20 Mistakes Every First Year Makes At Swansea University

University. It can be quite daunting for those who are shy but for those who enjoy a good party, it’s the perfect place. They say university is the best three years of your life and they’re probably right. That said, every student will undoubtedly encounter those down days. As a first year, adjusting to university life can be quite difficult and every first year will probably make these mistakes. Some maybe more than once! Here are 20 mistakes every first year makes at Swansea University!

1. Not knowing who you will be living with for the next year.

Seriously, this is a big one. When I received my offer for accommodation, I automatically went to Facebook, requested to join the housing page and attempted to find my flatmates. I was placed in a flat of seven and I managed to find five of them beforehand. Let me tell you now, this helped me a lot. When we all moved up there, it was so easy to speak to everyone and now we all get a long like we’ve known each other more than three months. Also, finding your flatmates early can help save you some money as you can split communal items such as kettle, toaster etc. You don’t need everyone bringing one!

2. When you’re packing, you don’t need everything.

Packing for university can be difficult. Do I need all my clothes? Shall I leave some behind? Do I take clothes for all seasons? These are questions I asked myself when I was packing and I thought I was taking way too much. I was embarrassed to turn up with about 10 bags and a massive suitcase. My advice is make sure you take a variety so you have appropriate clothing for university, going out, job interviews etc. There’s nothing worse than attending a job interview in your going out clothes!

3. Isolating yourself from your flatmates.

People say that university is the time where you meet the people you will know for the rest of your life and you will become lifelong friends. Personally, I think this is true as I have become so close to my flatmates that I feel like we will keep in touch after we graduate and do our own thing. You do not want to arrive and keep yourself locked away in your room, especially when you’re going through probably the hardest time of your life. Everyone is going through the same transition and it makes it much easier if you speak to your flatmates and get involved with everyone. Drinking games are usually the trick here!

4. Throwing away the bags and boxes you used to lug everything up there.

So you’ve managed to get everything up to your new flat for the next year. You can’t wait to unpack and throw away all the rubbish. DO NOT DO THIS. When I moved in, I made my parents take the boxes and bags of rubbish with them because I wanted my room to fresh and clean. It turns out this was a bad mistake. When I decided to come home for some weekends and when I came home for the Christmas holidays, it was very, very difficult to squeeze all my clothes and dirty washing into my suitcase. Luckily, my parents came down to get me and they helped carry some stuff but if I were travelling by train or coach, it would’ve been a struggle.

5. Attending every single fresher’s event.

Cannot emphasise this enough. Fresher’s week will probably turn out to be one of the best week or two of your life. It has everything a student needs – loads of parties and a lot of alcohol. It’s what every student wants and with the events that are on offer, the temptation and urge to attend everything is strong. However, from personal experience, you do not have to attend everything. I attended maybe one or two events. For the rest of my time, I either spent it in the flat with my flatmates where we got to know each other more or we went out to clubs and pubs in the city. With majority of events charging money for ticket fees, it can also save you a lot of money.

6. Signing up to every single society.

You’ve probably heard it before – “my advice for a first year, try and sign up to anything you can.” Is it really the best thing to do though? Yes, through societies you meet more people and you make new friends, some whom you may become friends with for a long time or maybe even a couple of minutes. Whatever the case, you do not need to sign up to anything. It’s completely up to you. Signing up to societies will help you get involved more with the university itself but you can make the same number of friends on nights out and through your course.

7. Leaving everything until the last minute.

Everyone has been a victim of this. You say as soon as you get handed a piece of work that you’ll do it straight away to get it over and done with but before you know it, it’s the deadline and you haven’t even looked at the assignment. Trust me when I say this, you do not want to leave university work until the last minute. 1,000 – 2,000 word essays aren’t going to be as good when they are being written at 2am. When you get your assignment, do small pieces each day. Aim for 200 – 300 words and before you know it, you would’ve reached the word count and you won’t be stressed the night before.

8. Not backing up your work!

I cannot emphasise how important this is. You think that because all your lecture and seminar notes and assignments are done on your personal laptop that the need for a memory stick to back up work isn’t needed anymore. You’re wrong. At important times for me when doing my assignments, I’ve had to start work again, sometimes even twice as my laptop decided to not save my work. Back up your work and your notes just to be safe. You could lose important information!

9. Referencing

At university, there is nothing more important that referencing. Seriously, do not forget to reference anything you use from the internet, library books etc. Even if you come up with a master plan to get away with it, trust me, you won’t. You do not want to be caught plagiarising in your first year, there’s nothing worse than giving off a bad impression of yourself and making them think that you’re incapable of completing assignments yourself. Reference anything you copy from the internet and save yourself the trouble.

