If you thought starting your first year of college would be overwhelming, you’d be surprised to learn just how much more challenging it can get. Sure, we need all the help we can get when we’re young, innocent, and straight out of high school, yet it’s only in your final year that it starts to get serious.
You’re all grown up now and should be ready to handle the pressure of graduating, networking, and finding your place in the job market – but what if you’re not quite ready after all? To be a student is, after all, about more than just making it to those 8 am lectures.
With the last blissful time of being a student flying by so much quicker than the previous years, it seems unreasonable to expect any soon-to-be graduate to spend all their time reading for exams, though. Use these handy tips instead; they won’t make the future any less daunting, but at least you might be able to get those A’s.
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#1 Find time to relax
Fun and relaxation is the number one advice on this list, and it’s important that you prioritize it just as much. It’s not just because the workload will be much heavier than you’re used to, though, as the mere thought of only having a year left of proving ourselves can be stressful enough on its own, and many students will find it difficult to cope after a while.
Find time during the week to do whatever you want. While you might be telling yourself that you have to prepare for the rest of your life at all times, it really doesn’t make any sense to wear yourself out like that – a balanced lifestyle and enough sleep is key.
It just makes it a bit easier to keep your sanity and prioritize your work before it gets ahead of you, and the grades you’re working towards will be so much easier to achieve.
#2 Use management apps
When you’ve sorted your sleep pattern out and spent an hour on Netflix, it’s time to take another thing off your mind. Student life can be disorganized and even a bit messy at times, so make it easy on yourself by making use of technology; there is an abundance of Mac apps for students that you can take advantage of and finally get your life sorted out. They arm you with everything you need to appear smart and knowledgeable on those assignments, such as grammar-checks and calendars.
There’s a personal finance management app there too, by the way, so that you don’t drown in debt by the time you graduate.
#3 Apply for jobs months in advance
If you’re worried about the prospects of no longer being a student and having to figure out what on earth you’ll do next, it’s an excellent idea to apply for jobs a bit sooner. They take time getting back to you, sometimes even months, and having an offer up your sleeve will also give some peace of mind – just what you need for the big exams.
Give yourself a break regularly and remember that it’s OK not to know exactly what you’d like to do after graduating. Maybe you don’t even enjoy the field you go into, and that’s alright too; sometimes, things just happen when you get into the real world.
