Planning – Making a GREAT start to your semester
Planning… It’s something students intend to do but oftentimes neglect to do. So let’s keep its short and sweet to get you moving. Planning is critical to ensure your success at uni – it may not seem this way, but in order to have a healthy uni/work/life balance planning is critical.
“A study plan is a kind of roadmap for what you’ll do during the semester and how you’ll get it done. It’s a document or chart that gives some structure to your semester. It can be a very useful tool to keep you on track and or help you come up with some new ideas for projects and papers throughout the semester, while helping you to avoid any last minute panic. Trying to balance classes, jobs, and a social life can be stressful and chaotic for students. For that reason, having a study plan is the first step to getting yourself organized. In addition to having a general idea of what you’re going to study, having a study plan will help you know how much time you’ll need to allocate for certain things. For example, if you’re going to be taking a new class in a subject you’ve never studied, you can allocate more hours toward that task than you might others. Another important benefit of having a plan is having a running list of resources like textbooks, videos, or articles. Finding sources can be time consuming and take a lot of your attention away from actually completing your work. With a study plan, you can have a list of important sources ready before you get to the task, making it easier to focus on your work, rather than hunting down books. Finally, for those that are planning to work on a thesis or final project, a study plan can be a key part of your success. With a thesis, or any other final project, cohesion and structure are critically important. With a study plan in place, you can map out your larger projects and ensure that each part flows appropriately into the next, which could cut down on the number of edits and revisions you’ll need to do later.” (Source: https://www.collegeconfidential.com/importance-making-study-plan/)
Most universities provide semester planners – use them! Plan out your overall semester, compete with when each assignment is due and your exam week – step one achieved!
Plan out your lectures, tutorials and don’t forget to add in your work schedule on the planner – step two achieved!
Then, working backwards, allow yourself at least two weeks from each assignment due date to begin starting each assignment to allow yourself enough assignment preparation time to avoid the inevitable last minute preparation (and speaking from a university marker – last minute assignment submission clearly shows!)
Then map out reading times and how will you navigate through all the readings – think smarter, not work harder!
Finally, jump down to when exam weeks and work 2-3 weeks prior, map out exam preparation and schedule in exam preparation hours to ensure that you are fully prepared for your subjects that have exams – and remember, Nursing Tutoring Essentials offers FREE Semester Planning to help you jump start your uni semester!