I was huddled in a tiny editing studio – in the room there was just a computer, climbing stress levels, and me. I frequently refreshed my email inbox and glanced constantly at the clock. The deadline for the final assignment of an important course was quickly approaching. And to make things worse, it was my final semester of university, so I couldn’t help but feel the pressure of actually graduating narrowing its sights in on me.

I had submitted plenty of papers just in the nick of time before, but this assignment was especially panic inducing. It was different from other deadlines because this was the first time I’d worked on a largescale final project with a partner who seemed to not give a single —-.

We were working together on an extensive research paper that was, for me, high priority. For my project partner however, it took a backseat behind work for his other courses. The work I’d received from him was far from perfect, but even worse, most of the work he was responsible for was still missing despite the fact it that should have been completed long before.

In the end, I pulled some strings and made sure I came away with a decent grade (I’ll tell you more about how I did that below).   

Whether you’re completing high school and need good enough grades to be accepted into the right university or you’re a post-secondary student striving for a goal GPA, being stressed sucks.  So, learning to avoid it and still meet (and destroy) all of your learning goals is important. While I can’t offer advice to avoid every ounce of school-related stress from your life, there are some steps you can take to make your student life a little easier and dodge some #realstudentproblems.

Actually set learning goals

In order to reach your goals, you have to have goals. At the beginning of each semester, take a look at your classes. Consider factors that could influence your academics: Do you know what to expect from each class or is the material completely new to you? How challenging is your courseload? How much time do you have to dedicate to your studies this semester? Use the information you have at the onset of the semester to set S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound) learning goals.

Ask for help

I recently wrote a piece called 7 Pieces of Advice For First Year College Students (anyone beginning their undergraduate studies this year may find it helpful). While I was writing that article I spoke with several friends of mine who had been through their first year of university at some point in time and had faced challenges in the process. Almost all of them mentioned asking for help as a super impactful way to make university life easier and significantly less stressful. Key people to ask for help: teachers, professors, lecturers, teaching assistants, students who have completed courses you are taking, classmates, tutors. Instructors make time to be available to help their students. Take advantage of this! During my undergrad, I learned firsthand that this was the easiest way to boost my grades on papers. On more than one occasion, I arrived at a professor’s or TA’s office hours, had them read a draft of my essay, and left with specific steps to take that would bump my paper entire letter grades. Asking for help works (in high school, too).

Manage your time

Even though this one is obvious, time management proves to be something that so many high school and university students find challenging. The trick is to find what works for you and stick to it. Are there apps on your phone or laptop that can help you schedule your days? Would a pen-and-paper planner be a good idea for you? Find your system and use it to balance your time appropriately – too many students struggle to balance school, social life, and sleep.

Sleep

Better academic performance and lower levels of stress are inextricably linked to healthy doses of sleep.

Organize group work

In high school and in university, group projects can be a fantastic experience… or they can be downright terrible times. Here are some things you can do to increase the likelihood of finding stress-free success on your next group project:

  • Team up with the right students. Find hard-working, respectful, and passionate teammates you can trust to get quality work done on time. Heads up: this might mean not teaming up with your BFF every single time.
  • Assign tasks to single points of accountability. Make sure every piece of the assignment is the responsibility of a team member. Set completion timelines for each task.
  • Meet in person when you can. In-person meetings help to communicate clearly and lay out workback plans to complete assignments.
  • Use online tools to keep organized. Google Drive apps like Docs and Sheets come in handy.
  • Communicate with your teammates. Nothing is worse than not hearing from a partner for two weeks and finding out they haven’t done any work when the assignment is due the next day.
  • Communicate with your instructor. This is the one that saved the partner project I mentioned earlier. Instead of waiting for my partner’s contribution until it was too late, I reached out to my prof and explained the situation: here’s my work so far, here’s what’s missing, the complete assignment may be submitted after the deadline, but I have done everything in my power to complete it. The prof understood and I received a fair grade for my work.

Treat deadlines like deadlines, not guidelines

Students who submit assignments late and attempt to argue their way out of resulting poor grades tend to be more stressed out.

Set your own deadlines for assignment drafts well in advance of the hard deadline

This way you can ask for input, proofread, edit, and improve your assignment before submitting the final version. This also helps when juggling deadlines and exam dates that all fall within a tight timeframe.

Use your resources

The rapidly growing education-technology industry as well as academic resource outlets at your school provide a wealth of helpful tools and information that will help reduce stress during school. Personalized online tutoring is one example of this that can help students perform 98% better than their peers.

No one needs an abundance of anxiety and stress brought on by assignments, group projects, and deadlines. So, take these tips above and use them to have your best academic year yet starting this fall!

Until next time,

Brett