Achieve a better student life

On this webpage you can get some ideas about how you as a student can become better at planning your time and how to tackle issues like stress, fear of exams, fear of not performing or doubts about your choice of study. It may also be relevant for you to look at guidance services.  

 

Plan your time...

Planning is an important part of any effective study technique. A well-organized study gives you a long-sighted perspective on your study and your assignments along with providing a short-sigthed, detailed deadline for your assignments here and now. The most important thing is to divide and prioritize your daily tasks and assignments so you have enough time for them all - this includes your tasks and assignments as a student but also your other daily doings.  

 

Start every block with making a study plan

It takes time to make an efficient study plan. But the time you use on it, you will gain quickly through the prioritizing and determination which you achieve by having made it. Start your planning with:

 

• Getting a total overview over your expected tasks and assignments
• Prioritizing the different assignments so you separate the important assignments from less important ones
• Making a deadline for your current assignments
• Giving yourself fixed working hours

Remember that your goals, work hours and deadlines need to be realistic! In general, it is a good idea to start as early as possible on your assignments. For the most part, you will find out that you subconsciously start to work on it before you start to write.

 

Stress 

A modern life is marked by busyness, shift in tempo, deadlines, challenges and changes. These are all things which in periods we find stressful because they bring imbalance in our lives, hurts our concentration, make us feel powerless, nervous and put us under pressure. Mentally, we are on the fast track while emotionally we can become more sensitive than we normally are. Besides the many thoughts and worries, it is quite normal for our body to also respond: the heart will beat faster, the blood pressure will rise, and many of us will feel tense because subconsciously we walk around with tensed muscles.

 

Spot the signs in time

Often we do not notice the signs while they are small and while we still have a chance to reverse the stress. We have a tendency to switch to autopilot and ignore the signs which we should take seriously. We keep going without changing our course and do not consider if maybe we should do things differently concerning daily life situations, assignments and our relations to others. Often, it is not until the signs have become so apparent that we become attentive - and at that time the stress will often have taken over. Some will experience that they have trouble sleeping, others that they have recurring headaches - or in general feel unmotivated and inadequate no matter how hard they try to follow in the same pace as before.      

 

Stress can affect anyone

Stress can affect us all and often when we expect it the least. It has become a kind of widespread disease which has become part of our busy lifestyle - and which we rarely are aware of until it is too late. Positive handling of stress usually calls for a number of changes in the way we live or the way in which we deal with our education, work and friends. Maybe you need to learn to prioritize differently, have more focus on yourself or settle with old habits. No matter what, there are no easy solutions but the reward is by far great when you find yourself over on the other side. Most people will experience that they have found a new and solid balance  - e.g. between student life, work life and the private life - and that at the same time they have found some tools which they can use to handle upcoming potential stress situations.

 

Exam anxiety

Most students will have experienced anixiety for an exam at one point or another. A fair amount of butterflies in the stomach - that is to say moderately nervous - can be a good thing since it helps us to be more aware, and makes us work just a little bit ekstra and by doing that achieving a really good result. 

On the other hand, some students experience more strained anxiety in relation to exams. There is no miracle cure for exam anxiety but there are a number of methods which help most students get a grip of their anxiety. Often, it is about tackling the exam situation and your own expectations in a new way. You are always welcome at Student Services if you need to talk about your exam anxiety.