Being a fresher is daunting. Suddenly you’re responsible for everything from dish soap to sorting out a second year house.

Everyone older is telling you to make the most of university and how it’ll be the best years of your life and whilst this may be true, it can place a lot of pressure on you to get everything out of it straight away.

It’s completely normal for settling in, finding your people and getting the marks you want to take time. That being said, here’s your guide on how to go about making the most of first year!

Best Ways to Meet People: Join societies!

Trying out different societies is a great way to meet people and learn about yourself. You can go as often or as little as you want, so it’s completely okay to try something out and decide it’s not for you.

For sports societies, it’s very common to join without even doing the sport and just come to the socials where people dress up and go out together. You can find information about societies on Cardiff’s Students’ Union website!

Seminars

Lectures can be huge making it difficult to get talking to people. But in seminars you’ll be with the same group of people for months, so it’s a great opportunity to get to know them. It’s a good idea to exchange socials so you can ask each other uni related questions and maybe make a new friend.

Going Out With Your Flatmates:

If you get along with your flatmates, they’re a great way to network, you can meet their friends and they can meet yours. I completely leeched off of my flatmates’ social abilities last year and it worked out great!

Best Places for a Night Out:

Central or Prince of Wales Wetherspoons; The Taf, a university owned pub located in the Students’ Union; Clwb Ifor Bach (my personal favourite) is perfect if you like indie, alternative, rock, emo and pop music; Live Lounge is a bar and club which plays live covers, pop, rock and indie music; YOLO, Cardiff University’s student club night in the Students’ Union on Wednesday’s that people usually go to with their societies; Circuit, for rap and pop music; The Depot holds ticketed events; and Tramshed hosts club nights, comedians, film screenings.

Study Tips:

Look At The Assessment Criteria Criteria sheets are like a shortcut to higher marks by explaining exactly what examiners are told to reward.

Set Your Own Mini-Deadlines

Often essays and exams will fall very close to each other because they’re trying to be nice and give you the latest deadlines possible. To avoid a time crunch, it is best to find out when things are due early on and set your own mini-deadlines.

Read Your Feedback Closely

It’s normal to want to forget what you’ve submitted once it’s handed in, but paying attention to feedback is the quickest way to boost your marks because it constructively tells you what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Study With Friends

If you can’t focus on your own, studying with others can be very motivating as you hold each other accountable and can take breaks together. Give Yourself Breaks Go to the Lidl bakery or for a walk! Movement and a pain au chocolat is a great way to keep your brain switched on.

Cite As You Go!

To avoid going insane later, try logging your citations as you go along. You don’t want to end up retracing your sources at 2 AM, like I did.

Studying Hotspots:

ASSL Library (or any other library on campus), John Percival Cafeteria, Hoffi Coffi, Secret Garden, The Bagel Place, Rhostio and Taly social centre.