this video is sponsored by Grammarly
picture this you're two weeks out from
starting university
you're young excited and feel like
you've got the whole world ahead of you
thing is this whole starting uni
business is very new and very unfamiliar
many of your friends will be studying
different degrees and everyone's telling
you that the days of being spoon fed
information
are now over you start reading up on
your course curriculum
but all the acronyms and class codes
just add to your confusion
and you're feeling a little bit
overwhelmed that's normal
i felt it my friends felt it and you too
may feel it
whether you're about to start university
returning for a new semester
or just looking for ways you can be more
prepared and organized you've come to
the right place
hey guys welcome back to the channel if
you're new here i'm sebastian a medical
student from australia
and in this video i'll be discussing how
you can be more prepared for university
or for college i'll be sharing a bunch
of tips about study
time management socializing and just
general life lessons
i'm still a university student and i
don't have it all figured out
but these are just a collection of tips
that i wish i knew before starting my
own university journey
five years ago and i hope they can help
you to be more organized and productive
to tackle this next chapter in your life
choose classes that fascinate you
this is why you're studying in the first
place to learn something new
to equip you with skills that will help
you with a future career
or to fuel a passion that will stick
with you long after your university days
are over there's no point dedicating an
entire semester into a topic that
disinterests you that doesn't inspire
you if you're enthusiastic about the
work in the classes
you'll be more likely to research and
learn more beyond the lecture materials
and you'll simply enjoy the process of
learning a lot of people might tell you
that you need to do this certain subject
or that certain subject because it's
easier to do or might get you better
marks
and sometimes you might just have
friends doing a certain subject and you
want to join them while they all have
their pros and cons i think at the end
of the day
university is not just about getting a
pass mark or getting good grades
or getting the degree at the end of it
it's about attaining the skills that
will help
embody the person that you want to
become and the type of work that will
give you meaning in the future
scope out the course early on and plan
your timetable you want to make sure
that you're reading the course
curriculum ahead of week one
it'll give you valuable information
about your assessments about the
learning objectives and the content that
you'll be learning each week you'll also
want to read up on the type of classes
that you'll have to be attending
and how many contact hours there are one
class might only have
two lectures a week and another class
may have two pracs which are three hours
each and they're mandatory and so if you
have other commitments
like work or hobbies you want to make
sure that your classes don't clash with
these commitments and you want to make
sure that your subjects don't clash with
each other a handy tip if you're feeling
a little stuck is to reach out to your
course coordinator
and ask them if they have any options or
suggestions about what you can do
and sometimes you can rearrange classes
or you can figure out a time that's
better suitable
for your schedule and a little tip if
you're looking to try get a free day or
a day off
it might be helpful to arrange all your
compulsory and mandatory classes
on the same day or same group of days
because they'll increase the chance of
you getting a day off
map your class locations so this seems
very obvious but it's super helpful
because i know for me on the first
couple of days and weeks
some of my classes i had no idea where
they were i'd be looking for my tutorial
room or i'd be looking for the lecture
room i'd go to the wrong location i'd
have to ask people along the way
for advice and it was just confusing and
it added to the stress of
moving between this class and this class
and sometimes what you'll find is that
you'll have one class which is on one
side of campus and the other class which
is on the other side of campus and there
might be a two kilometer walk between
them
and if you've only got five minutes
between the two periods that's a lot of
walking
so a helpful tip is to go into campus
ahead of time to map out where your
class locations are where the buildings
are it'll just help remove any added
stress when it comes to week one
don't be afraid to talk to people on the
first day so everybody's in the same
boat as you
everybody's feeling a little bit nervous
they're experiencing a little bit of
imposter syndrome
and the whole situation and the whole
environment's just a little bit
unfamiliar
and i don't think it hurts to throw
someone your best smile and say hello
because i'll appreciate someone reaching
out and maybe they'll form a familiar
face
and a future friendship because i know
with my friend declan has been featured
on the channel
i think on the first week or the second
week of university in a biology class
he came up and sat down next to me and
he said hi and since then we just become
friends
i think it's valuable to start getting
to know people because you might be
studying with them
for the next six months the next
semester or even the next couple of
years if you're doing the same degree
and you never know what friendships or
relationships might form out of that
form accountability groups it's a lot
more memorable experience if you do
university with friends rather than
being alone
because humans are social creatures and
we need other people to share ideas and
stories with
having a group of friends to hold you
accountable for your study for your
learning for an upcoming assignment or a
test that you've been collecting that's
going to be one of your most valuable
assets it'll give you an opportunity to
teach someone else to learn from someone
else and to challenge each other
it's important to remember that two
brains always think better than one
find efficient study tools and resources
that work for you
you want to select them according to
your learning style if you're more an
auditory learner
then audio based content will be good
for you if you're more a visual learner
like me
then video content will be more
effective finding an efficient resource
whether it be an online website a
textbook or a note-taking app will save
you time and improve your workflow one
app that can help save you time and
effort is Grammarly
who is also the kind sponsor of today's
video Grammarly is a digital writing
assistant
that can help improve the vocabulary
flow and clarity of your writing
it's really easy to use and you can
install it as a browser extension or you
can use it as a separate desktop
application there's a free version which
covers all the basic writing corrections
like spelling grammar and punctuation
but with Grammarly Premium you get more
in-depth feedback about your writing's
clarity tone
and readability it even has a plagiarism
checker to ensure that your text doesn't
have any duplicate content and it checks
passages that require citations
grammarly is also super useful when it
comes to writing assignments reports and
essays
and taking a look at an essay i wrote a
few weeks back the first thing it's
going to do is going to offer
the goals of your writing i want to
sound quite knowledgeable
and this is an academic essay so i'm
going to select academic and i want the
