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The new school year begins this August 2017 until July 2018. There is so much to do within this period and the opportunity to be successful are endless. The following submission gives ten (10) tips on how to kick-start your new school year, in this case academic year 2017/2018.
1. Give it a Plan
Most of our non-achievements are due to lack of plan. A plan would enable yo to have a guide in what you do.
There are diverse kinds of plans you can create for success.
Short-Term Plan
These plans will take care of your daily needs. For example, what should you do to in order to finish a particular assignment or term paper? Here you may decide to invest an hour or two before the deadline in order to finish it. Short-term plans are sometimes neglected due to the fact that they may require time to plan supposedly for something "too small to require planning". Well that is the reason why sometimes we are not able to finish and present a "simple" assignment. You do not need to write out a short-term plan; it can just be committed to memory. However it would be good to have a written down document to measure your achievements against!
Medium-Term Plan
Medium-term plans like the names goes are supposed to last longer than a short-term plan. Thus they are required to broader. A medium-term plan for example will be how to read a story book or even write a short story (maybe for kids). Here you need to understand that medium-term plans may involve a variety of activities in order to achieve the one goal. You can plan to have 30 minutes a day within your schedule to read a book. However you may also need to plan the place to be and time of the day each day you may want to read. Your medium-term goals should help you achieve your overall objective for the the year.
Long-Term Plan
When you have to plan for the whole year, it would better to have a long-term plan. long-term plans in the context of a school year will be limited to one year. However, your long term plan can be made to cover the whole four-school year, broken down into yearly plans. A long-term plan could be leaning attaining a particular GPA. Long-term plans don't have to be centered only on academic achievements. This is because following them actually helps you academics indirectly. For example, you could decide to learn a musical instrument or be in the University Church Choir / Chorale. Did you know that the overall best student (Valedictorian) for the 2017 graduation was a member of the church choir?
It is said that if you fail to plan then you have actually planned to fail. Make this academic year, a year of fruitful planning. Set your goals and strive hard to attain them. It may not be easy, but it is not impossible. Handwork they say does not break the bones, but hard work without planning is a stress-prone activity that can break you down.
2. Have a time for Leisure
A leisure time away from study actually draws you closer to better grades. The point here however is not to abuse your leisure time or make that an excuse every time you feel lazy - yes lazy. Thus you need to apportion an appropriate time span you will call your leisure time. This should be planned by you. However it is advised that you have a leisure time at least for 10 minutes in every one hour. The leisure time should be thought of as an activity but rather a time of inactivity. This means in every one hour, find some ten minutes to just meditate on the natural environment as an example. When this is formed as a habit, you will be renewed for every hour's task. Don'f forget that your leisure time could be a ten minutes of silence and inner reflect on what you are doing.
3. Read a Storybook
Storybooks have a way of driving our intellect to be focused. It is recommended
that you read a storybook, but you could always do with something of interest to you you. Reading something outside your academic pursuit could serve the same purpose. The important factor is that it should be part of your plan to read something in a targeted period of time. It is best if you set your own target, for example using two weeks to read a novel. The bottom-line is that you should always have a time to read something. In a year, you could have as part of your plan to read a number of categories of books, say two storybooks or novels, one magazine and a paper from the library's many electronic databases. You just need to plan as mentioned earlier.
4. Write Something
Putting down your ideas on paper is a great way of train your mind to be independent. This independence will help you control how your mind absorbs and reproduce things you learn. It is also a great way to share your thought with others. For example, you could write a children's story book while in school and impact the lives of our younger ones. You could have your books sold at our Baraton International School, thereby making an income for yourself. Train yourself to write and it will come in handy when your start your final project work (theses or dissertation) at a point in time of your academic pursuit.
Form a habit of also writing down what you studied in class for the day on pieces of paper that you could carry around, memorizing what has been learnt in that day as you go along. By the end of the week, you will notice you do not need your notes to master what you had been thought in class. Typing them on the computer and mailing it to yourself or saving it to a cloud storage service will be an added on advantage of having an easy access to your write up on the go.
5. Have an Evaluation Scheme
Evaluating yourself over a period gives you the ability to chart how you want your school year to be like. You can evaluate your self in many ways and at several intervals of time. Try evaluating yourself daily by keeping a journal and recording what the day has been like. Write down your achievements as well as setbacks that has occupied that day, with the determination to do better every time. Keeping a To-Do list is also a good way to know how well you have performed in a period. While keeping a daily journal, it is recommended that your To-Do list can span over a week and an evaluation done at the end of the week.
