Dear Brescia Blogger…

“Dear Brescia Blogger,

I am a first year, and I love Brescia so far! It’s very different from my high school, though. my schedule is so much more free now, so it’s somehow harder to schedule time for all my homework and studying. How can I get better at scheduling space for my schoolwork?

From, a schedule-troubled first year”

Dear first year,

The first year of school was the hardest for me as well. High school does give you a very structured setting. Planners, class bells, lunch period, after school events, you are even given monthly event schedules! Your whole life pretty much planned out for you your whole high school career. Now in university, you have roughly 15 hours of schooling then the rest of your week is totally up to you. This is a difficult transition, but not an impossible one.

For my university schedule, I start with the schedule from the program that I use to plan my courses. “Draft My Schedule” is a great program to get started, and it does not get reset until the end of the school year, so your planned schedule stays right there and you can check in any time. I print my weekly schedule off, and then I add all my important plans in, like work, appointments, and family events. From there, I look at how much time I have left in my schedule for homework. By now I can guess how much time it will take to get different assignments done, like my readings. If I know I take about three hours per week to complete my readings, I just need to find three available hours in my schedule to get that done. By the end I know what readings I have to do that week and exactly when I can have them done.

If you are looking for longer-term organization, that is also very doable. At the beginning of each semester I take my syllabus from each class, then I print off the four months for the semester. For each class I go through and write out the big marking assignments, midterms, projects, essays, and others. Then I write when I want to start the project or start studying into my calendars. After I go through each course, and write down the homework, one week in advance before the due date. That way a big assignment doesn’t sneak up and surprise me on the week of its due date.

In the end the key is knowing how long it takes you to complete the assignments for your courses each week and giving yourself that much time in your schedule to complete it. Just remember it gets easier in time, as you get to know yourself and your work style.

All my best,

The Brescia Blogger