Today (the day I'm writing this) was my first day of my second semester here at Clark University. I'm still a small freshman so I haven't mastered everything about college yet, but I thought since this is my second time around starting new classes and adjusting to a new schedule in the college environment, I would give some tips to help start your semester off strong.

1. Syllabi are your friends!!

After you attend your first class for each of your classes, take some time to sit down with your syllabus. You probably spent your first class section going over the syllabus with your professor but a syllabus is the single most important piece of paper you will receive in a class. It usually has a schedule for the semester with when reading assignments are due, tests, and what each class will cover. A syllabus also has the professor's email address and office hours which can be super useful resources if you're having trouble in a class. When you're looking over your syllabus, look for all the important dates like tests, midterms, when papers are due, etc and mark them in your planner or calendar or whatever planning system you use. This way you won't be surprised when a deadline comes up and you have no excuses for not turning in an assignment on time.

2. Find a planning system that works for you and USE IT

I'm obsessed with planners. I love having a place to organize everything going on in my life in a physical notebook format. Physical planners don't always work for everyone, but there are tons of online options too. Many people swear by Google Calendar for keeping track of deadlines and events. A new app I've started using is My Study Life. It's a website (mystudylife.com), an iOS and Android app, and a Google Chrome Extension. It lets you insert your schedule with any time slots, which is perfect for college students with weird schedules (a lot of planner apps I've seen stick to a rigid high school type schedule which is not helpful). You can add tasks and organize them by class and set a due date. You can also add your exams. I found this website over winter break so I haven't been able to actually use it until classes started today but so far it's been really simple to add assignments. It really doesn't matter what kind of planning system you use, whether its a planner, calendar, app, or to-do list notepads. What's most important is that you find something that's going to motivate you to get your work done and keep you on track. It's also important that you consistently use whatever planning system you decide to use. Don't just use it for the first week of classes when you're still motivated. Those last few weeks of the semester when you don't have any motivation to do anything is when you'll need a planner the most.

3. Make sure you know where your classes are

Depending on how big your university is, you're probably not going to know where everything is after freshman orientation. Clark is a pretty small campus but there are still some buildings I've never really had to go to before. Last semester, on the last day of freshman orientation, I took some time just to wander around campus and locate each building. If you're worried about finding the actual classroom, go to class a few minutes early on the first day just to be sure you can find it.

4. Write down your daily schedule to get used to a new routine

I actually did this for most of last semester, but it really helps at the beginning of the semester when you have a new schedule. I'm not talking about writing down your class schedule, I mean everything. When will you wake up on certain days depending on when your first class is? When will you eat? When will you do homework? Although not necessary for everyone, I do like to keep making daily schedules throughout the semester for events that aren't usually in my schedule and how the rest of my day will be altered because of that. I use the bullet journal method to keep track of my daily schedules (which is a whole other organizational tool that could have its own article dedicated to it. Just Google bullet journal, it's really fun). You can also just plan out your schedule on Google Calendar or a simple to-do list like I mentioned previously.

(MEP is Middle East Politics)

5. Get your textbooks early

I really don't understand the frantic rush at the beginning of the semester to get textbooks. There are huge lines at the mailroom, you don't end up getting your books in time for classes, and it just causes a lot of unnecessary anxiety. I know it sounds more convenient to order your books to school, but you're still going to have to face mailroom lines. What's a little more space in your suitcase gonna do? Just get your books mailed to your house early so you know you have them in time for classes. I ordered mine a few days after Christmas from Amazon, because Amazon is always reliable, and they arrived in a few days.

So those are a few of my tips for starting a new semester. I hope everyone has a smooth transition into the spring semester!!