How to Prepare For The Next Semester Over Winter Break

Does anyone else feel like the fall semester flew by? No? Yeah, me too. I was just about done with school by the time finals came around.

Now that the holidays are over, you might want to start thinking about your spring semester. I know, I know who wants to think about school during break? Trust me, you don’t want to wish you had prepared yourself earlier when school resumes. Here are a couple ways you can prepare for the spring semester over winter break.

Register for classes if you haven't already

Do not wait for the last minute! As soon as registration opens, make sure you pick out your classes as soon as possible. At my school registration for the spring semester opened in early November and this gal made sure to register super early. This is so important because I got to pick out the best professors and the best class times/days that I wanted. 

You definitely don’t want to wait too long and end up having to pick classes that are either too early or too late for you. Sometimes when you are lucky enough to find a class that you want, you have to get on the waiting list and play the waiting game which is not fun.

Registering for your classes early will definitely help you plan your schedule so nothing overlaps. If you have other obligations, you’ll already know what days and times you are going to be free so you can freely take care of your other obligations.

Reflect on your fall semester

If you had goals for the fall semester, revisit them and check out how you did. Are you happy with how your semester went? What went right and what do you need to improve on? Are you content with the grades you got? How much did you procrastinate? These are the type of questions you need to think about so you can make some changes next semester.

Prepare for your upcoming classes

I mostly do this for classes that I know I’m going to struggle in (i.e. Math). Right now I’m reading and doing a couple exercises from my math textbook for next semester. It’s just to get me a little bit familiar with the material until my professor is able to further teach it in class. This is really helpful because when you get to class, you’re not caught off guard. Even though you don’t know the material that well yet, you have an idea of what it’s about.

Buy your textbooks

Since you have a little bit of time on your hands before school starts, why not take advantage of this to dig up the internet to find the best prices for your textbooks. When you buy your books at the beginning of the semester, you probably just go over to your school’s book store, which is super overpriced. Textbooks are really expensive as it is, so I always make sure to look at multiple websites to compare prices and ultimately find a cheaper option. Also by buying your textbooks early, you get to be that kid professors admire for coming to class prepared and ready to learn. That will totally put you on the professor’s good side.

Often times if you take the time to ask, some professors will flat out let you know that you don’t need to buy the recommended textbook for the class. That’s always nice to hear because who doesn’t want to save that money for something else? I know I do!

Set goals for the next semester

You can use your reflections from the previous semester to set goals about the upcoming one. Whatever didn’t quite work out for you during the fall, you can make some adjustments in the spring.

For me, I love planners but I can’t seem to use them consistently to save my life. I just forget to write in my planner a lot and then I gradually use it less and less as the year progresses. I definitely improved on this last semester, but I’m not quite there yet. So, this will absolutely be in goals for the spring.

Have Fun!

It’s called winter break because you need to do exactly that, take a break. You just finished what I assume was a pretty busy fall semester, and you certainly need to take a breather. Is there a book you’ve been dying to read but haven’t had the time to do so? If you’re behind on your favorite show, do catch up! I’ve been binge watching Criminal Minds and documentaries on Netflix like no man’s business.

                                                        Ta-ta for now,
                                                 -Yvanne

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