Recipe for one successful first year

Ingredients:

50 set course texts
A dozen hours fretting in the li- brary
A sprinkle of all-nighters
A dash of seminar awkwardness Coffee…lots.

Method:

1. Prepare your ingredients. Try to buy your books second hand as cheaply as possible, online or off older students. Accept that a num- ber of these will never actually be opened. Prepare to go to your first lectures and seminars with equal measures of excitement and dread.

2. Stir everything together. You’re in a mixing bowl of course mates – the know-it-alls, those too cool to try, the worriers, the hard work- ers. Everybody is experiencing the same thing, so talk about your doubts and share in your confusion. Incorporate tutors and academics – no matter how intimidating, they are an important part of your year so fold them in gently.

3. Leave the mixture to prove. Don’t worry when you stop writ- ing up your course notes after week two. You won’t need half of the things you learn. Remember to take breaks, play some dodgeball, join a tap class!

4. If the mixture doesn’t look right, don’t panic. Even if everyone else seems to be better than you. Talk to friends or student support. Catch your tutor before essay crisis takes hold, they’ll be happy to give point- ers if you ask.

5. Prepare for the oven. Exam prep is tough. Seperate your mixture of knowledge into revisable bites. Find your space, be it that perfect third floor library seat, a table in Curiositea, or a corner upstairs in the Arts Centre.

6. Bake. Let yourself and your knowledge rise. The essays will get done, the lab reports finished, and exam season has to end someday.

7. Decorate your cakes. Following the rubric can be dull, so add some excitement. Read up on topics you actually find interesting. Use all the resources around you to get the best possible experience from your course that you can. You’re paying for this, so get your money’s worth and be proud of what you produce.

8. Enjoy. Cakes get eaten too quickly, and before you know it, first year is over and you wish you’d made it sweeter while you still had the chance.