After five years of enduring the bell curve, suffering through tutorials, and picking classes with the most inaccurate descriptions on the course calendar I can honestly say I’ve learned a few hundred tricks for surviving UofT. University is a game, learn to play it and you’ll survive. I wish I had a fifth year to tell me to chill the eff out when I was a newbie! So in a university full of bullies, insane teachers, and gross school lunches, me and my friends are all trying to do the impossible. Here’s a guide that will help you survive school. This is: Daniela’s Declassified School Survival Guide. Keep reading for 11 tips for UofT first years!
AKA: bullshit them essays!
Meet with the prof directly on your own time, email them weekly asking literally any question about the readings. Basically make yourself known outside of lecture!
I survived mine by taking one with a professor who already knew my work ethic. They’ll know your strengths on paper and consider this when you attempt to speak out in class but end up looking dumb af (me in every seminar class).
Most of the time they overlap and you waste time studying the same information with a different ugly ribbon tied around it.
If they want a 45 page paper, do it. If they want you to do long division with just your mind, do it. JUST SUCK IT UP AND DO IT!
Five years gave me tons of time to explore different libraries, but I’ve always gone back to my roots – Robarts and Kelly. Familiar places relax you and this is a good tip for studying during stressful exam szn.
When you dress better, you feel better. Only in my last year did I pull out the track pants, but I do feel it affecting my studying habits. So yes, dress for academic success!
It took me timeeee to realize that my brain cannot hold the entire material of a stats textbook. If you know main concepts of your course, you can pretty much bullshit your way through. Profs want to see that you get the general idea of what they’re teaching.
Meet with them; ask them for career advice too! If I didn’t learn this back in second year I would still be a ball of nerves sitting in the back of a psychology class wondering why life was so cruel! English and media suit me MUCH better. Shout out to Professor Peterson for giving me his raw career advice way back!
This should be standard for UofT first years. This way you’ll never miss when your prof decides to change the readings last minute, or cancel class an hour before. And yes you can send those broadcast emails directly to junk – because really who reads them? Being in the know is a major key.
Only UofT students know the struggle of being a UofT student, especially UofT first years. If you’re feeling the stress of that calculus course, chances are the kid beside you is also breaking a sweat. We’re all trying to navigate through to graduation… we need to grow a pair at some point if we’re going to walk in front of all of Conn Hall to get that degree!
These off-the-record, maybe slightly too real-to-hear, tips are guaranteed to help you survive UofT! I know education is important and I do take it seriously, but university has its own set of rules and you MUST learn to play by them if you’re going to make it to the end.
PS: If you caught the “Ned’s Classified School Survival Guide” reference in the beginning, you’ve got my official blessing that you’ll do just fine at UofT!
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