Hello Students,
My name is Dave and I have just survived my second term here at Dartmouth! Dartmouth is broken up into three terms or the “trimester” and each term is ten weeks long. This is different from my peers who are on the normal quarter system. Although we only take three classes a term, the ten week pacing is very fast and often times it is easy to get left behind! In my first term, I was successful in finding my rhythm for my courses early on. Once I found that rhythm , I simply used it and did fair on my tests. I did not do a spectacular job, but I did fair. With that, I did not study as efficiently as I wanted to but nonetheless, I did not do to bad. That all changed this second term. My courses were harder and required an extreme amount of time commitment. I did not get on top of things on the first midterm and as a result, it was hard to catch up. I did catch up eventually and ended up exhausting my limits as a result. Towards the last few weeks, in order to catch up in my classes. I was averaging about ten hours a day on my S.T.E.M. heavy classes. This was grueling but I needed to do it in order to end the term strong. I utilized all of Dartmouth’s resources. I used their tutoring services, study groups, teaching assistance, online practice tests and etc. When I took the final for one of my exams, I was very happy because all of the questions on the exams were questions I had a thorough understanding of. Yes, I did not do so great on my midterms but crying about it will do nothing. If you want to do well, use what you have and work hard! Yes, some people will naturally get it, but do not lt anyone outwork you! That’s something you can control. That’s what this second term taught me!
Regards, Dave S. Lacroix