EWS Freshers' Advice - The Brainstorm
In the case of the 'First Semester IUP Students' question, ideas for advice that came up on almost every brainstorm sheet were... Be organized - Be an active student - Balance work and play - Be open minded - Keep healthy - Be honest - Be polite - Join Organisations - Make new friends. Good advice, undoubtedly, but a bit predictable and dull!
Fortunately, thanks to the brainstorms we did last week we came up with some attention grabbing bits of advice that we can use for our article to make it interesting and thought provoking. Take a look. We can start each of the nine or ten paragraphs with a funny or idiosyncratic 'point' but then explain the kind of advice that it refers to.
What practical and personal advice
would you give to students starting
their first semester with IUP?
Remember where you parked your motorbike.
Be organised. Take responsibility. Know where you are supposed to be. Know when you must complete tasks. Be professional. Don't walk around in a daze!
Stop looking at the clock.
Don't be passive and lazy. Get involved in classes. Be active. Ask and answer questions. Grab opportunities. Don't see your lectures as things you simply have to endure.
Find a good coffee place.
Balance your work with times of relaxation and recreation. Know how to relieve your stress. Find places to hang out with friends. Give yourself breaks. Enjoy being busy, but also enjoy doing little or nothing sometimes!
Do not be afraid to be wrong.
Be open minded. Explore your own opinions. Test them. Listen to others. Admit you have doubts. Admit you have changed your mind. Do your best but don't be a perfectionist if it stresses you out or makes you unable to work.
Don’t drink the tap water.
Don't do things that are unhealthy for you. Get enough sleep. Eat properly and regularly. Don't drive yourself too hard. Don't think that you can survive for 4 months on instant noodles. Exchange students should also beware of hidden threats to your health in this new environment... like the tap water! [This advice is for exchange students.]
Try random things with new friends.
This is a time to try new things, be adventurous, broaden your horizons, spread your wings etc. Remember that some of the people you get to know are going to be lifelong friends; others won't be. Find out who you are, who you like, and what you like to do.
Don't sign the attendance register for other people.
Be honest. Take responsibility for yourself. Be loyal to friends and help them when you can, but don't be compromised. Don't get into situations where you are doing things you feel uncomfortable with or that you know are not right.
Explore other faculties' canteens.
You are not just IUP. You are not just FEB. You are a member of UGM. Join organisations and clubs. Play sports. Take up new sports or hobbies. Make friends in other faculties. Broaden your horizons.
Don’t fall in love too easily.
Look after yourself emotionally. Be prepared to take a few knocks. Be prepared to take a few risks or to try new things. But don't jump in with both first when you are unsure. Learn who to trust a lot and who to trust less. Take everything at your own speed. If life knocks you down, get up again.
Eat at Binbon / Don't eat at Binbon.
You will be bombarded by conflicting advice, opinions, stories, pressures, personalities, choices, possibilities... make your own mind up ~ decide for yourself !! [Maybe Binbon doesn't exist anymore?]
Sound advice? Yes. Variety of issues? Yes. Authentic and practical? Yes. Conventional and serious approach? Not really. Interesting, idiosyncratic advice that attracts the attention of the reader? I reckon so. Mission accomplished!
Remember where you parked your motorbike. Yes. And please also know where you should and shouldn't park. It has happened to me two times that I parked my car in the car parking lot east of GSP, front of FEB (the second (behind) parking lot that is intended to be used by students, not the first (front) parking lot reserved only for lecturers) and when I returned there, the car was heavily blocked by motorcycles parking in the front of GSP. It was not just one or two motorcycles. There were a lot and it blocked, surrounded my car and even blocked the way out of the parking lot. If it was only one or two motorcycles, I could just move them a little bit and clear a path, but there were about 30 or more of them. I could not drive my car and I had to wait for a long time until the bikes moved away from there to be able to go home. This was just outrageous and frustrating. It was not just my car that was blocked, but many other people's too! Imagine, if you need to go home or go somewhere immediately because of very urgent reasons, and you can't drive your car or you can't even get in because your vehicle is completely blocked, how would it be? There was even a time when the entrance to the parking lot was completely blocked and filled with motorcycles parking there. That's just barbaric. Please don't do that. Don't make other people's life hard. Please park at the properly given parking spots. And remember where you parked your vehicles.
ReplyDeleteThe first advice that I would give which played an important role in building my first network in UGM, is to help someone during your on-day intake. It is unavoidable to communicate and socialize with others especially when your all on the same both with an uneasy feeling within you. After building your relationship or networks make sure you maintain it and keep up to date with them, whether they had gotten accepted or not, and if they didn’t make the cut, make sure you support them or give them heads on information regarding other university’s IUP selection test. I have a personal story in regards to this, it started at right after the ‘Leadership Group Discussion’ phase had finished and we were all in wait for our personal interviews. This person that had been in the same LGD course with me seem to had been feeling cold due to the temperature of the room, and I noticed which then led me to lend him my jacket. After having finished my 15’minutes interview I had waited for him at the selasar downstairs, the wait in fact hadn’t been that long, it had only been 5-7’minutes that past by before I saw him headed downstairs again. When he arrived at selasar, I asked him, “what did they ask you about, and what was your answer?”. He in response stated to me “they asked me what I was good at, and I responded with being good at english”. Deep down after thinking about his length of interview and the response he had given, I thought to myself “yeap he’s not getting in”. However I still maintain in contact with him through ‘Line’, I had shared information about other university to him due to feeling pity for him. Surprisingly, when it was the release date for whom had gotten acceptance, he too had been accepted, wow, and now I’m tight with him. This is the power of simply lending your jacket to someone.
ReplyDelete-Zain