tone
to be quite confident because it's a
reflective piece
i want to be telling a story so i'm
going to select tell a story for the
intent
and so what Grammarly would do is give
you a bunch of different suggestions
so looking at correctness this will help
me with grammar so i might want to
change with the help
from to of it can also give clarity
suggestions
so it's telling me that this sentence is
a little bit wordy and it gives you
vocabulary suggestions to change certain
words to be more engaging
and to improve on your overall delivery
if you want it to sound more formal
if you want to give Grammarly a try and
experience all the awesome features for
yourself
then head over to Grammarly.com slash
Sebastian Pirie
to sign up and get 20% off Grammarly
Premium today
now back to the video don't neglect
sleep hygiene
so it's super obvious but it's super
important and you need to get a good
night rest
if you're wanting to learn effectively
when coming out of holiday mode it's
almost like coming out of a nocturnal
sleep schedule
and sometimes we need to fix that before
we start university if there's anything
that i learned from reading matthew
walker's book why we sleep
it's that sleep is so important for
memory consolidation
for freeing up mental energy to help
keeping you more focused for your tasks
some people might only need five to six
hours of sleep others might need seven
to eight but as long as you're getting a
good night's rest
you can say goodbye to the days of
coffee and energy drinks
because you're gonna wake up feeling
more refreshed and more focused to
tackle the day
study when you're feeling most active if
you're a morning person
then study and work in the morning if
you're a night owl then work in the
evening
after experimenting with different study
times and sleep times for myself
i found that i work most effectively in
the late morning and in the early
evening
and so i always make sure that i'm doing
something in those times there's no
point trying to force yourself at your
desk or in a library
if you're just not switched on instead
it's better to have a rest
go do something else spend time with
your friends work on a hobby or even
have a nap
and come back to it when you're feeling
more focused and feeling more refreshed
prepare your day the night before if
you're someone who likes to write a
to-do list or a checklist of things that
you want to be doing
then do that other people might want to
just make a mental note
of the tasks and classes that they have
on the day but whatever you're doing
it's important to make sure that you
have a plan
keep moving to your next task and you're
always taking action and so that you're
not stopped wondering what you should be
doing next
design an effective filing and naming
system so this is something that people
neglect you'll get into a new semester
or start your new classes
and you'll be given a bunch of different
notes you'll be given a course outline
you'll be given election notes per week
practical notes they're just providing
you with resources and bombarding you
with information
and a big mistake that people make is
they forget to label everything
correctly
so in the time in the short term it's
not a big issue you can remember where
you're getting this and that you
remember what's happening in the weeks
but when it comes to the end of semester
exam and you're trying to find your
notes from week two or week three
you don't know where you put them you
didn't label them or you didn't name
them correctly
even for me sometimes i have to look at
information from a year ago from a year
and a half ago
and i wouldn't be able to find them if i
didn't organize my systems correctly and
according to
naming and dating schedule and another
thing is if you start arranging it in a
hierarchical based system
it will help structure your thinking
because a lot of the time
subjects are organized by certain
categories and you can think of it as a
knowledge tree you have a subject
then you have topics branching off from
that subject which are usually arranged
according to weeks or according to class
dates
and then you'll have specific niche
ideas which you might want to explore
from there
and so by filing naming and organizing
your notes
you'll know where to get them you won't
forget about notes or lose notes
and you'll know what to expect when it
comes to exam time
create rewards for yourself so inside
our brain there is an important reward
pathway that's called the mesolimbic
dopamine system whenever we do something
that gives us pleasure
we release dopamine from the mesolimbic
pathway to the nucleus accumbens in
simple terms
it helps to regulate our motivation and
desire for rewarding stimuli
it also tells memory centers in our
brain to take note of this experience
so that we can repeat it in the future
if you set rewards for yourself
like having your favorite snack going
out to dinner with some friends
or taking part in your favorite hobby or
sport then
you'll be more inclined to repeat that
behavior to then study again
and seek out another reward this will
help you form good study behaviors
because you'll start looking at study as
something
that you don't put off or procrastinate
but rather something that you want to
work hard
and make the most of because you know
that you're going to have something fun
or something enjoyable planned when
you're finished
my final tip is to shoot for the moon
and even if you miss it
you'll land among the stars and what i
mean by this is that you want to
consistently apply yourself
give it your all reach out to people
engage in extracurricular activities
and make the most of this opportunity
that you're in no matter what happens
if you bomb an exam or you get a little
bit lost along the way
you're still going to learn a lot you're
still going to hit those stars learning
is a marathon not a sprint
it's not about racing towards the end of
your three-year degree
and finishing it's about taking
initiative and accountability for your
learning
and setting long-term targets for
yourself yes you may forget
all the principles of linear algebra but
the overall skills of professional
development
of communication skills of knowing how
to research things
these are all going to stick with you
long after your degree has been finished
just by being here in university
or college you're in a very privileged
and lucky position not many people
get the chance for tertiary education
and i think you want to make the most of
this time
because it will be short-lived it goes
pretty quickly i'm in my sixth year of
university overall
and the first five years just flew and
so yes you will have stressful times yes
the workload will pile up
and you might have other commitments and
family things going on
and just remember that the end result is
not about getting the best grades
or obtaining the piece of paper that you
graduate with it's about the skills that
you acquired
the knowledge that you learned the
friendships and networks that you built
and the memories that you made well
that's going to wrap up all the tips
that i have for you today
i hope it can give you a perspective and
a flavor for what's to come in
university and how to make the most of
the short amount of time that you'll be
there for if you enjoyed the video
remember to hit that like button and to
subscribe to see more content like this
i made a custom playlist of all my
videos about study and productivity tips
which i hope you'll find valuable and
also some of the things that i get up to
in medical school
thanks so much for watching and until
next time this is sebastian
stay sharp