Where did semester one go? Without wishing to resort to clich\u00e9, time has genuinely flown by. My friends and tutor group are so familiar now, it feels as if I\u2019ve known them for years\u2026 it\u2019s so strange to think I\u2019ve known them for less than four months! JumpStart (programme for ECS students during freshers\u2019 week) is now just a hazy memory in a brain that\u2019s being rapidly filled up.<\/p>\n
Anyway, instead of just rambling on, I\u2019ll give you a quick list of \u201ctry to dos\u201d and \u201ctry not to dos\u201d based on the mistakes I\u2019ve made, or that I\u2019ve noticed friends making;<\/p>\n
First week<\/strong> Societies<\/strong> Work<\/strong> Where did semester one go? Without wishing to resort to clich\u00e9, time has genuinely flown by. My friends and tutor group are so familiar now, it feels as if I\u2019ve known them for years\u2026 it\u2019s so strange to think I\u2019ve known them for less than four months! JumpStart (programme for ECS students during freshers\u2019 week) is now just a hazy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33312,33311],"tags":[98634,26612,428282,431129,65,74],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-in-southampton","category-southampton-university-life","tag-ecs","tag-freshers-week","tag-jumpstart","tag-semester-one","tag-southampton","tag-tips","column","twocol"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3BSCk-ae","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1495,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2022 Do try and get to know Southampton and the University. Find out which buses take you where (if it has a \u201cC\u201d at the end, it\u2019s going into town)*, get the phone number of a local taxi company, and find out where your laundry room is.
\n\u2022 Do say hello to everyone in your corridor, halls and course. Don\u2019t be nervous, they\u2019re probably just as scared as you\u2026 one of them may be a new best friend!<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Do try and join societies. Half of the university experience is the exciting social life, so it\u2019d be a mistake to miss out on that, even if you\u2019re shy or unadventurous.
\n\u2022 Don\u2019t go crazy joining societies. I definitely made that mistake, and most of them fell through, as I was terrible at managing my time. By all means try loads out, but you get more out of being a dedicated member of a couple of societies than occasionally joining in with many.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Do take good notes during lectures \u2013 and review them afterwards. I know personally, that writing during a lecture helps me engage properly, and avoid falling asleep. Additionally, it really helps when it comes to revision for exams.
\n\u2022 Do not leave work to the last minute \u2013 it really won\u2019t do you any favours. It can be really hard to find the motivation when sitting in front of a blank new project in Eclipse, but the sooner you start, the sooner you finish. Remember, it\u2019ll always take longer than you think it will, without fail. Plus, it\u2019s great to be able to have a pint at The Stags\u2019 Head while others are slaving away into the night at their coursework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"