How to Get a First Class?
Whether you like it or not, you made it to Warwick University. This means that you have achieved above-average grades, and have found somewhat of a successful studying technique.
But the problem with university is that lessons are not as structured as it was in high school. It is much more independent and open, which easily cuts out the people who struggle to adapt, or have been relying on expensive tuition centres.
This is why I embarked on the journey - a rather awkward one - to ask each and every person I know, what grade they got for university, and talked to the first class honours achievers. So for the sake of all the friends I have lost because I replied to their texts with “I don’t care. I only need you if you got a first class”, please read this article on how to get a first class.
#1 Do I need an iPad?
Look - you might have survived high school with a laptop that can barely run Google Chrome. But in university, I would argue that an iPad is rather essential for STEM subjects. It is practically going through life on ‘easy mode’. This is because it’s much easier to directly annotate onto the PDFs and write equations or things that are ‘not typeable’.
For humanities subjects, I would say it is not as essential. But having the apple pen that you can use alongside Microsoft OneNote and drawing out economics graphs or mind maps can play a big role.
You can buy an iPad for a student discount on UniDays.
But is it essential? If you do not get an iPad, would you fail university? No. I have seen people go through the whole year relying on pen and paper and still get above 80 for a STEM degree. I don’t own an iPad either. But I would say an investment in an iPad can make a huge difference in terms of how long you have to study.
My recommendation: Go through the first few weeks without an iPad. If you find that you will benefit from an iPad, get it. Suffice to say, 99% of iPad users never go back to pen and paper!
#2 Lectures and their recordings
University learning, for the most part, is separated into pre-recorded lectures, in-person lectures and seminars. Some degrees would have things like lab or practice classes sort of stuff, but I’ll categorise those things under ‘seminars’.
In terms of in-person lectures, all lectures are recorded. In-person lectures differ from pre-recorded lectures in that it tends to be less content heavy, but rather aims to provide a general summary of what the week is about. Some adaptive lecturers even go to the extent of going in more depth to aspects they noticed students struggled with in seminars.
Do not skip lectures:
Lecturers that deliver the lecture tend to be the ones that set your exams, and lectures are your only form of interaction with them. Listening to their lectures help you get an idea of what they find important in the module, which might differ from the opinion of your seminar tutors.
It forces you to keep up with your classes. The reason why most people fail in university is that they fall behind and then struggle to keep up.
The question then comes - should you attend them physically?
My opinion is simple on this front: watch your lectures online if you prioritise time-efficiency. Show up in person if you lack motivation.
Many people prefer to do the former. There are a couple of reasons why some students are such avid proponents of watching the recorded version of live lectures.
You can play it at 1.5x or 2x speed (maybe even 3x if you download a chrome extension). Trust me when I tell you that some lecturers are extremely slow talkers.
You can pause the video at any point to give yourself extra time to digest information, take notes or to screenshot stuff to paste into your online notes. With in-person lectures, once you miss it, it’s gone. Don’t overestimate your dedication to the course - you will not be searching for the recorded version just to fill in that blank section you missed.
Bonus if you have a really high opinion of yourself and think you already know everything: you can skip parts of the lecture that are dull or repetitive.
#3 Asynchronous Material - the pre-recorded stuff
Always do the asynchronous material for your modules. If there is a pre-recorded lecture you need to watch before class - do it. If there is a worksheet - do it. If there is a required reading list - read it.
The most common response you hear tends to be - ‘there is way too much work. It is impossible to finish it.’ Truth be told, it is probably true, which is why I propose this method that most top scorers use:
It is more important to know a bit of everything than to know everything in term time.
What does this mean? It is not expected of you to fully grasp all the concepts that you are supposed to know that week. Most lecturers do not expect you to be able to do that. What is more important is that you are aware of what you have to learn that week and learn it to the best of your ability. The reason for this gets more obvious when we start talking about module structures in the later parts.
My recommendation: set a time limit. Whenever I prepare for my politics modules, I would have a bunch of readings to go through. I set myself a time limit of two hours, and tell myself I will read everything in those two hours, and if I have more time I can go through the stuff I didn’t really understand in my first read. Note down the things you did not understand as these can be useful questions for your seminars or your own research in the future.
#4 Seminars // Smaller Group Stuff
In university, there are seminars or practicals and all that sort of thing. The first piece of advice I have before even talking about how to utilise them is that if you can register for them, be there the minute registration opens.
You can sometimes choose the timings for these in-person classes (depending on your degree and module), and you should already be online on Tabula 10 minutes before it opens. This allows you to choose a module that best suits your preference so you can attend those seminars and focus for those classes.
Seminars are the most important aspect of university. This is where you get smaller group discussions and more academic support. Hence, it is essential you are prepared for these classes. But even if you did not do any preparation, attend them! Here are some reasons:
Your seminar tutor is your first point of contact when you struggle in a module. Your seminar tutor is not necessarily your lecturer for that module, and that is sometimes a good thing. But make sure you attend those seminars so they notice you.
Small classes - easy way to make friends. I cannot stress this enough. All my friends from my course came from my seminars.
It is one of the only places you can make sure your ideas are right/wrong. The problem in university is that you would very rarely have avenues to check your ideas to see if they are right or wrong. Seminars are one of the limited areas you get to do that.
For some courses, seminars are where they discuss the answers to pre-lecture materials, which they might not give the answer to later. So it is best if you can take down the notes and answers from seminars, especially since these might be the same questions that come out for your exams.
