University Survival Guide
Written Feb 25, 2022 | Edited June 7th 2026 · 25 min read
My University Experience
After having a non-existing grade 12 graduation, I was thrust into online University classes. The excitement of being a “University Student” and a bonafide grown up faded with exemplary speed. After my 2A term I felt like a broken man, I’d never hated school so much, I’d never dreaded going back for another semester so much that I wanted to drop out. The truth is something I’d always known, but until recently, something I couldn’t accept: The point of going to University is not to learn. It’s to get a degree. School has never really been a place to learn, tests and exams don’t assess anything beyond how good you are at writing tests and exams. For most professors, teaching is a job rather than a passion. The larger class sizes get, the more apparent that becomes and University was the first time I had to face this reality.
Often, we don’t realize how humane high school is compared to that of the real world. If you have an issue you can bring it up directly with the teacher, and most likely they will listen to you. You didn’t have to sift through a mound of bureaucracy, filling out forms and submitting formal complaints only to be told that we tried our best but nothing could be done. This is reality. You’re better off spending your time getting good at playing this shitting game rather than trying to change it.
Treat University Like a Game
If you’re not as cynical as me and insist on trying to actually learn something rather than just pass the test… I hope you stay that way and carry on the hope that we as students all had at some point. But for the rest of you, let's get into how you can succeed in University.
The first step, unironically, is to treat University as a game. It’s not a life or death situation. Your failures here do not condemn you to live as one for the rest of your life. Would you question your life choices if someone was better than you at Super Mario bros?
With time and practice, and so long as we desire it, we can get better at any game.
Goal of the Game
Naturally the next step is to define the goals of this game. What constitutes success? Do you just want to pass, or are you aiming to be on the dean's list? Why are these your goals? How will they benefit you in the future? Perhaps you want to keep the possibility of grad school open, or you just want the scholarship that comes with high marks.
Goals serve two purposes, first, they tell us that our current methods are working. Second, they tell us when to stop pushing ourselves. If you hit your goal, you have beaten the game, it's time to stop and do something else.
As an example, I'll share my goals with you:
- Maintain an overall average above 80%
- Finish school related work in as little time as possible - workflow as lean as possible
- Find a group of people who I can study with
For me, the most of the work I put into University is not regarding the grade I’m trying to maintain, rather it’s to do with the second point: “Finish school related work in as little time as possible”. As such my “University Game Guide” will talk about hitting all the checkpoints of success as efficiently as possible. Moreover, I will be drawing from my personal experience in UW software Eng to show as examples, but these concepts can be applied to any university and any program.
Prepare before you Embark
In the superhero comics community there is much debate about which character would win in a fight. Some say it's Superboy Prime, others, Doctor Manhattan, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s Batman with prep time. A lot of prep time
For the less nerdy reader, the point here is that there are a whole host of things you can do before the day your classes start to improve your odds of beating this game. I’ll go through my personal list, but in general you should be prepping things that make your life easier to schedule, and make work come along more effectively.
Here’s my list:
How long does it take you to get places?
So the first thing on my list might seem a bit odd, perhaps it has to do with my obsession with having control over even the minute parts of my life. I like to know how long it's going to take to get places. Knowing the walk to the library is 12 minutes is surprisingly useful for planning out your day. Knowing that the campus Tim’s gets busy at 1:pm is also a useful metric in determining how long your snack break is going to take. Often we end the day wondering where the time has gone, the minutes of getting from one place to another can add up and quickly eat up your day. It would be foolish to create a schedule without keeping these things in mind.
Who are your professors?
Anyone who has taken a University course knows that a professor can either make or break the class. A passionate teacher may motivate you to quickly grasp and enjoy the course material, while a poor one might force you to take a self learning approach. At Waterloo we have something called UW flow which acts both as a gauge for the course material and a Rate-My-Prof. There are a myriad of ways to get a feel for a course and it’s professor before you take it. Asking Upper years, checking https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ or even reading through the course textbook. But just keep in mind, the information your are collecting from others are opinions not fact. In the end you make the judgment call about how you want to approach or change your approach to a course based on what happens while you are taking it.
What can you get from upper years?
Talking to those who have taken a course a couple years prior is a very fruitful endeavor. You can ask them about their experiences, any tips and tricks they have to get around a specific teacher/course or just ask to have their notes. I wouldn’t worry about being a bother, most people are happy to share their stories with an eager listener.