Studying at college
Ciao!
I know, I know... Summer has just started and here I am trying to give you tips on adjusting to college academics. Hear me out though, the more you know the better you’ll be able to adjust!
As I’m sure you know, knowing how to study is very personal and takes a lot of individual trial and error. Through the many years of studying I found that what works for me is a quiet space with little to no distraction. So, when I first got to Smith I was keeping my eyes peeled for places like that. Luckily for us students Smith has a super helpful link where you can find study spaces based on your individual needs. This link has been incredibly useful for me throughout my time at Smith as it has allowed me to fully take advantage of the study spaces around campus. Check it out below!
https://smithscape.smith.edu/smith/
As a humanities major most of my work is readings and writing papers. What I didn’t expect when I got to Smith was the sheer volume of readings set on a regular basis. I wish I had known this beforehand so that the shock value was taken away. If you are a potential humanities major; don’t fret! Adjusting to the readings takes time but you’ll quickly learn that you are not expected to be able to regurgitate all the facts and figures from these readings instead you are really only expected to know the general gist of things. One of the things I found incredibly helpful throughout these last two semesters was creating a Google Doc for each subject that had a large volume of readings. For each reading I would write:
Author Date Published Main Argument Main Supporting Evidence
This way at the end of the semester when it came to writing my final papers I had a log of all the readings I had done throughout the semester and I was able to find pretty much all the evidence I needed to write them! This also came in incredibly handy during class when we were discussing readings.
If you’re concerned about the amount of work college is I promise - it’s not as bad as you think. You are going to get used to it quicker than you think! Before you know it, you’ll forget you that you ever studied any other way.
For now though, enjoy your summer!
-- Giulia ‘22
Enjoy this photo of me after I finished my final paper of my spring semester! This folks is what pure joy looks like.