HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE STUDENT—DESPITE… WHATEVER.

For various reasons, I’ve been a student at UQAM for many years. Although I’ve never been diagnosed, I probably have some version of ADHD or something similar. There’s an H in there, that’s for sure. Nevertheless, over the years I’ve developed some maturity and I’ve figured out how to get through my many academic obligations despite my problems with adaptation, concentration and so on. I eventually succeeded in getting things done in time and with a level of quality of which I’m quite proud.

What’s the secret? I don’t know if there is one. I do have 5 strategies that worked for me, and I’d like to share these with you. My strategies may not work for everyone, but they’re pretty general and adaptable. It’s worth a shot!

1.     Use Word and its corrector functions

As an UQAM student, you are allowed to download Word software for free on your computer for the duration of your studies. For your English studies, just set the computer to the English language in Révisions and there you go! You’ll have squiggly red lines appearing under spelling errors and blue squiggly lines appearing under syntactic errors. To fix them, simply right click on them to see your options. There’s no excuse for typos anymore!

2.     Get (and stay) organized!

The secret to any good work is to plan it out first. For example, I have no fewer than a million ideas going through my head at any one time, so I forget things; I get distracted. My secret: I write a to-do list. I can make one, or ten—it doesn’t matter. I just do what is on my list. It’s so satisfying to check something off the list after I’ve done it. I make them colorful, put them in sight, add exclamation points and lots of symbols. Moreover, when I am doing the task, I put on some music and I alternate tasks to keep my brain interested and focused!

Decide how it works for you. Maybe assign yourself a quiet and pleasant space. Set up a likable ambiance and make it work. Establish a method to your work: 5-hours at the library with people around? 45-minutes in your room, watching 2 streaming video episodes and reading for 30 minutes? Whatever. Just stick to it. You can allow yourself to procrastinate (a bit). It’s all about balance! Just promise yourself to add some stability/routine to your assignments. It’s university—and life too!

3.     Pay attention to the quality of your work.

Giving depth to your work is not about using big, fancy words. It’s all about how well your ideas are constructed and shared. There are reasons why we establish standards to present in oral and written form—we want people to understand us! Make the effort it takes to obtain the information that you need. Check online, search the World Wide Web, Google things like, “academic assignment outline”, “business report model”, “oral presentation”, “how to write a paragraph”, etc. or just ask your teachers for help. It’s not about being overly formal; it’s about being able to respect standards.

4.     Oral presentation – Relax, know your stuff, write it down and rehearse!

There is only one way to nail your oral presentations. First, try to chill out! It’s not judgement day. Try not to worry about how other classmates see you. (They are often thinking about their own presentations.) Second, know your topic. For that, you’ll need to do some research. Read and write down everything you can about your topic. If you forget, you can always improvise on what you remember. Organize your ideas, (wink, wink)! Write what you want to say. (I remember stuff more easily when I write it down.) Try writing an order to present the elements of your talk. You should rehearse—don’t forget to rehearse! NB: Bring notes with key words to your presentation! Reading directly off of a full text is not going to impress anyone. (And don’t forget to rehearse!)

5.     Check your emails regularly

I don’t know about other universities, but at UQAM, it is written (somewhere) that it’s an obligation for students to consult their emails regularly. We are in the internet communications era. Most instructors will communicate via your student email. Furthermore, messages sent to you on Moodle will be redirected to your email. (The C.L.I.C communicates this way!) So, check your emails at least once a day. You should also think of linking your student email to your personal email, it’s pretty easy to do.

Boom! These are 5 easy strategies that you should definitely consider for your studies. You are here to learn, and it helps to learn HOW to learn. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. We’re all smart in our own way. We just learn differently. You are here and you can do this!

Yves Gauthier

English certificate and Bachelor of Arts student

The C.L.I.C. project