With that said, I've been thinking back on how I made it through and have compiled a list of tips on how to survive (both to future first years and for myself to remember to use in the future). Read on!
1. Organization is key. I'm an organization freak, so I really love this part. Having the tablet really helps to stay organized (everything on a laptop rather than papers scattered all over the place), but if you're like me then you like to write things down sometimes instead of just studying them on a computer screen. In the beginning of the semester I made a flash card box to keep all of the subjects separated and in the order we learned them. I also used sticky notes for each lecture section of flash cards. This made it a whole lot easier to pick out what I needed to study for finals. I also kept a notebook for extra notes, rather than loose pieces of paper. Color coding is another nice way to organize your thoughts. One last thing I recommend in a study space that you want to use. Personalize it! I bought a desk and decorated it with a sea lion sculpture my mom bought me when I interned at Sea World, and a few other knick knacks that have memories associated with them. I also bought a board that's half dry erase and half cork, which has important dates, inspirational quotes, the veterinary oath, and Bible verses on it. So it may be cheesy, but sometimes when I was feeling over whelmed [or bored of the material] I would glance up at that and remember what I'm doing this for :)
2. Stay on top. I can't sit here and tell you that I came home every day and reviewed all of the material from that day's lectures, but I can tell you that I made time during the weekends to catch up. I never got behind, and it definitely helped me to get really good grades. It does depends on how your testing schedule is though. I used the evenings to study for exams (held on Fridays) and used the weekend to organize (there's that word again!) my notes and make flash cards for all of the material (yes, in every subject) that I learned that week. If there was a really bad exam coming up, I would figure in some study time on the weekends for that too.
3. Keep a schedule. This sort of goes hand in hand with the first two items, but I think it's really important. Invest in a nice planner and use it! Each weekend I would plan out the following week to make sure I had enough time to get through all of the exam material. Basically I divided up how many lectures there were and split them evenly among the days I had to study, and I always made sure to keep Thursday as a review day. This worked out most of the time and kept me from pulling any all nighters, which brings me to my next point...
4. Get sleep. I never got less than 6 hours of sleep this entire semester. Honestly, it is way more detrimental to force yourself to stay awake than to just get a good night's rest, wake up refreshed and review before the test. [I say this now, but we'll see what happens second year, heh].
5. Plan "me time". I really didn't have much "me time" this semester, but I did at bare minimum give myself Friday's off from studying. I also took a half day on the weekends to do something I wanted to do, whether shopping, reading, taking photographs...whatever it is, make time to do it. It will keep you sane!
Hopefully these keep me on track next semester too, but as for second year...all I can say is I am scared!
Alright, time to do a little reviewing and a lot of relaxing. This has been a great semester! :]
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