Terrific tips for a truly top term two

University is said to be one of the best times of your life. Hopefully by now you will have all spent your first term exploiting your newfound freedom and staggering back from POP! in various states of drunken fancy dress. However, it is a truth universally acknowledged that Term Two is where the real work begins.

No pressure.

But how do you prepare to knuckle down and get that First/contested internship/barely-passing-grade [delete as appropriate] you’ve been dreaming of? How on Earth can you make sure that you cope with the higher workload that Term Two inevitably brings, while still making time for those all-important trips to Skool Dayz?

Bad news: there’s no sure-fire way to hit the work/life balance, but there are a few steps you can take to make sure that you will survive your second term relatively unscathed, all the while continuing to have a good time. Forget all that nonsense about “just needing your sense of fun”. Here’s what you’ll actually need to bring:

• Tissues. Whether you’re crying your eyes out over the boyfriend/girlfriend/cat you left behind, or have been cruelly struck down with Refreshers’ Flu, tissues are always an essential. Nobody wants to dry their teary eyes or wipe their streaming nose on university toilet paper – it’s like sandpaper. Bring some tissues and the top layer of your skin will last the first few weeks. And, for that matter, bring toilet paper: if you haven’t already learned that all the toilet paper in halls runs out on a Sunday, I pity you.

• Cleaning equipment. Most university rooms are cleaned by a cleaner every few weeks, but there is always a limit on their near-endless patience, and it usually kicks it during Term Two. Bringing your own supplies and cleaning up the worst of your mess will save you a world of trouble. Don’t bring your own vacuum cleaner, but a couple of bottles to get stuff out of the carpet and off the walls should see you through most of the year. Don’t pay for your mistakes – when you stagger back from circling dressed as a Smurf with someone else’s vomit on your shoes, it’s far better to clean up your mess the next day rather than wait for the cleaners to do it and get a fine in the process.

• Cooking equipment. Come on guys, put down the Domino’s vouchers. Living off pizza is only acceptable in the drunken haze of Freshers’. This is Term Two now! Bite the bullet and buy yourself a saucepan, but make sure to time your purchase carefully. All the cooking stuff disappears off the shelves on arrivals weekend – unless you want to camp outside Tesco’s at 6am to get your stuff, you’d be better bringing it with you. The same goes for food – if you do manage to make it past the mad scrum that is Tesco’s on arrivals weekend, odds are all you’ll be able to find is a soggy-looking carrot and a tin of coconut milk. Good luck with that.

• Fancy dress. Just bring everything you have. It’s much cheaper to bring – or make – your own stuff than scour the High Street every time you go circling. You – and your overdraft – can thank me later.

• Vouchers (exc. Domino’s). This one speaks for itself. Start stockpiling, start saving.

• Printer. Printers can be a bit pricey, but if you can get hold of one your life will be so much easier, especially in Term Two when you’ve got more essays are due. Picture this: you’re in the library, it’s 11.30am and your essay is due in at noon. You’ve been slaving over your essay for the past 48 hours, you’ve worked all through the night and the last traces of your Tuesday-night hangover are still kicking you in the proverbial crotch. You slap the last book onto the end of your bibliography and head down to the library printers, heart pounding and hands shaking – and the one working printer is surrounded by a group of wailing students with desperation in their eyes. Nightmare. Take it from this wise old greybeard – if you have a printer, you won’t have a heart attack (provided you keep it topped up with ink and paper!)

• A tried-and-tested hangover cure. I cannot stress the ‘tested’ part of this enough – when the inside of your mouth tastes like you’ve licked the floor of the Copper Rooms, the last thing you want is to be standing in line for chicken soup, tomato juice, or indigestion tablets. It’s only going to make things worse.

So there you have it. While this list is by no means comprehensive – you should probably also bring things like clothes, money and textbooks for the full university experience – it will at least ensure that you can make the most of Term Two without putting your degree in too much jeopardy. People say their time at university was the best time of their life because they made the time count. Work hard by all means, but don’t let that stop you from joining all the societies, starting a band, getting drunk and hoarding free food from the Refreshers’ Fair. Whatever you do, enjoy it.