Studying Tactics

If you're coming from high school, you'll likely notice university courses move faster and require more independent learning. It's not just the courses; the lifestyle changes also play a heavy factor towards your capability to succeed. Ace students in high schools have struggled to put up the same numbers in university. Don't worry - this is normal, and we've all been there. Here are some approaches that have helped many students before you:

1. Rethinking Study Methods

Many students find their high school study habits need some adjustment here. You probably are used to watching lecture videos or reading the textbooks, then doing practice problems afterwards and calling it a day. Instead of passive reading, you might want to try:

• The Pomodoro Technique: Working in focused 25-minute blocks with short breaks. This can be especially helpful during long coding sessions.
• Active Recall: Testing yourself on concepts without notes. Flashcards (digital tools like Anki work well) are great for this.
• Spaced Repetition: Reviewing material over several days rather than cramming. This tends to stick better for technical concepts.

2. Making the Most of Campus Resources

You're not expected to figure everything out alone:

• Office Hours: These are your first and best line of defense when you're struggling with an assignment or a concept. Come prepared with specific questions - they genuinely want to help. You'd be surprised how much easier it is to ace assignments with instructors' input than not! Future courses also have office hours held by TAs.
• Computer Science Help Centre & Math Help Centre: Ran by experienced teaching assistants, they should be your second line of defense when course-specific office hours are unavailable. Check their schedules and camp in the room when you are working on those tough assignments!
• Academic Learning Centre: Offers support for everything from study skills to course-specific tutoring and supplemental instruction sessions.
• Academic Advisors: Invaluable for degree planning and asking questions related to your program. Make sure you check them out every term you're planning to register for courses; they may pick up on things you don't know!
• Fellow Students: Consider joining the official CS Discord to connect with peers. Many of our best senior students and alumni are always happy to help, if you can find them! Just remember - while discussing concepts together is encouraged, your gradable assessments should be your own work; we take academic honesty very seriously.

3. Creating Your Ideal Study Environment

Small adjustments can make a big difference:

• Notice what distracts you. If social media interrupts your flow, tools like Cold Turkey can help during study blocks.
• Experiment with locations. Some students focus best in the quiet of Elizabeth Dafoe Library, others prefer the buzz of the Engineering building. While you can book study rooms in libraries, one good rule of thumb is if there's an empty seat, you can study there! If you like the sense of community, make sure to check out the CSSA and WICS lounges, mentioned later in the Student Groups section.
• Pay attention to your energy patterns. If you fade in afternoons, schedule lectures then and save coding for when you're sharpest. Get caffeine and be a night owl if you need to, but check in with your doctor to make sure your actions are sustainable.

4. Some CS-Specific Tips

• Plan your program. This is the tip everyone gives yet fails to uphold themselves, but think about what you're writing before you write it. It's so much easier to get into the habit of just writing code without understanding its purpose than you think! Read what you're expected to program, break the requirements down into small, actionable steps, then actually design how each step should look before you even consider opening your text editor. There are many well-made design recipes out there that will put you above 99% of students if you abide by them seriously: here's an example. If you took a peek and didn't get a single thing, we bring you to the next step...
• Use AI responsibly. Do NOT be afraid to use AI as a studying partner (although, always check in with your instructor and the syllabus first on what you are and are not allowed to do with AI). ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Qwen are all entirely free (to varying degrees) chatbots that can perform web searchs and/or parse attachments and answer your every inquiry. You can just take the above link, feed it to any of the aforementioned chatbots, and force it to explain to you over and over until you get it! There are prompt engineering techniques you may learn to boost your productivity, albeit we aren't going to get into the weeds; that's just another question you can ask them.

WARNING: Do NOT, under ALL circumstances, attach any copyrighted material, especially from UM Learn, as well as do NOT directly ask about questions regarding graded assessments, or ask it to code for you. That is a breach of academic integrity, and we historically had a lot of people getting into trouble due to cheating.

• Stay curious and update yourself. Did you know the first variation of this guide was written in Google Docs? Can you imagine having to fit every section into one page and needing to manually scroll up and down, instead of having the handy sidebar that navigates to every section instantly? There are many things you can do that can make your life easier, especially in CS; learning Git so you can track versions of your assignment and not risk deleting files during a cleanup is just one of them. COMP 1002 and COMP 1006, whose textbook can be found here, are great courses where you learn the tools that will greatly boost your productivity. Don't limit yourself to only knowing the knowledge fed to you in courses. Those who make it farthest in Computer Science are always learning and improving themselves; make sure you have fun doing the same!

What matters most is finding what works for you. Try one new approach this term, and don't hesitate to adjust. Everyone's learning journey looks different - that's part of the university experience.