Basically. Seminars are very important, or anything that is similar to it. Go attend it.
#5 Advice and Feedback Hours
Imagine, just imagine, there is a 10-minute window where someone can dump the perfect answers for you, give you the answers to the unanswerable questions, and guide you through your most difficult problems. This is advice and feedback hours.
It is a time you can book with your seminar tutor or lecturer for 10 minutes to ask any questions or for help with anything you need for your module. You can ask about your essay plans to make sure you are on the right track, or ask for what to improve on. You can also ask about past paper questions you cannot solve.
Be proactive. Book those slots for your coursework. It makes a significant impact on your grade, and everyone with a decent grade will fully utilise this resource. Even if you think your seminar tutor hates you, or does not remember you, just go!
Make sure you have prepared some questions or material beforehand before booking the time slot. The more prepared you are, the better they can help you!
#6 Structuring a Life
I do not care if you use Google Calendar, some weird notes app, or are still stuck in the 2014 bullet journaling phase, you have to get an application that helps you structure your life.
Make sure you are aware of each one of your lectures and seminars. You can import your calendar from Tabula using the ‘download to iCal’ function. You can also get the MyWarwick App to get notifications about your classes and exams. Add deadlines to your calendars or whatever app you use.
The reason why this is important is that unlike high school, you need some sort of structure in your life because university is chaotic and messy, to say the least. Please just get an app to structure your life somehow. I honestly do not care what you use. But my recommendation? Good old google calendar has never failed me.
#7 Coursework
If you did the international baccalaureate, remember internal assessments? Of course you do, how could you forget! You’re pretty much set for university, skip this section while I educate the less intelligent parts of society.
So for most pre-university programs, you will be unfamiliar with the concept of coursework. Here is the truth - no matter what I tell you, you will not believe me until you try it yourself and realise you made a mistake and underestimated the task. Here is my advice:
Start early. Like four weeks earlier if possible. Make a plan - ask for feedback - get a first draft - ask for advice - and then have a final draft. I don’t care what your degree is, make sure you start early so you have time to adjust and improve.
But the truth is, you are going to procrastinate until the very last moment. So when you fail your first coursework, remember this: I told you so. Now start early next time! Make sure you have enough time to get feedback and do it all over again. It’s always better to submit early than to submit late.
#8 Group Projects
This is specific to your course, as not all courses have this. Some of your seniors might disagree with me, but I think they are absolutely wrong on this front. Not all your teammates are going to be helpful, some will never contribute to group projects. But there will always be a few that want to contribute! You should never go into a group project with the mentality that ‘my group will be useless’.
The reason I say this is because a lot of people tend to alienate their group members too quickly and end up having to do the entire project themselves. Group projects are the best way to train your social skills, and learn how to work in a team of people you are not familiar with. Be friendly, arrange physical meetings to know each other, and hold each other accountable!
I don’t have much else to say on this, other than successful students almost never complain about their groups, because they know how to interact and allocate work accordingly. Just do not be the freeloader that everyone hates.
#9 Exam Strategies!
There are two types of first class graduates. First, is the type that studies because of academic interest and that they honestly enjoy their degree. If you are the former, you do not really need to worry about your exams. The second is the kiasu tryhard that came from Raffles College Singapore.
So how do you strategise for exams? First of all, you need to understand the nature of your exam. There is one key question you must ask:
Do I need to study for everything? If not, how much must I study for?
Here is an example. For my mathematics module, I need to know the whole module since all questions can come out. There is no easy way out of that, but to sit and grind each week.
However, for my politics module, I only have to write 2 essays from a list of 12. The list of 12 can come from 18 possible topics. Therefore, mathematically, I only need to study 8 topics perfectly to get full marks
Most modules are going to be like this, even in STEM degrees. They do not expect you to know everything, and you can skip some topics without losing any marks. Be strategic about how much you need to study, and which topic you do not want to study. This is why I recommended earlier to read through everything and keep on top of your classes. This is because you will be aware of what is the easiest or what you would enjoy studying most.
This gets to another important point - do I study what I enjoy or what is easiest?
All first class graduates study what they enjoy most. There is a simple reason for this - you are more likely to remember things you enjoy and go beyond the syllabus. The problem with studying something easy is that someone else would do the same thing, which will lead to very similar essays, making it harder to show your ‘uniqueness’, which tends to be what defines a first class graduate.
Therefore, when it comes to exam season. Study what you have to. Not everything. This isn’t high school.
#10 Mental Health and all that cute stuff
The Asian mentality is that mental health is overrated and a toxic work mindset is most important. That is not healthy nor sustainable. But I want to give you my honest opinion on this.
The thing about people who get first class degrees is that they do not let others dictate their lifestyle. I have friends that sleep at 12am, I have friends that party till 4am, I am writing this article at 6am after a night out.
The art of this is that you need to find a lifestyle that you are comfortable with. Be aware of your health. If you are not the type of person that can be awake for over 50 hours and still be completely functional - don’t do it! If you are the type that only needs to eat one meal a day and it does not affect your health, go ahead!
Find something that works for you that you can feel happy about. Take care of your mental health. If you are struggling, the Warwick Wellbeing centre is a great point of contact. Or if you wish to talk to someone that is more your age, you can come meet some friends through our WAC family program! Because a wise blue creature once told me - ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind.
Thanks for reading this extremely long article. This is unfortunately the end of the Fresher Series for the 2022 batch. Look out for our next articles - and I’ll see all of you freshers real soon!
