With midterms finally behind us, we enter Week 7: a time of personal reflection, anticipation and opportunity for growth. Unless you’re in a STEM department like me, and the word midterm is essentially meaningless because you have a “midterm” every week. But that’s beside the point here.
Whether you nailed your exams, partied a little too hard on your Halloweekend five-day bender or even flat-out failed a test, Week 7 is a fresh start and a clean slate for us all. With the quarter system’s quick pace, it often feels like there’s no time to catch up or improve things once they’ve already started. But with just a small amount of time devoted to making some subtle changes, I promise this is not the case. Here are three realistic things you can start doing right now to set yourself up for academic success:
- Live, Breathe and Swear By Your Google Calendar
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Listen, I don’t wanna hear any excuses for losing credit for an assignment, missing a review session or forgetting you have class. We are fortunate enough to live in a world with technology that presents all our tasks on a beautiful color-coded platter, so make use of it! Hear me out — take five minutes right now to read your syllabi (don’t pretend that you actually did at the beginning of the quarter) and enter any tests, papers and review sessions into your calendar. And bam! Now you’ll never be blindsided by an assignment again.
- Messy Desk, Messy Life
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When I feel the overwhelming sense of chaos and disorder start to engulf me, my first defense is to tidy my space. It brings me a calming sense of order, even if everything else seems to be falling apart. Now, I’m not even saying you need to tackle your entire dorm or apartment; just start with your desk. Creating a clean workspace will allow you to be more productive, organized and ready to take on the chaos head first.
- Get Your Ass Out of Bed and Go to Class
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I know the sweet, sweet temptation of your warm bed is so hard to resist, especially when the alternative is braving the elements and endless flyering on Bruin Walk, but going to lecture in person is absolutely worth it. By physically attending class, you relieve the stress of needing to catch up on lectures and gain better comprehension, rather than zooming through the material at 2x speed. And who knows, you might even stumble upon an extra credit opportunity like I did last week, all by attending my Soc 132 lecture in person!
It can be so overwhelming to attend a school as academic and competitive as UCLA, especially around midterms season or upon receiving a bad grade. So if you can relate, you’re definitely not alone in those feelings. It truly takes much more than just academic smarts to succeed here, and there are plenty of other things you can do to put your best foot forward for the rest of the fall quarter!