The beginning of the semester can be a stressful time. However, if you follow these five tips you'll be on track for a great semester!

1. Find someone in your major to trade books/notes with

I'm lucky enough to have a roommate who's also an education major, so we have to take the same classes. So instead of buying overpriced books at the bookstore, we exchange books and notes at the beginning of the semester. If I can't figure out the answer to a problem in class I can always flip through notes to give myself a little hint.

2. Get the phone number of someone in each of your classes

There will be days when you can't go to class. There will be homework assignments you don't know how to do. There will be study guides you'll want to share. So it's important to get the number of one person in your class for each class on the first day. You may meet other people in your classes that you'll communicate with instead, and hopefully, you'll find someone who shares more than one class with you so it's easy to see what you missed.

3. Try different routes to class until you find the best one

Last semester I found a quicker way to class when the semester was halfway over. To avoid being late to class, try out a bunch of different routes during the first week to find the one that works best for you.

4. Make a list of the important stuff from each syllabus

It's super important that you read each course's syllabus. However, when you need to review a grading policy it's annoying to look for it within a 20-page syllabus filled with university standards that you already know. So just make a google doc with the important stuff for each of your classes so that you can get answers to your questions more easily.

5. Put all your assignments in your calendar

There are a bunch of times in classes where you choose which date you'll turn in or present something. When choosing your date, it's super helpful to have everything on a calendar so you can choose to present on a day when you don't already have two exams.