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Starting a New School Year Successfully

Starting a New School Year Successfully
9/16/2011
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Angela Andaloro

September is the perfect time for a new academic start. There are so many opportunities ahead of you, regardless of what may have happened the year before. Many of us have felt the fear of what looms ahead and discouragement that goes along with having a bad semester. It can be very hard to succeed when you feel like you’ve already failed but with the right strategies and, more importantly, the right mindset, you’re closer to a stellar GPA than you think.

Start strong. Remember when you were in elementary school and the first day of school meant all new notebooks, pens and pencils? You were actually excited to jump right in! College shouldn’t be any different: You might be trading those notebooks for a MacBook but you can still get excited about a new year!

Get organized. We all know how it feels for midterm week to hit and have to search through mountains of papers to find your notes from the first month of class. Don’t be that student! Keep everything organized in the way which works best for you and keep up with it as the semester goes along. This makes studying a little easier (you’ll always know where everything is) and can help give your grades a boost.

Ask questions. Professors have email addresses and office hours for a reason: If you don’t feel comfortable asking questions in class, take the time to do so outside of class. Your grades reflect the amount of effort you put into them, so be sure to do your part – before, during and after class.

A college workload can be a stressful thing to deal with without a good work ethic and the right attitude. You can’t throw these traits in your cart along with your school supplies, though...and they don’t come cheap either! Do the best you can do and if you find something isn't working, it’s never too late to make a change.

Angela Andaloro is a junior at Pace University’s New York City campus, where she is double majoring in communication studies and English. Like most things in New York City, her life and college experience is far from typical – she commutes to school from her home in Flushing and took nearly a semester’s worth of classes online – but she still likes to hang out with friends, go to part

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