Help! I Think I've Got The First Semester Scaries

Picture this - It’s Week 7 and your mark for your first university assessment task has just arrived in your inbox. A wave of stress and anxiety hits you. All the thoughts of those readings you let pile up a bit too high, and the lectures you could only get a few minutes into have become a bit too real again.  

This is what I like to call the first semester scaries. 

The first semester scaries is a phenomenon that lots of first time uni students get when they get their first assessment marks back. And it makes sense to feel this way. For many of us those first marks from semester 1 are the first time you can actually work out how you have to study at uni. 

The first semester of uni is all about finding out how you study. Without the constraints or structures of school you are more on your own than you’re used to. There is no teacher to tell you to get to class or parent to tell you to get started with that assignment. 

@choosetmu Sonia shares the first mark she received as a first year student. Check it out! #ryerson #university #education #grades #experience #TO #FamilyDay ♬ Ain't Sayin' No (Instrumental) - The Young Ebenezers

Except sometimes finding your groove isn’t straight forward, and you need feedback from an assessment to tell you the overall picture of how you’re going. 

Assessments can tell you a lot about your habits. They help you reflect on when you start working, how you spread out your time, or rather do the whole thing in a day or two. They show you how much editing is useful to you. Most importantly they tell you if you understand the concepts of the subject and therefore how much more work you do or don’t need to be doing for each class.  

If you do get a mark that isn’t what you were hoping for it can be so easy to let yourself freak out over it.

@zoelo.hy keeping myself healthy, happy & balanced as best as i can so i get the most out of my uni experience #unistudentvlog #honoursstudent #healthyhabitsdaily #studymotivation #productivityhacks #wellnessjourney #becomingthebestversionofme #selfcarethreads #stemstudent ♬ Glitter - Tyler, The Creator

So here is what you can do when the first semester scaries arrive.
Firstly it is important to figure out what is making the scaries appear. 

If uni isn’t for you:

• Picture yourself when you’ve just retired, what sort of life/career do you see yourself looking back on?
• What are the three things that are most important to you?
• When you pictured your life at the age of 10 what was your dream career? And if you aren’t on that pathway now, is that something you still want to do?
• Is uni the best pathway for you to get to your dream career/life?

If you think maybe your habits are the problem:

• How much work have you been doing and how much does your course require?
• Do you contribute in classes, to discussions, group work, etc?
• Are there other ways you can plan your time so uni can become a greater focus?
• Are you interested in what you’re studying, or do you find it difficult to focus and get work done?
• How do you feel when you think about uni? E.g. excited, worried, stressed.

Finding the right questions to ask yourself to figure out what stage you’re at - whether uni is or isn’t for you, or whether you need to do a full 180 with some of your habits - can be tough but is super important. 

Finally remember, don’t hold yourself back from what you want to be doing. If something isn’t working, keep looking for a way to make it work.