5 Things You Should Keep in Mind When You’re A Student
These are the lessons you might not find in your lectures.
These are general rather than specific lessons. Thus, some of the points below might not necessarily apply to your own unique situation as a student. Take what you want and leave what you will.
1: Each chance to spend is an opportunity to save
Your resources are scarce (and scarcer they might become), so you must use them well.
Rather than buying coffee and lunch between your lectures, start bringing a homemade meal and drink with you to class — it is healthier besides. Rather than paying for gas or train tickets, try walking to school or riding your bike — this is better for you and the environment too. Rather than lavishly spending your loans or income on new clothes or books or video games, seek cheaper alternatives that yield similar (and often more personally satisfying) results, like second-hand stores/markets and libraries.
Rather than losing the money you need in the future, save some when you have the chance.
2: You are there to study, not to appear studious
Despite what the trends say, you do not need fancy gel pens or pretty pastel notebooks.
What you need is to set aside the necessary time and energy to do the work you are here to do. Beautiful study materials are a harmless addition to this endeavor (after all, if you have the opportunity to write between pastel pages, why not take it?), but too many people fall into the consumeristic trap of striving more to appear visually academic than to actually do the work associated with their position in the program. In the end, what truly matters is not how nice your papers look, but how valuable they are for your education.
Sometimes, a single pen and notebook are all you need to succeed as a student.
3: Not everything you read has to be written down
A large amount of what you read are details, examples, and other extraneous information.
As proficient habit and study guide Ali Abdaal says, you should focus most on internalizing the central teachings of your course (about 20 % of the curriculum) rather than obsessing over each and every detail you come across. He also advises his students to adopt a study method called Active Recall instead of taking notes, as the former allows you to learn and store large loads of information in less time and effort than your note-taking peers spend. Moreover, copy-pasting or rephrasing lines from textbooks and lecture slides are passive and sometimes pointless pursuits; it is
better to use a method that makes it all stick.
Indeed, not everything needs to be written down — in fact, barely anything at all.
4: Your real competition are employees, not students
Comparison can fuel your drive, but it can also distract you from making real progress.
For instance, while knowing your standing in the collective corpus of grades might inspire you to improve, it is a largely unhelpful and unhealthy indulgence to compare yourself endlessly with your peers on the basis of As and Bs. This comparison may distract you from doing what you are actually present to do, which is to learn and develop in order to become a viable and valuable candidate for work within your field. Your grade distribution is not the hill you should be trying to surmount (or, if grades
do matter for your future prospects, it should not be the only one); rather, it is your accumulated skills and knowledge (including your commitment to actual work over superficial markers of work) that will paint you as a virtuous student and future employee.
While besting your classmates feels good in the moment, what matters is becoming the best employee you can be, and for that, high grades will not suffice (nor sometimes even matter).
5: Others might find you difficult to work with too
Group projects are the bane of many students’ time at school.
Disagreements, spouts, a missing sense of coordination — in the end, it just feels like you could do the entire thing much better on your own. And while this might be true (in fact, you may be stuck with a truly abominable collection of teammates), it is important to keep in mind that, likely, your fellow members possess certain negative perceptions of you too. Speaking from experience, while you may criticize the others for their lack of initiative and visual taste, they might in turn disapprove of your bossy and over-assertive nature.
Being stuck in a group project may not be the most ideal situation, but by being the best team member you can be, you might manage to make it a little less difficult to handle.
Keep this in mind, and you might find it quite fine (or even fun) by the end.