6. Move with Others
Have a circle of friends who can help you in your studies, the main purpose for enrolling in the university. Friends will help you in diverse ways, but it is important that you stay in control of what you allow yourself to be influenced by. Keep friends who will want to form discussion groups on subject areas you want to grow in. Make it a point to also contribute in group discussions; one sure way to get yourself prepared before the discussion. If your are not good in groups, have trusted individual friends whom you can study and socialize with. Some friends are good at introducing you to groups and you may feel more comfortable belonging to groups together.
7. Eat Well
Eating well is one good way of staying healthy for the academic year. If you believe you can make it, with good grades, it is important to consider your diet and proper eating habits. Eat more of fruits and vegetables and less of foods and drinks with high fat or sugar levels. Since you need to stay healthy in order to do any meaningful learning, it is advisable that you train your body to eat only what will make you stay in the health you need.
It is also important to check the your times of eating. As the body grows, and as you mature in age, it is important to stay away from late night eating. Some have made this a policy as eating before the sun goes down. Thus you will discover that is helpful to eat very early in the morning (probably by six am) and just before the sun sets (also by six pm). A vegetarian diet is another way of keeping your body health. In a university such as UEAB, there is the conscious effort to provide a well balanced vegetarian diet that support the overall development of the human being.
8. Exercise
In order to have an even blood circulation it is important to exercise at least once a day. Exercise keep the heart strong to pump blood to all parts of the body, thereby giving the body the strength and of muscles and peace of mind for your academic journey. Being able to study appropriately will require you you have a well trained mind that resides in a strong body. Walking, cycling, swimming and running are a few activities you could engage in to keep your spirit up. However, you could engage in not so obvious exercise such as finger massages, neck twisting and body stretching periodically to enhance blood circulation.
9. Learn Something New Each Day
University is the place for universal education. Everyday presents opportunities to learn something new. Determines what interest you most and learn something new in that area each day. For example, learn some trick with the computer that will help you to be more productive in your academics. Acquaint yourself with happenings around the world each day if you have an interest in current affairs (which by the way should be an interest to the majority of people). Learn a new word to add to your vocabulary. This should give you word power in your daily interaction with people, if that is where you want to improve. Find out something about nature, the environment or even yourself. Yes, discover new things about yourself such as height, weigh, iq, blood type and group, heart rate, character traits and more. Learning something new each day could be fun, but also builds your your subconscious mind to reason properly. It should be that you are ever ready to learn and that will help you in your school year.
10. Talk to the Librarian
This may come as a surprise to you, but your librarian has more to offer you
than you may imagine. In the University Library, a lot of creativity and innovations are being explored daily. Librarians are no longer only book managers who take care of books until someone needs to read them. The librarian today is very helpful in situation such as helping you choose a research topic for your project work. The librarian could also help you in locating information for your research, be them term papers or class assignment. The librarian could even help with choosing your professional career program of study. Yes, it may be done by your academic advisers and program coordinators, but to have broader perspective on what to choose as your career path, it may interest you to know that the University Library could be of assistance. Visit the library more often to also have an ambient environment to read or do your research.
SOMETHING YOU SHOULD ALSO KNOW - TRUST GOD
No matter your background or your spiritual inclinations, one thing is certain - that you have come to a Christian Institution. That alone is a positive sign that you have the ability to trust in God. Sometimes we may be tempted to thing God is so far away from us. On the contrary He is very near to us and admonishes us in the middle of His Word, from Psalm 118:8 that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Note that this was written by King David, who had seen it all in life.
Indeed it is never a coincidence that you are here at UEAB. There is s purpose for which God brought you here. If only you will dedicate yourself to Him and have constant communion with Him, you will find and fulfill your purpose here on campus and in the world at large.
So wake up each day knowing God Cares and be thankful for his providence. Since He brought you here, He shall supply all your needs to complete successfully. Just trust Him. This is not a point (just like the rest). It is what the rest hung on. Without Him, none of the above may even be helpful to your success. With Him you can live your full propose and be a blessing to this world. Sta Blessed.