The 10 Mistakes You’ll Probably Make as a Fresher!!

The 10 Mistakes You’ll Probably Make as a Fresher!!

1. Setting the fire alarm off at 3am.

Whether it’s you or another member of your flat, this is bound to happen at least once this year. That drunken toast-burning fiasco won’t seem like the best idea when you have all of your flatmates glaring at you through the inky blackness of what should have been their sleep. The best advice we can give to avoid this is to not try cooking when you get in from a night out… and beyond that – open a window, turn the extractor fan on and never leave it unattended!

2. Not referencing your work as you go along and leaving it all until the very end.

University often brings with it a lot of new experiences – and for some of you referencing your work is probably one of them. Please please please, if you take anything from this article, make sure that you take your time to reference your work as you go along. It is all very well thinking that you’ll just add them in at the end however it becomes a lot easier said than done when you have used six books and a few hundred journal articles!!

3. Locking yourself out.

Whilst this is humorous, it’s another inevitability of student life that there will come a day when you leave your student card/key inside in your room and you’ll end up finding yourself locked outside your accommodation block. No one wants to be that person waking people up in the early hours to be let inside.

4. Spending more time colouring in your revision notes than making them useful.

Yes, Geography students, I’m looking at you. Now it’s going to come as no surprise to you that well-structured revision notes are one of the most useful tools a student can have and you’ve probably had it drummed into you ever since your GCSEs. However, when you spent more time colouring in your revision notes than you do substantiating the content of them, then we all know you’re just procrastinating.

5. Falling asleep at an inappropriate moment.

Now this may be slightly surprising to you but if you ask almost any university student, they will probably own up to having fallen asleep at some point when they shouldn’t have done, or at least know someone who has. Most of us have been there in a double lecture on a dark, cold Friday evening in the middle of winter when your eyelids will feel as if they are made from lead. The trick to combatting this one is getting enough sleep in the first place. Don’t fall into the typical student trap of going to bed at one or two in the morning and then rushing to make your 9AM lecture. Get in a routine and remember that sleep is one of the most valuable things you can have.

6. Going out the night before you have a deadline which you’ve been conveniently ignoring for the last 3 weeks.

Need I say more???

7. Sleeping in until mid-afternoon at the weekends.

Whilst it might be tempting to sleep for the entire weekend it hopefully won’t take you long to realise that the time you have away from the lecture theatres at the weekends can be used so much more productively than for 40 winks. Getting up at 07:00 as opposed to 13:00 will give you an extra six hours each day to do whatever you want – whether that would be to study, or to go have a break from uni work and go on an event with a society, train for a sports team, do your weekly shopping or go meet your friends, etc.

8. Panicking about where you’re going to live in your second year far too early.

Now you might be surprised to hear that a lot of freshers will want to start sorting out their housing for second year as early as October!! How ridiculous does that sound! The biggest piece of advice we can give you is to resist the urge to do this straight away, as you are only likely to end up rushing into getting a house with people who you have only just met during Freshers’ week and will subsequently come to detest as the year goes on. Do you really want to be living with that person?

9. Forgetting to write a return address on your arm.

Now just a little, but quirky idea that very few people will think of but could come in super useful at the start of freshers. In the first few days of fresher events, you may find that you consume more alcohol than you ever have before and find yourselves more than a little tipsy on a few occasions. If you’re the kind of person who is likely to forget where you’re actually living then why not write it on your arm and you’ll never have to worry about getting lost on a night out again.

10. Not coming to see SCOGUI at the Freshers’ Bazaar.

Now if you’ve been reading this blog regularly then I’m sure you’ll be fully aware why this is in here but SCOGUI has so much to offer its members. If you come and find us at the Societies’ Bazaar – which we believe will be in person – then we’ll have a campfire to toast marshmallows as well as a plentiful supply of smores to keep you going throughout the day. Once more SCOGUI has one of the most varied programmes than any society has to offer at Loughborough – we will give you the opportunity to give almost anything a go, we welcome any ideas you may have.

As ever if you have any questions over your time as a fresher here at Loughborough then feel free to get in touch and we will always do our best to get you an answer. We don’t mind if you’re asking about university life in general courses and of course all things SCOGUI!!!