Making the most of college life: Studying & accommodation

College is known by many for being a fresh start, an exciting time with more freedom than ever and a time of exploration. However, for your guardians it is known as a time of new possibilities and risks for their babies who are all grown up, and well to be honest, both of these views are right. I’ve been thinking recently about what I would do differently in collee and what I think people should know so they say, “that was an amazing experience and I wouldn’t change a thing”. Many people come out of college with regrets for not taking advantage of the time they had there. It’s a time when you have the plenty of exciting opportunities that you never will have a chance to take advantage of again. So, let’s get into how you can make sure you look back with the feeling that you took advantage of these opportunities.  

What is college life in a nutshell? College life boils down to four aspects for me. Studying, accommodation, getting involved and partying. If you have some basic knowledge and know-how of how to approach each one, you will have the best time in college.

Studying

Although college is known as a party lifestyle, on paper your main focus is to get a degree of some sort and to do that you will have to study. Although it is not always possible, good consistent study habits actually made every other aspect of college much more fun, as I wasn’t worried about my college work.  Everyone studies in their own way. My recommendation is to go to lectures and engage with the content. If you can keep on top of the content and stay somewhat organised, you are doing very well.

However, lectures aren’t always the best but being organised and working to do well in exams and assignments is what gets you the degree. My best advice for getting this work done is to not be afraid to ask questions, work with others and when you are feeling lazy or aren’t motivated do one of the following:

Firstly, be lazy, take your time out. But make it worth the while. Secondly, follow the fifteen-minute attempt rule. This is very simple, all you have to do is set a timer for fifteen minutes and actually dive in and work until that timer goes off. You’ll be surprised about how much you get done and how often you will get into a groove and keep working after the time rings.

Accommodation

This is a tough one. You could be moving out for the first time and it can be very tough. This deserves an article in itself, however, I will give you two pieces of advice.

First off, make your space yours. Personalise it. Although it might feel like you won’t be there for long personalising it will be fun for you and make you feel more at home as well. Secondly, be the bigger person with roommate issues. Being the bigger person is very tough to do. Nobody is denying that. But if you step up and do it more often than not and open communication or even act by doing something nice for them that helps fix the issue, this will be your best chance of having a good relationship with them. There is a chance you might have an impossible roommate at some stage, but either way being the bigger person as much as you can is still the best approach.

This is part one of Conor’s two part series. Check out part two here. 

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