PICK UP THE EXTRAS THAT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

/in /by

These are the weeks where summer beckons. For spring session students, classes are over, but exams are not yet finished. For high school students, classes are winding up before finals.

 It’s a time when the regular routines and structure are blurred or dissolved. It’s also the time when there are extras that can be tricky to capture, but can give you that extra boost.

Here are some extras available on most campuses. You can likely identify others at your school, but here are the ones I hear about most often:

Extra time on campus: With no classes to attend, you have extra time. I encourage you to use it. Get to campus. It’s worth the travel time to avoid distractions and gain a few hours on challenge material.

Extra time with the instructor: The instructor knows what is on the exam. Many instructors and TAs keep office hours to be available for students once classes are over. Make an appointment, and use some of your extra time to outline your questions for your meeting.

Extra opportunities to consult experts for help with challenging areas: This can include team tutorials or additional sessions in the statistics lab. It can be exam workshops. 

Extra time using AI to polish your game: Use AI to augment your own study techniques. AI can help break down STEM examples, can generate sample questions, and can generate mnemonics—more on that next week. 

Extra time for you: Do spend time on you. Deliberately get some summer in, in addition to your self-care routines. The key is enjoying summer deliberately, rather than as a distraction.

How to decide what to do with all of this extra time so it doesn’t just dribble away? First, think of your three major challenges from now until end of exams. Then, plan how the extras you have identified can be used to meet those challenges.

Connect with me to match the extras in your academic world and how you can use them to meet your main challenges: [email protected] 

The information in this blog cannot take the place of support from your own mental health professional or community health resources. Reach out to them. And IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS, PLEASE DIAL 911.