectures to really cement what I learn in them, and be ready and prepared for the next one. There were too many times in semester one when I was just starting at the lecturer as if they weren’t speaking English, and I’m going to try and make sure that doesn’t happen again!
3. Be more organised
   I work well with checklists, so I have made my own planners for each subject ready to go for week 1. Because I love being able to check a box after finishing something, I have made an insane amount of little squares to mark for each lecture, each workshop, each assessment and for finishing each week. I hope it’ll help me stay organised, and have a better idea of how I’m progressing through semester. Semester’s feel long when you’re in the middle of them, so being aware of how many weeks and how many lectures I have left to go will give me more motivation and momentum to keep pushing through!
4. Be more outgoing
   It’s so easy to get caught up in study and classes and where you’re going next, that it’s hard to stop and say hello to the person you’re sitting next to. It’s also an effort for someone like me to put myself out there and say “hi” to someone in a class, even though I don’t know whether I will see them again (lectures are huge, and you’re always sitting next to someone new). But I’m going to put the effort in, especially in the first few weeks, to make more friends, and meet them for lunch! There’s more to Uni than study!
5. Look ahead to SWOT Vac
   The last thing I’ll try to do it be cognisant that I will have to sit an exam for each of my subjects in only a handful of weeks’ time. So I’ll try to prepare better for them, leaving myself more helpful notes that I can more easily review in the stressful SWOT Vac week.

Finally and most importantly, have fun and just don’t fall behind!!

Have a great semester everybody,

Raph 😊

Edit: I just thought of two more things! First, I promise to blog more frequently, and secondly to not play too much Pokémon Go! I played on the train this morning and used half my phone’s battery D: but there are plenty of Pokéstops on campus…