28 Feb 2016

1. Attendance

Attend every lecture and every tutorial and make a solemn vow to continue doing so for the rest of your entire degree. Trust me, once you’ve attended a lecture hungover, this will not last.

2. Preparation

Print and read all of the required texts for the week.  You’ll have them highlighted and annotated, not a fold or crease in each sheet. If only it could be like this forever…

3. Appearance

Put effort into your appearance for #fashun. We all know that by week three you’ll be in jeans and a baggy shirt with your hair pulled back into a messy bun (and there’s nothing wrong with that at all).

4. Time

Arrive to class early. You’ll be out the front waiting for your tutor like everyone else. This will never happen again, especially once you learn that your Philosophy tutor is always 10 minutes late.

5. Neatness

Write neatly. Fresh books, new ballpoints, aaahhh. So satisfying. So never going to last.

6. Organisation

Each subject has its own folder on your computer designed to hold all the lecture notes you promise yourself you’ll attend to and write about week by week. Of course, by the end of the year all your files are a jumbled mess on your desktop.

7. Idolisation

You’ll see a glowing aura around your lecturer – a person embodying genius, dreams, #goals. But soon enough you’ll learn their flaws: the slight monotone quality to their voice, the way they never put lectures online, or how they get those little white flecks in the corner of their mouth when they speak… *shudder*.

8. Listening

You’ll really listen–no Facebook scrolling mid-class, no subtle snapchats. You’re all eyes and ears. And then, one fateful day in class, you discover online shopping and… Oh, sorry, what? I got distracted ordering a new pair of sneakers.

9. Prescribed Texts

Seeing as it’s first semester, you’ve bought all the textbooks. Your backpack is full of them! You want to make sure you can flick to page 12 like a good student if need be. Enjoy this while it lasts, cause you’ll never remember to bring those bad boys with you again (or you won’t have the upper body strength to).

10. Silence

Be silent in tutorials. Let your reputation as a student not be tarnished by saying an incorrect answer. Ensure your students don’t immediately box you into the ‘that guy who doesn’t stop talking’ category. Lets just see how long that lasts, shall we?