With the Beach Day chant still fresh in your head and having care-free summer days come to an end, it can be difficult to get yourself motivated for school. Especially at McGill where classes can get extremely overwhelming and stressful, it can be hard to catch up on all the lectures and assignments. To help this year go by a bit smoother for you all, I have four tips I have personally tried that have helped boost my GPA tremendously and hopefully, will help yours too.
1. Be strategic with your class schedule.
In my first year of McGill, I made sure that my class schedule followed the following three rules: never have classes that start earlier than noon, never schedule classes on Fridays, and always have a long break in between my classes. While this allowed me to catch up on my sleep and enjoy every Tokyo Thursday to its fullest, I realized that scheduling my classes this way was not the best for my studying habits. In my second year when I had to take attendance-mandatory classes that were only offered at 8:30s, I started noticing that I had so much time after my class. This allowed me to feel more productive throughout my day, and I noticed that I was much more efficient with my time. Before, my classes usually ended at 5:30 and by then, I was too focused on wanting to go out or hang out with my friends to care about studying or even going to class. I also purposely started scheduling my classes so that I had about an hour break in between my classes. This way, I had a break after class but it was never long enough so I could go home or leave campus. I noticed that if I leave campus in between classes, I often have much less motivation to go to my next class, or I’m just simply not in “the mood” to learn and end up daydreaming or procrastinating during lectures. You may ask – why an hour? Wouldn’t it be better to just have classes back-to-back? This leads me to my next advice: review, review, and review.
2. Do a short review after every class.
My mom always told me that reviewing your notes right after class is the best way to retain what you have just learned – and as always, my mom is right. I noticed that when I sit in a lecture for an hour and a half, I often forget a lot of the details mentioned in class. So when I started reviewing my notes after every class, it not only helped me to remember the important details but it also helped me tremendously in understanding some of the more difficult concepts talked about in class. As a visual learner, it was extremely helpful to physically see and read the notes instead of just listening. On top of that, being the terrible multi-tasker I am, it was so much easier to absorb the information at my own speed instead of frantically scribbling notes while also trying to listen to the professor at the same time. It doesn’t have to be a long review – just simply taking half an hour or so to reread my notes every day has helped me to not only better understand the lectures and prepare for the next one, but it also saved me a ton of stress trying to memorize and re-learn everything during finals.
3. Take notes on paper, not on your laptop.
I never understood people who took notes on paper in class, as I thought typing notes was way faster and just overall a much more efficient way to take notes. However, when I took a class where electronics were not allowed and I was forced to hand write all my notes, I realized how helpful this was in not only eliminating distractions (I am so guilty for online shopping during lectures), but also help retain information. It has in fact, been scientifically proven that writing out your notes on paper helps you remember and understand the material significantly more than typing them on your laptop. Plus, this gave me an excuse to go out and buy some cute and colourful pens to write my notes with, which was always a bonus benefit for me!
4. Do not always take the classes that everyone claims are the easiest.
MUAR 211, CHEM 181/183, ISLA 200 … if you’re a McGill student, you know the list, and believe me, I took all of these classes in my first year. What I expected at the end of the semester was an A or A-, as everyone told me that’s what I would end up with. Boy, was I wrong. I ended up getting the worst grades in these classes than I ever did at McGill. I had the idea drilled in my head that these classes were so easy that I did not have to attend a single lecture and never catch up on the lectures. On top of this, I just simply did not care about these classes at all. I had no interest in learning about the history of chocolate in CHEM 181, and the songs I had to listen to for the listening quizzes in MUAR 211 all sounded the same. Because I had no interest in any of these easy classes I took, I did not care to put in any time or effort into actually learning the material – everything was just so boring to me. I thought that I could easily catch up because they were supposed to be the easiest classes at McGill. False. In my more difficult classes that I had to take for my major, I had so much more motivation to put in more effort and I was actually interested in learning about the subject. I got my first As in these classes. I do admit, the easy classes do not require as much time as some of the harder courses, and if you are able to motivate yourself to catch up and put in some time then they may be great options for you to take. However, if you’re like me, and you know that you just won’t enjoy these classes enough to care about them, then you may be way better off taking something that suits your interests more.
Every year, a lot of us always tell ourselves that this is going to be the year that we’re actually going to go to class, get our As, and get our GPAs up. Unfortunately, a lot of us never end up going through with this plan. I think often times we’re extremely motivated in the beginning of the year and set big plans and goals that are, in reality, too difficult to keep up and achieve. Instead, this year, whether you’re going into your first or last year at McGill, I encourage you to take small steps and incorporate different ways here and there to try to help you excel in your classes. With that said, I wish everyone good luck on their studies, but more importantly, go out and enjoy OAP while it lasts!
Images obtained from:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-using-macbook-374720/
http://studystudylife.tumblr.com/post/107691560535/reviewing-some-chemis…
https://lifeteen.com/blog/5-things-god-wants-you-to-remember-when-youre-…