Nontraditional Advice

[plumhill]

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As soon-to-be college freshmen, you're going to be hearing a lot of advice from parents, older friends, siblings, and the like. You'll hear things like "don't procrastinate," "go to all of your classes," "don't party," etc.

Being halfway through my second year of college, I can say that all of that is good advice (well, the partying bit...that's your call). But honestly, none of those things are the best you can do for yourself.

If I had to pick one piece of advice to give to soon-to-be freshmen, it would be this:
Learn to catnap. In public (meaning in the library, in the lobby of classroom buildings, etc).

No matter how many hours you study and how many weekends you slave away in your dorm or in the library, you WILL be up until 3 a.m. at some point in time, and probably somewhat often, because there IS that much homework and reading you have to do. But you'll also find that you have a lot of 1-3 hour gaps where you don't have time to go back to your dorm, you don't have the energy to study and you feel like you will absolutely DIE if you do not get a quick nap.

The easier it is for you to curl up in a questionable armchair or at a desk and take a quick nap, the less of a problem this'll be.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Here's a bit more advice, don't take abnormally heavy loads and monitor who is teaching the courses and their reviews. Also create a criteria of importance, so if the easy teacher for chem is offered at one time and it is conflicting with the good psych teacher, then reschedule psychology.
My personal advice overall is simple, if it take you 5 years to graduate but gives you more chance to get a 4.0 and high MCAT, then do it.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Also if you're doing all nighters more than ~5 times a month, you're doing it wrong. You should be getting sleep, doing ec's, and having a good social life all on top of having enough time to study. So please avoid cramming for 10 hours before every test, just study or review every week in your down time.

 

[HolySmokes]

Also if you're doing all nighters more than ~5 times a month, you're doing it wrong. You should be getting sleep, doing ec's, and having a good social life all on top of having enough time to study. So please avoid cramming for 10 hours before every test, just study or review every week in your down time.

I'm gonna go ahead and say if you're pulling all nighters at all, you're doing college wrong. I never once had to pull an all nighter in college, and I've yet to have to do so in med school. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be getting a good nights sleep every night during undergrad.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'm gonna go ahead and say if you're pulling all nighters at all, you're doing college wrong. I never once had to pull an all nighter in college, and I've yet to have to do so in med school. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be getting a good nights sleep every night during undergrad.

Ops you're right, when I was typing that I thinking staying up after 2 as being a full nighter, not the actual no sleep at all haha. But yah never had to do a full nighter in my life.