Nothing is worse than the feeling when you have an 89% in one of your classes because you missed out on a quiz or the pre-quarter assignment and your GPA suffers as a result. SCAD has a hard curriculum, whether you’re a freshman in your Drawing II class struggling to finish that pastel piece, or a graduate student just about to begin your thesis. It’s important that students take the time to plan ahead in order to be successful through the quarter. If not, we’re all going to end up pulling many all-nighters. And who wants to do that? Sleep is so precious, so please don’t do that. To help avoid the all-nighters, here are some ideas you can implement to get a head start this quarter.
Stay organized: It’s really handy to have a calendar or a pocket planner with you at all times. This way you can jot down everything that you need to do for the week, month and the quarter. It helps you stay on top of all the projects and quizzes that you have and ensures you don’t forget anything. My favorite part of using a planner is the amount you can decorate it. You can make use of all the old stationary, stickers, markers and highlighters you have to jazz up and personalize your planner. It can become more of a hobby than something you need to stress about.
If you don’t want to invest in a physical planner, you may want to go digital instead. Our phones have great apps that can help us organize. The calendar app is super user-friendly, and third-party apps like Planner Pro can be extremely useful as well!
A Post-It calendar is also a fun way to brighten up your room and help with planning. Natasha Chandel, an animation student said, “My Post-It calendar has really made things easier for me, and the amount of color in my room has increased. That makes me want to work even more. As visual learners, using color in every way possible can be very productive.”
Don’t Procrastinate: It’s very easy to assume that you have time later in the day to do your work. You might feel like there is the whole weekend ahead to finish that project. Eventually work will continue to pile up until there’s too much to do and too little time. An easy way to avoid this nightmare would be to space out the amount of work you have. Work bit by bit and and invest a little time every day into your work so you don’t have to do it all at once. It’s important to prioritize and figure out what’s more important in terms of things that need to get done.
Meet with advisors and professors: SCAD, and most other colleges, provide help during office hours through advisors. As students, we should take advantage of this. Professors and advisors have specifically allotted a time in their busy day for us to go and bug them with questions about assignments. Make appointments, visit them and ask everything and anything starting from “Does my project look good?” to “I need a job. Help.” This will help you get an idea of what the professor is expecting for their assignment or your advisor can tell you what it’s like in the industry.
Little steps like these can go a long way. It can increase your GPA, help you get valuable experience and give you the edge you need to get ahead of the competition.
P.S. – Always remember to check your email.
