5 Tips For a Successful Academic Year

In this blog post, a final year Engineering student shares 5 tips to get good grades while having fun at school.

So let’s start right away.

1. Work Now, Enjoy Later

The first (Fall) semester is always easier than the 2nd semester. In the first semester, most of your courses are introductory. They explain the concepts and expect you to understand. In the second semester however, they build on the foundation established in the first semester, teach you more advanced concepts, and you are expected to apply those concepts to problems. This is why it may be challenging to pick up in the second semester if you don’t have a strong foundation in the 1st semester.

The same thing goes for your GPA. It is more difficult to boost your GPA if you started with a low GPA. So study the easy part now, work hard to get good grades. Aim for 4.0 cos it is possible and it is doable with the remaining 4 tips below.

2. If not necessary, Avoid Extracurricular Clubs in the first (Fall) semester

If you are just starting, I think you may want to take your time before joining an extracurricular club or society. Rather, you should focus on understanding the education system and boosting your GPA. You can join the clubs in your second semester (Year 1) if you find it necessary.

3. Ask the locals in your class to keep yourself updated

There’s so much information going around that you may not be aware of. It could be about a change of the class timings, or some lecturers to avoid, or some past questions that cant be found online, or the best elective courses to take, or some upcoming deadlines to submit documents you probably never heard of.

Unfortunately, announcements in most universities are currently carried out through the uni’s portal or on the department’s website. These are not easily accessible like your gmail so if you are not intentionally keeping up to see what’s latest, you may miss out on some key info. That’s why having a Turkish classmate who can inform you of latest developments will definitely come in handy.

4. Understand your Lecturers

This one will help you when taking courses you may not enjoy. Let me explain. Apart from knowing the answer to a question, another important factor is knowing how to present that answer. If you know the background of your lecturers, their research areas, and listen to the examples they give in class, you’d be able to put down your answers in such a way that your lecturer/professors can even relate better. If you are studying in a department that requires more of writing than calculations, this will definitely help you a lot.

5. Ace your Midterms, finals will be easy

Here, midterms are actual exams. They are usually conducted between the 5th and 10th week of the semester. They test you on all you have kearned within those weeks. Exams on the other hand tests you on everything learned during the semester.

In most cases, exams make up 60% while midterms make up 40%. And the minimum to pass is 50%. Think about it, if you get 90/100 in your midterm exam, you already have 36/50. So even if you get less than 25/100 in your final exam, you still get to pass the course (if that’s the rule). In some unis however, you must get at least 50/100 in your exam too pass the course. So ace your midterms but don’t joke with finals.

To thank you for reading the entire post, let me add one more tip. 👇🏾

6. Don’t “Intentionally” miss Classes

Even if you hate the course, don’t miss classes. Because missing classes is the beginning of failure. If you don’t like the course you won’t study on your own. So the least you can do is attend the classes and listen to the lecturer. Even if you don’t take notes just attend the classes. Even if attendance isn’t compulsory just attend. Trust me, I know what it is like and you’d thank yourself when it is time for your finals.

I wish you good luck with this new semester ❤️

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