Saturday 18 January 2014

How to Get Through “No-Break” November (Also Great for “All-the-Work” April)

By Virginia Dobson

At my college, the last few weeks of every fall semester have names. The week of (American) Thanksgiving is called Hate Week; because that is the week our (American) football team plays our arch rival, U (sic) Georgia. The week after that is called Hell Week. This is the last week professors are technically allowed to give tests, so naturally they all do. Penultimately there is Dead Week, also known as ‘the week preceding finals’ by those who are also trying to make ‘Fetch’ happen. And finally, no pun intended, comes Finals Week. In my experience now, at the beginning of November, is the best time to get a jump on last minute learning. This is really important, and has helped me make it through the semester by being the kind of student I probably should have been all along.

1. Plan: There’s a saying about how failing to plan is planning to fail. It’s completely true. At this point in the semester, everyone is either in denial or running around like a headless chicken. Plan out when you are going to study, what you are going to work on (homework, exam prep, review, etc.) and who you are going to study with. Be very aware of what you need to do. You know what works (or at least what doesn’t), schedule it down and commit. And just to be safe, take a page from the electric code and make sure to allocate 125% of whatever time and resources you think your workload is going to take. Stuff happens.

2. Commit: Sometimes I really hate commitment because it gets in the way of doing fun things. But when I think of how terrible my life will be if I don’t graduate, I make a very important exception (and so should you). My best friends right now are all in my classes, my mom is doing my laundry for the next month (thanks Mom!), and I had an important talk with my boyfriend (an understanding engineering grad student). Like some of you, if I don’t stay really on top of things I tend to have the attention span of a gold fish and things don’t get done. Have to lock yourself in the quiet room beside your advisor’s office and block everything resembling fun on the internet? It’s crunch time, you should do that. Do whatever it takes to get it done.

3. Be Flexible: This might seem odd, talking about flexibility, but it is crucial. In a strictly academic sense, you never know when you need to go to extra office hours or when a review session will pop up. Realistically, you are going to burn out and need a way to blow off steam when it starts to impact your rate of productivity. Reward yourself, sleep (occasionally), and just make sure that you don’t put off something off for more than a day.

Most of this information is very general, but I feel that this is necessary because everyone works and studies in different ways. Later, I plan on writing a how-to guide for engineering students on how to keep yourself accountable when you are easily distracted, which best reflects my personal experiences. I strongly encourage everyone to become familiar with their learning style and how they best learn the material, because it will help you out a lot in the long run. Remember, the first step is to plan.

Happy studying! And if you have any questions (or advice on your particular accountability style), please speak out in the comments!

Virginia Dobson is a senior electrical engineering student at Georgia Tech. She is a member of the Georgia Tech Honors Program and a sister of Alpha Omega Epsilon, an international engineering sorority. When she is not hitting the books or in class, Virginia enjoys doing research in machine learning and assistive technologies with the Opportunity Research Scholars’ Program and spending time with friends.

18 comments:

  1. I like these engineer memes :) Now I work at an engineering company and understand that knowledge I got at the university is practically nothing if we compare it with the practice at work. Besides, you can read more books on engineering and apply it to your projects.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Allow me to use the first image on a personal blog

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome blog posting. Novel ideas and really resourceful. Almost all topics under one roof. Expecting more blogs like this now and always. Amc Square Learning

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the information and links you shared this is so should be a useful and quite informative!
    financial trending

    ReplyDelete
  5. bikin ketawa
    http://statuslucuga.blogspot.co.id/2016/07/meme-tanggal-tua-bikin-ketawa-ha-ha-ha.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very informative article which is about the Implementation Engineers and i must bookmark it, keep posting interesting articles.



    Mckinsey implementation

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your blog is very useful, I am truly to this blog which is specially design about the Actuarial analysis. I really appreciate your blog.


    Actuarial analysis

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is the story of every student that he feels so burden for himself. I think we should plan such program in short and important notes. http://www.personalstatementwriters.com/tips/create-an-eye-catching-introduction-with-personal-statement-writers/ is the best plans for students who wants to write professional writing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Educational blog and news services always helpful for students. This is really very good educational blog ever i read. Here author provided very important information about university study. Also check personal statement writing services at http://www.personalstatementwriter.org/hult-international-business-school-admissions. This information should helpful for students to deciding abroad study.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful post. This is really good general news about university study. Students always face some difficulties with there study and they should help out from difficulties by read this article. Also you can get best ideas here about PhD research proposal writing services. Thanks for sharing helpful post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Higher education provides extensive benefits to students. This is absolutely very good article about college education and here author shared good experience about college education. Also check our text summarizing tools at https://www.summarizing.biz/online-conclusion-generator-summarize-any-text. This information should helpful for students to take better higher education.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have seen loads of memes on engineers in many social website and i don't know that's true or not. But i think engineering is the more valuable degree in comparison with other's degree. Here is the link http://www.sopwriting.org/get-a-winning-math-statement-of-purpose/ i found best.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I feel it interesting; your post gave me a new perspective! I have read many other articles about the same topic, but your article convinced me. Glass Fiber Filters

    ReplyDelete
  14. My brother suggested I might like this website. He was entirely right. This post actually made my day. You cannot imagine simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks! Membrane Filters

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you for sharing of some of the articles we read this one article is very interesting for us, I like it. pest control Delhi
    home cleaning services in Delhi

    ReplyDelete