Mentoring Centre

Over the past five years, I’ve grown so much, made some amazing lifelong friends, and become a true master of the sacred art of memorization. Just kidding about the last part: I’m still not the best at that yet. Jokes aside, university has been a great time, and as I near graduation, I’ve been reflecting on my time at uOttawa. From this reflection, I’ve come up with five of the most important ways to achieve both academic and personal success in university.

The summer before university, I started thinking about how I would stay organized and on top of things. I had always used a planner, but I was having trouble finding one that was organized the way I wanted. One day, I was mindlessly scrolling through Pinterest and came across “bullet journaling.” I was intrigued and wanted to know more about it. After some research, I decided to give it a try. What I liked most about it was the idea that I could create all the “spreads” (as they are called) I wanted and lay them out exactly how I wanted. Now, I’m in third year and still use this method to keep track of all aspects of my life.

In my opinion, memorization is the taboo word of our academic generation. I’m sure we have all heard the phrase countless times in many of our classes: “You shouldn’t memorize it; you should understand it.” This negative view of memorization has led many people to being very apprehensive of memorization. For most people, memorization can be a daunting and tedious task requiring a large time commitment.

Do you have 47320847203847 exams coming up? Are they stressing you out? Do you feel overwhelmed? Don’t worry: so are most of the students on campus! I have been in this situation many times before, and I think that the best way to combat exam stress is by making a study schedule.

Working from home can be challenging. With distractions left and right, and Netflix’s ever-broadening catalog at your disposal, it can definitely be difficult to stay on task. Now that COVID-19 and social distancing have pushed courses into an online format, this is the perfect opportunity to hone your at-home productivity skills. Here are some tips to make sure you stay productive and get that schoolwork done!

The first year or two of a science degree teach us the fundamentals of our field and train us in scientific thinking. This is important, but it is just as important to diversify this thinking in upper years.

One thing that we all heard before starting university is that life as a university student is a big change: a possible change to your social group, your grades, your interests, your surroundings, your independence, and many other parts of your life. This change impacts everybody differently, but there’s one thing that’s the same for all of us and that no one can express in words: how difficult this change can really be. This is something we need to experience firsthand and learn from for ourselves, which can be quite intimidating.

Motivation is the key not just to getting through, but also to thrive in, university. It’s what drives us to achieve our goals and persevere through stressful times. Unfortunately, motivation is not always easy to find or maintain. At some point, we all have slow weeks where we can’t seem to get anything done. The following tips and approaches can help you get back to feeling positive, motivated, and driven to accomplish your goals!

Staying focused while studying is crucial to making good use of your time, allowing you to be more efficient and accomplishing more in less time. However, in reality, it can be very difficult, especially at first, to maintain concentration when studying. During my first year of university, I noticed that quite often, I was distracted by anything and everything. These small distractions would kill a few minutes at a time, and eventually, they would add up to an hour or two of time lost in a day. In this article, I will go over a few aspects you should consider to help you stay focused when studying.

Having a growth mindset means believing that you can learn anything if you are sufficiently motivated. It means putting in the effort despite the risk of failure. And most importantly, it means knowing that making mistakes doesn’t mean that you’ve failed — it means that you have the opportunity to grow.

Achieving a balance between study and social life in university can be challenging. University is a very stimulating environment that offers excellent opportunities for both. Finding a balance between the two may be more difficult, as there are many choices but far fewer structured activities than in high school. However, good time management will help you integrate the two seamlessly into your life.

Studying for final exams can be a trying and stressful time for all students. Being a 4^th year student in the biomedical science program, I’ve been through a lot of finals. Some good, some bad. I’ve learned a lot from those experiences and wanted to share a brief guide on some strategies and tips for doing well on final exams. I’m going to be breaking down my advice into the 4 following sections: pre-studying planning, scheduling, techniques for studying, and stress management. One thing I want to stress is some of the advice I give may not work for everyone, so you don’t have to stress about following it perfectly. If you think a piece of advice will help you, give it a go, and see how it feels.