Here are some ideas for how to be successful at Western.

Attend every class. It sounds obvious but studies have shown that students who never skip classes do better at university. If you are not a morning person, avoid taking 8:30am classes as you will be more likely to skip. You may find this hard to believe (or you might find it easy to believe), but Professor Laura never skipped a class nor missed a class for illness while she was doing her undergraduate degree in Computer Science and she lived on the south side of Commissioners Road in London. It was a long cold bus ride in 1985 to Western campus!

Find an awesome place to study, here are some great spots at Western: 

• There are tables outside of Prof Laura's office that are almost always empty. 
• The tables on the main floor of North Campus Building at the east end of the building. They get lots of sunshine in the morning and overlook the river and you might even spot a deer. 
• Black Walnut Cafe located in the Collip building. It is only open from 9 to 3 Monday to Friday but it has the best oatmeal cookies in London and it has some tables if want to study there. 
• The D.B. Weldon Library. It has lots of seating and loud or quiet floors

Space out your studying. While it seems like cramming before a big exam is the best way to do well, studies have shown that rather than doing 8 hours of studying the day before a big exam, do 2 hours each day for the 4 days before the exam. For each of those 4 days, spend the first 15 minutes reviewing what you learned the day before.

Practice, practice, practice. Auston Matthews did not get good at hockey by watching Leafs games, he got on the ice and skated. The same is true for math. You won't get good at calculus by watching your professor solve a problem, you need to do the problems yourself. Do as many practice questions as you can bear. In a 2010 study, Henry Roediger compared three groups of students, one group just reread the notes, the second group wrote questions about the material and the third group answered questions about the material that someone else had made up. Those who answered questions did the best, those who reread the notes did the worst.

Teach the material to someone else in the class. Studies have shown that students who teach the material to another person gain a deeper understanding of the material. Try to buddy up with someone in the class and review the material together, test each other, use pictures and flash cards, mix it up, make sure that the other person understands the concept as well as you do. You will both gain from this approach.

Read the announcements and the course syllabus. 99.9% of professors at Western are lovely people who want you to do well. They have no problems answering emails, especially when it is about helping you figure out a mistake on an assignment or helping you understand the course material. But if they are being honest, they do get tired of certain types of email questions such as "I have to miss the lab, can I make it up at another time?" or "I have 3 assignments due this week, can I hand in your assignment a day late?". Questions that are redundant or already addressed can become taxing. Thus, try to be the student who has read the syllabus, knows they aren't allowed to make up labs, so why even ask the prof and also knows that the assignment has been posted for over a month, so really, the professor should not be giving extensions. Professors love answering questions to help students do better understanding the course material, they don't love questions where the student is looking for a way to get around the course rules.

Find a great balance between studying and a social life. Having a social life will take a lot of the stress away and provide you with some time to unwind after a long day of school.