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Tips for Surviving Your First Semester
of Post-Secondary
By Cameron Perrier
These simple tips will help you
succeed during your first semester
of post-secondary school
P
ost-secondary can be the best time of
your life – as well as the most challenging!
Besides academics, there are a lot of life
lessons to be learned. Often, the first se
-
mester is the time when bright-eyed, bushy-tailed
students learn the hardest lessons.
To get a head start on surviving the post-
secondary learning curve, here are a few tips that
I've gathered from my personal experiences, as
well as my fellow classmates', to make it through
your first year.
Go to class
Back in September, during student orientation,
the program chair told us that the key to doing
well was to essentially show up for class. And he
was right! If you're not showing up for class, you
will miss out on material that could possibly be
on a test, and oftentimes showing up is part of the
participation component of your grade.
Get your beauty sleep
Your body needs sleep to recharge for the next
day, so it's really important to get enough of it.
From my experience, not having a good night's
sleep made for some dreadful days, whereas get
-
ting a solid eight to 10 hours of shut-eye kept me
awake during those 8 a.m. classes.
Make food, make friends, make fun!
I don't live on campus, but I asked a few of my
friends who did, and they had a lot to say about
getting through the first semester. A few men
-
tioned that making friends is important and so is
learning how to cook. A couple of other tips my
friends gave were: form good relationships with
your roommates and Residence Advisers (RAs)
and, most importantly, have fun!
Avoid the dreaded freshman 15
Those 15 pounds a freshman can gain over the
course of first year (thanks to late-night study
binges, etc.) is a concern for many students. To
stay healthy, join a fitness class or take advantage
of your school's athletic facilities.
Be safe and smart
With all the partying in university, it's easy to for
-
get about making safe decisions. Attend parties
with people you trust and be sure to arrange for a
safe ride home before you head out. There's still a
lot of fun to be had, but it has to be safe fun!
Getting eight hours of sleep per night will help keep you alert.