10. Leaving dishes to pile up

It’s been heard before from probably every student in every hall – “Leave it in the sink, I’ll wash it later.” You probably know for a fact that it will not get done and then all of a sudden, the sink is overflowing with dishes. Even worse, the cleaners have threatened you with a fining if it isn’t cleared. Try and avoid this problem at all costs and even if you must shout and scream at your flatmates to clear their mess, it’s better than paying an expensive fine!

11. Shopping – coming home with more than you intended.

It’s time for the weekly food shop consisting of a bus journey and a bit of time. You make a note of the things you need, not what you want and as you enter the vast supermarket and make your way down the long isles, your eye catches something you want and before you realise, it’s already in the basket ready for checkout. From personal experience, only get what you intended to buy. Lugging three heavy bags from the supermarket onto the bus and then into your flat isn’t as easy as it sounds.

12. Not budgeting properly – you’re seriously not fine.

BUDGET!! You will save yourself a lot of money if you budget your money efficiently. Every student has probably found themselves dipping into their student loan for things they want or have wanted for ages. Then, before they know it they’ve struck their overdraft before the first term has finished. Set yourself a limit every week and try and stick to it. When the term finishes and it’s time for you next bulk of student loan, you’ll come to realise that you have a lot left over!

13. Buying clean, fresh books.

As soon as you begin your course, your lecturer or seminar leader tells you about what the module consists of and what books you will need. You do not need to buy new ones. There are plenty of students selling old books or textbooks for all courses and they are much cheaper than purchasing new ones. Yes, some may be annotated and filled with notes but it’s better than paying a ridiculous amount for a book which in some cases, you might not even use all the time.

14. Forgetting to check use by dates.

I am ashamed to say that I have done this and it was the most unpleasant thing I’ve encountered. Being in a flat of seven means the fridges are always full of different foods and drinks but it is vital that you check use by dates. There’s nothing worse than opening the fridge to be welcomed by an ungodly smell of gone off food or finding out that your flatmate has been eating a certain food which has been out of date for over a month. Disgusting, I know.

15. Overspending on rounds.

Again, I fall into this very well. Fresher’s week I basically spent my loan on alcohol and I must admit, when I’ve had a few, I’m just excited to the point where I want everyone else to have a good time. So, I just spend my money on rounds for everyone. It was devastating to wake up the next morning, hungover, discovering that I spent about £40 to £50 the previous evening. To stop yourself from throwing your money around, take between £10 and £20. Do not take your card, the temptation to draw money out or spend it in the clubs is too real.

16. Not using all the universities facilities.

Universities have much more resources and facilities than your high school. Even though that might mean it’s harder to use everything, try to. The wider resources that universities offer means that it’s easier to construct a well written assignment. When you’re struggling on something, there are plenty of services and people to help you. Not everyone manages with university and what it asks of you and that’s okay. You just need to attempt to find yourself and find your answers there.

17. Not organising time.

I cannot stress the importance of organising your time effectively. For example, you’ve been given your first assignment and you discover that it isn’t due for another couple of weeks. This does not mean that you leave it until the very last minute, as we have already covered. Organise your time efficiently and you can still have a good time going out with friends while completing your assignments on time and to a standard in which you feel is good enough.

18. You may be a first year but attend everything.

They say that the first year in university doesn’t count towards your degree and it is more of a formative year to see if you can handle what it has to offer. The temptation to miss lectures and seminars after hearing this is strong for some students. However, missing important lectures and seminars can impact the way you work independently, and it will be clear to the lecturers that you have been missing lectures as your work probably won’t be as strong against those who have been attending. Also, in future jobs, if you’re against someone who had firsts and 2:1’s in their first-year assignments and you were getting (just about) 2:2’s, they probably won’t even look at you. Attend everything as it will probably have an effect on you in some way.

19. Catching up online never works.

Like the point above, all the lecture and seminar materials are available online but again, this doesn’t mean you skip everything. Checking lectures online isn’t the same as attending them as it is highly likely that the lecturer has mentioned important points that aren’t on the PowerPoint or word document. To get the full picture, you’ll need to attend everything. Think about it like this, you’re paying thousands of pounds to study this course material, you probably should be there.

20. Worrying too much

When you first arrive at university, you’re probably already worrying about making friends or being able to cope with what it expects of you. It’s normal to worry about this stuff as university is a big change for some people but what you don’t want to end up doing is worrying every moment of every day. Enjoy yourself! It’s all about meeting new people and the experiences you’ll have will probably turn into the best times of your life. Take me for example. I’ve only been there for a term and I had the best three months. I met new people and I’m enjoying my course. It does take time, but in the end, it will all be worth it.