5 End of Semester Tasks for Engineering Students
Can you believe the semester is already winding down?! I don’t know about you, but it seems like it just started to me. It’s hard to stay focused at this point, but there are a few tasks you should do before heading out of town.
Organize your class materials
Finals are coming up! Get your course materials together and organized so you can use them to study. If you skipped out on class when assignments, projects, or exams were handed back, go get those assignments.
Having these is not only good for reviewing but it’s also great for creating your own little engineering library. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone back to things I did in my undergrad days.
Always keep your notes and graded papers. You never know when you might want them in the future.
Prep for finals
End of the semester means the dreaded final exam week. This week is the worst one of the semester. So much to study, so little time. Make life easier on yourself and just get started now.
No one wants to start early but prepping for finals early is one of the best things you can do.
You’ll be able to remember the material better and study in a more relaxed mode if you don’t cram everything in at the end. Before you start studying, come up with a plan.
Block off time during the week so you have set times to review notes, old assignments, etc. Make sure you schedule in study breaks though.
You don’t want to get burned out too soon!
Review your schedule for the upcoming semester
It might not seem important but reviewing your courses for the next semester needs to be done. Why?
1) During registration, courses you needed may have been full. Those courses may now have seats available.
2) Instructors sometimes change before the start of the next semester. You don’t want to get stuck with the worst instructor in town if you can avoid it.
3) You may need to reevaluate the course load you picked out earlier. Do you still think you can handle taking 19 hours next semester? If not, reduce those hours.
Make sure your finances are in order
I see it every semester. Students register for next semester’s classes and then a few months later they get dropped for non-payment of tuition. Their seats get taken and then they have no classes. It’s a bad situation.
For many of these students, they don’t realize they have unpaid tuition or financial aid issues. Save yourself a potential nightmare, check out your account and make sure everything is in order.
Rentals
Did you rent all your textbooks? If so, make sure you know which ones need to go back and what the return deadline is.
This will prevent any fees. Better to figure it out now instead of scrambling after the semester ends.
The break is almost here…
You worked hard this semester and deserve the break that’s coming. Before you totally checkout though spend some time on these tasks. You’ll be glad you did! Good luck on finals!
