I'm Ren Lou, I'm a third year Bio Science major. >> So my name is Thao, I am fourth year student at UCI, I'm majoring in International Studies & Public Health Policy. >> My name is Duncan Chan, and I'm a fourth year right now, and I studied Aerospace Engineering. >> Hi I'm Angela, I'm a second year of this admission at UCI. >> I'm Louisa, I'm a fourth year Political Science major & Urban Planning and Public Policy, [LAUGH] miners. >> Hello, my name is Matthew, I'm a fourth year student at UCI. I'm studying Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and Operations And Management. I guess one thing about me I'm actually getting ready to graduate in about a week or so. So time is ticking but I'm excited, [LAUGH] >> In high school it's mostly assignment based. You're doing a lot of assignments. The exams don't have as much weight to them in college. They do give you assignments but there's very little I guess grade value to those. So it's mostly for your own benefit. >> I would say be adaptable. Not all of the ways that you studied and the ways that you learned material, will be translatable from high school to know. It's completely different and you need to be okay with changing the way that you study, changing the way you interact with teachers and peers to do the best that you can. >> Stay focused, definitely coming into college. It can be hard because all of a sudden you have so much freedom. So throughout college just really focus on keeping your priorities straight. What are your academic goals? What are your your social goals? What are your professional goals? Keep all of those goals and minds and make sure that you're consistently working towards each of those. But then at the same time, don't stress out. Enjoy yourself because it's going to go fast. I'm graduating in a week, it went very fast. Really take the time to get to know as many people as you can. Try not to, depends on your personality but try not to, just always be studying. Go out and meet people, go out and people in your classes, talk to your professors, join clubs, get involved, because t that's when you really get the most of your college experience. >> Well so participation is very important, especially in smaller classes, sometimes there isn't enough time for participation and that's why you have smaller discussion, breakout sessions with the TA. What I actually see a lot of students doing because we're so shy, [LAUGH] a lot of professors stay after class. And there's always a line coming from the professors, podium of students asking questions one on one. That's always an option of if you're nervous to raise your hand. >> That professor does expect at least a little bit of participation from at least a couple of people. So sometimes he might ask a question and then the brave people that in the class will speak out for the recipe. >> So then I found it all a lot of the class that I'm very interested in and I talk in the class, I do really well. But if I'm just man, I just want to get this class over with and I don't do very well in them. Yeah, so it's more of kind of, are you interested in the material or not? >> When you're in a closer setting with 20 to 25 students, the participation becomes increasingly more important. And it didn't matter whether it was a bio class, chemistry writing or Chicano studies. All of these, once you get into more closed, in intimate setting of a discussion room or smaller classroom participation and collaboration where always emphasized. The best thing to do would be to actively pay attention in class no matter what. And if you can't get all the notes down, I think that's not the biggest deal in the world, especially if the classes are more geared to asking a lot of questions in the lecture. As long as you can answer the questions and you can have a basic understanding, usually you'll be okay. Not really in the big lecture halls now, [LAUGH] I would- >> Yeah. >> Why not? >> Definitely done that in my stats class. I've definitely been, no, I didn't understand like where you got that number from. Can you do that again? >> Professors and TA's most office hours and it's just a set time every week, that they're available to meet with students. And it's for you to ask any questions about the material, the exams, technical questions. And a lot of times just to get to know your professor because you see a is a research university and a lot of students want to do research through the school or get other internships and opportunities through their professors. >> A lot of people don't really utilized office hours because it's kind of scary having to talk to professor or TA one on one. But it's definitely helpful, especially if you're falling behind and then, yeah, they can really explain something that aren't gone through in detail in class. >> I would say at least go once every quarter to your office hours, to see whether it's to see whether it's something that's worth doing for you. >> If I do have a question for a professor, normally I would just ask them right after class, when the class is over, I'll just walk up to them and ask them that question. because normally it's a quick question, it can be answered just right there instead of having a good office hour. But if you if you have a question that's maybe a little bit bigger or you're struggling on a certain concepts or problem, whether it's an assignment or homework then definitely office hours are actually very helpful. You can go to office hours to even just talk to your professor, get to know them because that's important too if you're looking to build a connection and build a network with their professors. And try to start early. Even if it's casual studying, but if you're starting early then you're getting your brain churning about about whatever the subject is. So if you're able to start early and give yourself a game plan. If I have a test that's two weeks from now then maybe by the end of this week I will cover this amount of material and make sure I know it really well. And then by the end of next week, I'm going to cover everything and then a couple days before the test, I'm going to review all the material. Study with other people, that's always really helpful too. If you're able to study with someone that is studying the same material or might not know the material, you can actually teach them material which actually really helps with your own learning, if you're able to teach it to someone else. The biggest thing about studying is trying to get to a point where you can understand it well enough to teach someone. Maybe not to the same extent where your professor or someone in that same level can teach, but a lot of people don't really know what they don't know unless they are in a similar position. And then if it works out then you know you're in the right track. >> Access all the resources you have as much as possible, because UCI especially give you a lot of resources. And there's clubs on campus that are willing to help, everything is free and you should reach out and get those help as soon as possible. >> because my advice would be just find a good balance between school life and personal life. Since I'm suing coming all the way here, you don't want to just drown yourself in school, or you also want to let go have fun and just really make the most out of your college experience here. >> And the hardest thing has to be everything that you're expected to do outside of just being a student. So for example, people expect you to learn about housing or paying for stuff. They expect you to just learn about that kind of stuff when you come to college. And then other than that, no one really expects professors to teach about internships or job opportunities. So a lot of that you just have to figure out on your own. And I think that's the most difficult part because you always hear about people starting these things, but you don't really have a direction. >> The most difficult thing is to try to become more well rounded when you're on campus. It's really easy to, I guess, box up and become really engulfed in what you're learning, and if you aren't getting to really discover a lot of things about yourself. So it's really important to, I think, take time to go to the beach, [LAUGH]
