The Most Effective Ways to Construct Your Timetable for Classes

The Most Effective Ways to Construct Your Timetable for Classes
By: Abigail McGibbon

Are you a newbie to university life? Want to get the hang of structuring your timetable the best way for classes? Or are you in the second or fourth year but still unable to organize your class schedule? Then you have come to the right place!
Scheduling classes especially for the first time in university can be overwhelming. There are so many classes to choose from, different lecturers and times you can take them. The key is to ensure that you keep your interests in mind when making a choice. When choosing classes, you should consider these questions:
1. Are you an early bird who’s charged and ready to learn in the mornings, or are you more vibrant at night?
2. Do you require a lot of breaks in between classes?
3. Are you working?
Some general tips to keep in mind:
1) Ensure to ask around about your classes and their respective lecturers, get an idea of who will be leading a particular class, and what their teaching style is like. This will benefit you greatly.
2) Make your department advisors your close companion, don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations and advice, and please read your handbooks.
3) Try to avoid clashing classes. You will end up missing out on important details from one of those classes. Where clashes are unavoidable, make it known to your lecturers as it is possible that there are other available sessions in which they can accommodate you.
4) Ensure to schedule classes with breaks in between. Try to ensure you at least have a lunchtime. You sure don’t want to feel weak and cranky because you weren’t able to eat.
5) And let’s not forget! Leave space for at least one co-curricular activity, it will make your university experience so much better.
6) Most importantly, make time for yourself.

Here are the responses from two students on how they schedule classes:
Jazz Warner who is an International Relations 2nd year major studying from Antigua and Barbuda says: “I think about the time difference, specifically whether I want a morning, afternoon, evening, or night class since I am an hour ahead. I ensure to have a day off to myself and to have a good number of breaks in between classes.”
Shemar Mitchell who is a 2nd year Journalism major states: “The first thing I do is to make sure I am not putting too many classes on any given day. That might be hard especially for Journalism students, specifically year 1 students where classes are held from 9-3 on Mondays which is pretty much non-negotiable. Besides this, I try not to have too many things going on in a single day to avoid being ‘burnt-out’. So, the first thing you do is to schedule your mandatory classes and see how best that works for you. Additionally, I try to have a day where I don’t have any classes.”

So, the concept is basically about what you can manage.
Happy Scheduling Everyone!