ESL Blogs

    Giving advice to any others seems tricky for me because I almost have nothing to share :). But, I’ll do my best working on this writing challenge and fortunately, I’ve just got a nice inspiration for this post. I am an eleventh grade student in college now and I believe that I have already been experienced to advise the new undergraduates (narcissistic mode on, do not laugh, please ;)

    Okay, for those who have already been the new undergraduates in college, there are a few things you need to keep in your mind. Do not regret if you have the bad consequences because you do not follow them. You will only get yourself to blame if it happens. Here they are:

1. Do not ignore the first meeting. Some lecturers appraise those who attend the first meeting and those who do not. Sometimes, they will mark you as “stubborn student ever” if you ignore the first meeting. An old saying says “a first meeting will make the everlasting impression”. So, do not ignore it, okay. 

2. Be on time. This is very important to you. It will give you several advantages as follows:   

a. You will have the chance to choose any seat you like because you come earlier than any others.

b. You will have the chance to prepare yourself dealing with the lesson. There is so much EFL research states that students need at least ten till fiveteen minutes to prepare theirselves, so that they are ready to learn and acquire the new knowledge.

c.You will not be scolded for being late by your beloved lecturer (absolutely).

3. Do not be a bad liar. What I mean is when you’re late, do not make the boring reasons or excuses like traffic jam, oversleep, playing video games till dead of night or any others. The lecturer will mark you (again) and sometimes it will affect your final score later on. Believe me, that’s not a good idea.

4. Do your paper or assignment as soon as possible. Whenever you get lovely assignments from your lecturers, make sure you do it long time before the deadline. It will be complicated if the deadline is tomorrow morning, and you’ve just started to do it at night before tomorrow. So, use your time wisely.

5. Make your paper or assignment as good as possible. You need to make it different with any others have. Some lecturers will give additional point if they consider that your paper is “good looking”. A few friends of mine always make a colorful cover with nice picture for their papers. As a result, they got A score, whereas I got only B. I wish I had followed the same way. However, do not too focus on the appearance, because even though your own is “good looking”, but not scientific, do not expect getting a good score or point.

6. Always prepare the slide show for your presentation. When you need to present something in front of the class, do not forget to make Power Point slide, even though you are not asked to make it by your lecturer. Your presentation will be very nice, and so will your score.  

7. Never miss every single assignment. It means you need to do every given assignment from your lecturer and hand it in. I had ever got C, and even the worst one (E), because I forgot submitting one assignment only. I was scolded by my lecturer at the time. She says,” You’re so obstinate, Achan. Your mid term and final exam score were excellent ones, but you had one assignment left. You’re supposed to get A, but you disappoint me. I’m sorry, I can only give you C”. Uh, I wish I had handed it in at the time.  

8. Try to make friend with lecturers. If you befriend them, sometimes they will give you good scores when you are programming their lesson or subject. Trust me, it works.  

9. Learn the lecturers’ characteristic in giving the exam. It will help you to figure out what kind of questions will be given at the test. If you succeed, you will be able to answer the questions easily. Do not forget to learn before the exam as well, okay.

10. Amuse yourself is very important. When you have already been an undergraduate, boredom is your greatest enemy. An undergraduate can be bored easily because he or she has the same activity to do every day. Thus, you need to be able to amuse yourself by going to the interesting spots, playing video games, visiting your friends, or even giving a gift to yourself.

    Yeah, finally, I am done. Thanks for reading, pals. Hopefully, this little advice is useful for you.

REGARDS

ACHAN MALAKA