Follow our advice, and this could be you for the semester.

It’s a new year and a new semester, which means you probably made double the promises be a better student this semester. That can be a hard promise to keep, which is why Bwog is here with our best tips to help you get through Spring 2018 with your GPA intact. If you have any other suggestions, put them in the comments!

Going To Class

• Take as many notes as you can, even if you think writing down something is unnecessary (it might be important later on).
• Handwrite notes.
• If you have a question, ask.
• Actually go to office hours!
• Make a connection with your professors, because you will inevitably need them for a letter of rec.
• If you can, keep your phone at home or in your bag when you’re going to lecture.

Studying

• If you haven’t done the reading for a seminar, close-read a small section of the text (maybe about 1-2 pages), and choose a couple points from that section to talk about.
• At least skim every reading even if you can’t do the whole thing.
• A trick one Bwogger picked up in gen chem and Mowsh bio: redo the practice tests until you get everything correct (whether that takes 2 or 3 times) – they usually match the actual test pretty well!
• Use a planner. For some, even writing things down in your phone isn’t as good as physically writing them down on paper, and you can get them super cheap now that it’s the new year.
• Use your phone as a calendar/planner to keep track of assignments; you’re probably going to be looking at it all the time anyway and this way it can send you some helpful reminders.
• Make a to do list on your phone with everything from homework to basic things like “eat lunch” so it feels like you got a lot done and you keep going on that momentum.
• If you study in your room, keep your desk as clean as possible to minimize distractions.
• Have study breaks.
• Set timed intervals for studying and breaks so the time you spend studying is spent actually studying, and then you can have guilt-free break times. We suggest 1 hour blocks and 15 minute breaks, but whatever works. It’s the timer that counts.
• Focus on one thing at time.
• Don’t procrastinate so much; your Twitter feed can wait a few hours.

Self-Care

• Exercise regularly!
• Drink more water.
• Sleep enough! 9 hours per night is enough.
• As one Bwogger’s LitHum professor once said, “you can not eat or not sleep but you need to do at least one.” (Try to do both though.)
• Be friends with people that work in dining, they are the most amazing people to talk to and will sometimes let you in swipe free!
• Occasionally remember you are not merely a cog in the capitalist machine and that you do not have to be productive all the time; take it easy on yourself.