[#BackToSchool] Get ready for university life

Looking forward to university life is always both exciting and nerve-racking. The five tips below might help to get you well prepared.

1. Check emails regularly

General information including daily class arrangements and application procedures from various departments of the university is often disseminated by emails. Checking emails on a regular basis can prevent missing important notices.

2. Take the initiative for yourself

There are no constraints in your university life. The professors and lecturers would not monitor your study progress nor arrange everything for you. Whether it is choosing a major, arranging a schedule, looking for an internship, or choosing your job, you should make your own decisions. You are advised to do some research in advance on your desired subject or career. Besides, you can search for information about your favourite subject or career talk and take the sharing of relevant people (such as graduates or senior personnel in the industry) as a reference so that you can get to know your study and career direction better.

3. Make good use of your spare time to rest, exercise and enrich yourself

Studying is not an easy task. Apart from working hard, you should also take enough time to rest and do simple physical exercises, such as jogging and rope jumping. Through exercises, you can relax and your body will release endorphins. Also, lectures usually don’t take up a whole day. If you have time after class, you can make good use of your spare time to add value to yourself, develop your interests, and even find a part-time job to make your life more fruitful and broaden your horizons.

4. Learn to deal with interpersonal relationships

University is the warm-up before society. Interpersonal relationships at this stage will be more complicated than that in secondary school. Having a good balance of time spent between your university mates and secondary school friends is essential. More importantly, it is also crucial to have a good relationship with your professors, lecturers and teaching assistants!

5. Choose a computer you need, not one you want

Classroom material is often available online only and most of the assignments need to be submitted on the e-platform. Thus, It is important to choose a suitable electronic device. To prevent waste of money, you should purchase your laptop according to your needs. If multimedia production is not included in the programme curriculum and paperwork is your daily routine, a laptop with basic internet surfing and word processing functions will be good enough. Yet, can tablets replace laptops? Sure thing. But it will be sacrificing functions for portability. A tablet is much lighter than a laptop but is relatively less capable of word processing and document handling. All in all, everyone has a different requirement for their computer, so spend your money where it is most needed!

Wish you the best of luck in your university life!