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Do you want a good university experience, or a great university experience?
You can have your cake and eat it too.
Now there are some basic ingredients that you'll need for a cake,
as well as a great university experience,
and do you know what that special ingredient is that'll put the icing on top of the cake?
Your personal touch.
That's what we're going to show you today.
A masterpiece doesn't bake itself. It takes time. First, you have to commit.
Timing is everything, and cooking is chemistry.
Now if you don't let that cake bake long enough,
the ingredients just won't bind together, and it'll cook unevenly.
(timer dings) Your brain needs time to process information
so it can make connections later to answer questions in test situations.
Otherwise, you'll have a gooey mess on your hands.
Your parents aren't here to cook for you,
so make sure to seek out the resources that you need.
Get informed and learn how to find those resources on your own.
From the Waterloo website to workshops, the university has a lot of available resources,
and don't forget you can always ask an expert. Profs, TA's, Health Services,
Counselling Services, Dons, and don't forget the Student Success Office.
Let's get back to the basics for a minute.
Skip one of these ingredients, and your whole cake could be a disaster.
Those classes, labs, and tutorials are all mandatory ingredients of the recipe.
Wisk these all together and you're almost there.
Don't forget, every cake needs an ingredient that will make it rise,
just like you need to rise every morning and get yourself to those classes.
You've gotta add something that'll bind all the
new ingredients of your university life together.
Meet new people through clubs around your interests, or study groups with classmates.
Mix it up so you build a strong network that will hold your life together,
balance it, and increase your success.
There are all kinds of flavours of cake, and we each have our favourite.
Same goes for study skills and tools.
Everybody will have tools that will work best for them.
Now this is where your recipe needs a lot of flexibility. There's not one size fits
all,
but test different tools out and find the one that best suits your taste.
You can't just guess what temperature to bake a cake at or how long to bake it.
You have to make sure that you know.
Grab a course syllabus for each class,
this will let you know how much heat is on every test and assignment.
Your participation could be worth 10%, your midterms and assignments 20%,
and your final exam could be worth about 50%.
Your syllabus can tell you how much work is involved,
because it has a list of all your readings and assignments.
This knowledge can help your recipe be a success or a flop.
Sometimes we can be our own worst critics,
and sometimes we don't know when we're making a mistake,
so go to the people you trust and talk to your friends.
All great chefs compare their recipes, the good and the bad.
Sometimes we can learn from each other, and we just need a sympathetic ear.
Ask for help when you need it.
We're here in the Student Success Office to help you,
and we can refer you to other places
to make sure you have all the ingredients you need to be successful.
This is your first experience at university; it's okay to ask for help.
If it wasn't, we wouldn't have makeover shows about restaurants.