summer reading =(

[Ashley V]

I've been graduated for 2-3 years now, but Lord of the Flies was the most awful book ever. We also had to read it for our freshman class. We read it out loud around the room which made it even worse. I was the "bad" kid in class and would always fall asleep.

[jennzy]

4 books for an honours english course? i am jealous!!! i'm minoring in english and i last year i had to read 30 novels for one course!!!!

anyways, heres my hint. i hate essays, english was my worst subject. english is still my worst subject. if i'm lucky i'm in the high 60's. so why am i taking it? its my second teachable. i can't do math or science hence i'm taking english.

every time i have to write essays, whether its for my own faculty (music) or english i freak out. i hyper ventilate, i get so stressed out i get sick (really bad miagraines, can't eat, super exhausted) at one point it got so bad i developed a sleeping disorder. why did i freak out? cuz i tend to do everything last minute and my faculty's very demanding. you think music students have it easy? no we don't. we have 30 hrs of academic classes a week. then, we have homework just like in high school and theyre collected and marked. on top of our academic class hours, we have rehearsals min. 4 hours a week. and on top of it we have to practice for our lessons and our ensembles, and in my case conducting as well. so you can see where my freak outs come from.
however, with the help of my psychologist, and the university and a friend who's like a mother to me and held my hands as i wrote essays (literally), i found a way not to freak out and get through and write my essay. and hopefully these tips will help you.

first: work at the library. your house/dorm is a huge distraction. go get yourself a cubicle, pack some yummie and health snacks and go and spend the day!

second: the moment you recieve your essay topics (especially for english) read through all the topics and come up with thesis for each (crappy is acceptable at this point). then pick the topic you're interested in. ususally this narrows it down to one or two topics

third: gather your books and read them. while you read them take note on anything that may pertain to your essay topic (not necessarily your crappily written thesis because thesis may change later on) (i use those 3m book marker where its part sticker with hint of colour for tagging. i'll often write briefly what the quote is about)

fourth: make an outline. ic an't stress this enough... i never believed in outlines. i thought they were waste of time ( back in high school and yes, they were back then, but unviersity level papers, u need it). i often include
my big thesis, my paragraph topics and opening sentences and quotes that belong to each paragraphs with citations. this way when i'mw riting my essay i just copy and paste the quotes (it saves time)

fifth: once your outline's done, take a deeeeep breaths in and out while placing your hands on your stomach. this will help you relax, because your outline probably stressed you out to the max.

sixth: if you have a good outline (ie you've followed my instructions), your essay will flow easily.


another hint i can tell you is that make your actual deadline of your essay a little earlier. i've learnt this from my conducting project last year and it took me 3 yrs to figure this out. we had this massive project that was due in feb, and we were given this project back in sept. of course being university students, my whole class slacked. i started 3 days before the 'due date'. it was incredibly easy, but it was tedious. and it didn't help that the books we needed were on 2 hour reserves and the music library closes at 9pm on weekdays and open from 1-5pm on weekends. (i know it sucks right?) so i spent 2 days at the library and a lot of money in photocopying portions of books... i mean i photocopied over 50 pages so once the music library closed, i can go to another library and stay there until they closed (1am). then the night before the due date, i msned my friend to see if she started hers and she says nope its not due for another few days so she'll do it the nigh t before. so 2 days before it was acutally due, people in my class literally freaked out and started to complain that its not fair that the music library closes so early and they won't let you take out the books. i was really lucky because while my class spent the weekend freaking out about this project, i was enjoying myself with my rooommates(none are in music) and went to bars and partied all weekend.

i apologize for a super long post, and i really hope this will help you out.
freshmen is first year right? (i'm from canada so we don't refer to our years as that). please don't shoot me for saying this but i'm saying with from the bottom of my heart. don't worry too much about first year. do the best you can. but also enjoy your first year!!! enjoy residence life/ sorority life and whatever else is big in the states. your first year shouldn't be focused soley on school. you worked your butt off in gr.12, enjoy your first year. who cares if you don't get your 90's? first year experiences only happen once and you'll regret not enjoying it. you have 3 more years to focus on your studies... but also remember not to party tooo much and forget about school. you need to find the right balance

[jennzy]

p.s i forgot to address your lack of concentration

for the first few years of university (i will be going into my 4th year)
i thought i ahd a learning disability.
i studied, but my marks never reflected, it took me really long time to complete a project or assignment than others, i had really short attention spand, i couldn't read for more than 2 chapters in one sitting, though it could be my favourite book.

so i went to the students with disability at my university and wanted to get tested for learning disability. they told me i had to pay 2 grand because i was considered an adult and the insurance no longer covers it. i said forget it! i nor my parents don't ahve that kind of money to spend on testing. since i was almost done in my school career. if this was back in gr.9 i would have done it, but 2nd year university, wasn't really worth it. after speaking to my psychologist about this problem, she and i talked about high school. i excelled in high school often getting high 80's-90's and at university i'll be happy if i get 50's. then my psychologist wanted me to see a studies counsellor or something like that. i went and i found out that i never learnt how to properly study and how to properly do my assignments hence it took me forever to do. so you must be wondering how did i do so well if i never learnt how to study? well in high school, we had homework. i did all my work and just reviewed and wrote my exams. universities may give you homework, may not. if you don't do it, they won't chase after you. so this is how it screwed me over...

so with this new counsellor and i worked on how to study and etc. which had helped me a lot. i would definately seek out such help before dishing out a lot of money for a test you don't need.

[celstu1]

Oh noone is going to call you stupid! Girl, lots of people have a hard time getting into books! I think they should allow you guys to pick your own books to read from a suggested reading list. I think you'd get so much more out of the assignment if you got to pick a book that held SOME interest to you! Im sure you'll do great either way! Try to enjoy it, lay outside and read for awhile or set a daily reading goal and give yourself a small reward when you reach it!

[auddoc06]

I suggest starting with The Old Man & The Sea; its boring but short. Of Mice and Men is a good story and you should be able to get into it if you give it a chance. I also like Lord of the Flies, but my 8th grade English teacher read it aloud to us through out the year and she was very dramatic and made it very interesting.

Like someone else said rent the audio books or movies and get a picture in your mind first; then I think the books will be more enjoyable!

[RebelBelle]

Here's an idea! Before reading each book google the title of the book. Read websites about the evolution of the book and the symbolism of the characters and events. None of these novels are surface level. They all have much deeper meanings and symbolism. Then while reading the book search for the deeper meaning. You will start seeing everything in a new light that is often way more interesting than the basic plot summary. Most students your age probably haven't researched that far which will really impress your teachers if you discuss the book in class. I know that reading novels in college was wayyyyy more interesting than in high school because in college it isn't about little details but more about the "big picture".

[C101Yorkie]

Of Mice and Men was a pretty good book in my opinion. I read i a couple years ago. Godd luck with them though!!

[MeganS]

Originally Posted by C101Yorkie

Of Mice and Men was a pretty good book in my opinion. I read i a couple years ago. Godd luck with them though!!

I agree! That's the only one on the list I liked. I LOOVED Of Mice and Men. It may take you a little while to get into it - but if you're in then you're IN. I cried like a baby at the end.