I’m a first year life science student at UTSG and to be honest I feel like a piece of trash. In the beginning of the term, I attended lecture, did my assignments, studied, and did the readings. But by mid October, I just broke down and couldn’t do anything. I felt stressed, overwhelmed, and motivated. All at once I just stopped studying and couldn’t do it anymore. I know I’m going to fail most of my courses. I just want to start next term on the right path. Any advice?
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hey friend,
i’m glad you reached out! things are so hard this year with online classes and all, and i can imagine first year is even harder because it’s normally already such a rough adjustment. it sounds like you started your first year on a really solid note, and hit a wall later on.
you’re absolutely not a piece of trash for hitting that wall. if you check out the recent posts on this blog (and the ones that are sure to come), you’ll see that lots of first years are in similar situations.
wise of you to come to the elders (lmao) for help. since i’ve been at this school a lil longer than you, i do have some advice for you that i hope will be of use.
something i had to learn the hard way in my first year is that you can’t get through uni alone. it helps so, so much to reach out to peers, make time for socials, and know where to find more professional help when you need it. here are some resources i regularly use (or have used in the past) that i think you might find helpful:
the registrar’s office
it’s common to deal with all sorts of academic challenges at u of t, and your registrar should be your first stop when you’re seeking help with those. an academic advisor there will be able to tell you what your options are moving forward, point you to useful resources, and just generally talk you through your situation. whenever i’ve had to make a hard degree-related decision, i’ve always found the support from the people at my registrar incredibly useful.
if you’ve never so much as interacted with your registrar before, here’s a lil guide i wrote up that might be useful.
learning strategists
you can book an appointment with a learning strategist by calling your registrar’s office. learning strategists are great for identifying any pitfalls in the way you currently approach your studies, and helping you strategize how to do better in the future. they can also help you improve your motivation to study, help you put together a study schedule, and advise you on efficient reading and note-taking.
i think that visiting a learning strategist early on next term will help you get off to a strong start! you can tell them about your situation and then the two of you will be able to devise a strategy for completing your winter semester.
health and wellness counselling, mySSP, and other mental health resources
the level of stress and overwhelm you’re describing indicates to me that academic resources aren’t going to be enough to really help you get back on your feet. it’s important to be attentive to your emotional and mental health needs as well, and that’s where supports like counselling and mySSP come in.
if you’ve never seen a counsellor, the first step (for me) was the hardest one: admitting i needed to go and figuring out how to do it. but i think it’s something everyone can benefit from, especially stressed-out students.
it’s really worrying to me that you broke down in october. i think you’d benefit from understanding how/why it happened, and how you can maybe prevent that in the future.
i dunno if that gif is the best fit here but i love how dorky and adorable it looks so it’s staying.
health and wellness counselling is available to you if you’re in ontario. you can book an appointment with an “on-location” counsellor (which basically means one affiliated with your division, ie. victoria college, the faculty of music, etc.). i think they’re doing appointments virtually or by phone right now. to my understanding, these counsellors usually offer short-term support (5 appointments) to help you meet a mental wellness goal.
mySSP is a virtual student support program that’s available wherever you are, 24/7, in a wide variety of languages. basically, a counsellor will support you (via phone or text) with the difficulties you’re experiencing, either by appointment or immediately.
if you think you might be interested in voice-call or video-call counselling but aren’t in ontario, you can always look into what your health insurance covers and seek out an non-u of t therapist.
apart from all that that, here are a few study tips from me! i found the adjustment to online schooling difficult too, but i was in school both summer semesters and i’m more used to things now. these are some of the things i wish i’d known earlier:
1. use a productivity app if your devices are distracting. i downloaded forest a little while ago, and i’ve really been enjoying the app. one of my main problems is scrolling through twitter and instagram when i should be studying, and forest blocks those apps out while letting me plant lil trees to represent my focused time! there are other good apps out there, too, if you do a google search.
2. study with friends (but the right ones). i’ve learned that hopping on a zoom call with a similarly stressed and overwhelmed friend can motivate me to study. this is my system for those virtual study sessions: we get on the call, chat for around 10-15 minutes, then set a timer for an hour and a half and mute ourselves. when the timer goes off, we check in with each other to make sure we were both productive. turning your camera on and screensharing helps, too— it’s the closest thing i’ve found to a library peer-pressure environment this year.
3. use a planner. this is a big one that really helps prevent me from getting overwhelmed. i use a monthly planner, so i can see all my deadlines well ahead of time and plan my study schedule out to prevent a crunch. it doesn’t solve all my problems with stress and overwhelm during the semester, but good planning and deadline management does help a little and maybe you’ll find that’s true for you too.
4. make time for rest.
if you’re overwhelmed, pushing yourself harder may actually be detrimental to your ability to do work. find out what refreshes you and block out space for it—you’re allowed to do things that make you feel like a human and not a homework machine. for me, playing among us with my friends and making sure i got enough sleep this semester made me feel like less of a pent-up ball of stress.
i know it seems like there’s not enough time in the day to finish your schoolwork, but i always find that the more tired i get, the less efficient i am. maybe it could be the same for you?
i hope this helped! i know the post was long, but i feel a little helpless when i get questions like these and want to make sure i give you the best, most in-depth advice i can. i’m really rooting for your success next semester—i hope you have a good, relaxing christmas break, because you deserve it.
be Boundless,
aska