Getting a head start
The new academic year is fast-approaching. It will be unlike other years, in the sense that you will surely experience a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning (and will be bombarded by various buzzwords like these to describe your new reality).
What can you do today to better prepare for the new academic year? What’s the best way to get some sort of head start and set yourself up for a year of high-level academic performance?
Before dispensing some advice, a disclaimer: if you have not yet managed to get some proper rest, but have instead been juggling summer internships, resits and other obligations, now would be a good time to do so. Burnout must be avoided at all costs and your health should be your priority.
If you’ve had a restful summer break, here are a few things you can do to better prepare for the new year:
A) Reread all the essays you wrote last year, both formative and summative. The goal here is to focus on the feedback you received from your course leaders. What did you consistently do well? About what where you frequently “criticised”? Were you told you need to be more argumentative and less descriptive? That you need to state your argument in the introduction to your essay? That you need to read more broadly and cite more secondary sources? Jot all of this feedback down, group the comments together according to what they were about and always read this note before writing new essays this year. Your goal should be to...make new mistakes this year and not repeat the old ones. At some point, the only way forward will be for your writing to improve!
B) If possible, buy the main textbook for at least one of your courses. By main textbook, I mean the one flagged as such in your syllabus. If the latter has not yet been sent to you, email your course leader to ask. Then, read all the introductory chapters of said textbook. The familiarity you will acquire with the material will relieve some of the start-of-term stress you’ll probably feel and stand you in good stead.
C) Email all the course leaders that will be teaching you this year and ask them what you could do to better prepare for their course. I assume that some of them will have taught you before, so they might give you personalised recommendations. In any case, they are the ones that know how they teach their course and are thus best-placed to advice you. Plus, only a few of your fellow students will email them to ask for such advice, meaning that your proactive behaviour will not go unnoticed.
I hope this helps. Keep calm and carry on!