Welcome First Year Students

Yes! The ERC is open year around, including during the summer. The only time our offices are closed is during Intersession (December 25-Janurary 1).

Yes! All of our services are available to BU students for free. After you graduate, our Writing Assistance and English Language Conversation programs will remain available to you for free!

Over your time at BU, there is no limit to how many times you can utilize our services. However, students are generally limited to one appointment per service, per week. This helps ensure that all students who need to access our services will be able to make an appointment.

During Academic Coaching, we work with students on a variety of academic and professional skills, including time management, task management, note taking, study strategies, test taking strategies, and more.

Our work with students is collaborative! We depend on you to share your academic experiences, concerns, and goals. We then work with you to develop a personalized plan for academic success. You’ll leave your appointment with tangible strategies to use moving forward, but it’s up to you to develop these new skills into habits!

Academic Coaching appointments are conversational and collaborative! In order to assist you, your academic skills advisor will ask you questions about your academic journey and your long-term goals.

As long as you’re updating and referring to your calendar regularly, use whichever format works best for you! The only downsides to a paper planner are the risk of misplacing it or not having it with you at all times. The ease of toggling among “daily,” “weekly,” and “monthly” views is an added benefit to digital calendars.To help you get started, check out our Online Academic Tools & Resources page. Under “Time & Task Management,” you will find two calendar templates that we use with students: the 24 Hour Time Grid and the Semester at a Glance calendar. If you have questions about how to make the most of these calendars, we encourage you to schedule an Academic Coaching appointment!

There are 168 hours in each week. Depending on how busy you are, this can seem like a lot or a little! With the right time management tools though, you can fit in classes, study time, and much more.

For all students, we recommend marking time in your calendar for 7-8 hours of sleep per night, 3 meals per day, and regular exercise. These self-care strategies are essential for maintaining your physical and mental stamina. Additionally, for every credit hour you enroll in, we recommend scheduling 1.5-2 hours of study time per week. E.g. if you are taking 16 credits, this would mean 24-36 hours of study time per week. After putting classes, sleep, meals, exercise, and study time into your calendar, you will be able to see exactly how much “free time” you have and make thoughtful decisions about how you would like to use it.

If you are concerned about “fitting everything in,” we encourage you to book an Academic Coaching appointment where you can meet one-on-one with an ERC staff member. This will allow us to learn more about your unique goals and make personalized scheduling recommendations.

College students sometimes brag about how little they slept the night before. However, studies consistently show that sleep deprivation negatively impacts cognitive function. When you’re sleep deprived, it is harder to pay attention in class and remember things. Conversely, researchers have found that good sleep leads to better problem-solving and creativity. Most importantly, sleep allows your brain to organize and consolidate the information it learned during the day.

If you find yourself struggling to get 7-8 hours of sleep per night, we recommend booking an Academic Coaching appointment to discuss strategies for optimizing your weekly schedule.

This is really an individual decision! Some of us are early morning people; others are late afternoon folks. Try to notice what times of day you are most alert and best able to focus. An easy way to do this is by keeping an informal study journal or log for one week. Then, revisit your weekly schedule to block off the times of day that you are most alert. You’ll want to use those time windows for your most cognitively demanding tasks such as reading, writing, and performing complex calculations.

The CCD-ERC Student Desk Assistants have created a handy guide to help you find the perfect study space on or off campus! You can also book a study room for up to two hours at a time in our building, 100 Bay State Road. Sign in at either the 5th or 6th floor front desk. After you’re done studying, the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground is a popular space to unwind and make new friends. We also encourage you to check out the Build Lab’s space for group collaboration and innovation.

Many professors prefer that students take notes by hand because it prevents digital distraction during class. There is also evidence suggesting that handwriting class notes is a more effective learning strategy. A 2014 study found that students who type their notes tend to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than condensing and translating the content into their own words. This tendency to transcribe can result in poorer understanding and recall of the material.Other researchers, however, have found no substantial difference in performance between students who take notes by hand or by computer. Instead, the factor that determines performance is whether or not students review their notes after class. And digital notes do have several advantages when it comes to reviewing! First, digital notes are searchable; second, they can be easily reorganized—characteristics that handwritten notes do not share. If you have a tablet, this can offer the best of both by allowing you to handwrite notes while still producing searchable, reorganizable text.

Ultimately though, the key to notetaking success is not the tools you have but how you use them. Regularly reviewing your notes and quizzing yourself on their content is one of the most powerful study habits you can use!

Learn more about note taking and study strategies by attending one of our “Study Smarter, Not Harder” workshops.

First, don’t try to write everything down! The average person speaks approximately 125-140 words per minute, while the average note-taker can write roughly 25 words per minute. Thus, it’s crucial to take notes selectively and to translate information into your own words.

When deciding what to write down, listen for visual or verbal cues about what is important. If the professor draws something on the board or uses a laser pointer to highlight something, you want to capture what they are saying in your notes. Also, be aware of how much class time or the number of slides a professor devotes to each point; this can help you determine the relative importance of information. If a professor repeats a point or slows down, they may be trying to emphasize a key point.

Some professors will begin their lectures by summarizing what they taught in the previous class; others will end class with a summary of the material they covered that day. These summaries can help you decide what to write down during class and what to review after class.

Some of your professors will choose to record their lectures and make them available to students afterwards. Other instructors prefer not to record their class sessions in order to maintain confidentially in the classroom and to facilitate the free exchange of ideas among students. Many BU courses deal with sensitive subjects like politics, class, race, and sexuality, and recording courses could make faculty uncomfortable or even put some of your fellow students at risk.

Whether or not your professor records class, it is essential to obtain instructor permission if you would like to record class yourself. Massachusetts is a “two party consent to record state,” which means you need your instructor’s explicit permission, preferably in writing, before recording a class or lecture.

Ultimately though, audio recordings are not the best way to take class notes! Just like transcribing every word of a lecture in your class notes won’t help you process the information, relistening to a complete lecture will not necessarily help you absorb the information into your long-term memory.

Instead, condensing the information presented and actively engaging with it through self-testing is the best way to study. You can learn more about effective notetaking and study strategies by attending one of our “Study Smarter, Not Harder” workshops.

More and more professors are integrating audio-visual materials into their course content. While recording class lectures without permission is problematic (see above, “Are lectures at BU recorded?”), there are other ways to transform what you are learning into audio material.

After you have completed a reading for class or attended a lecture, you can record yourself giving a quick summary of the reading or lecture from memory. This strategy will reinforce your learning, improve your recall, and condense the information into a format that will be easy for you to revisit later.

Many of the larger lecture courses at BU include discussion sections that meet outside of lecture times. When you register for these lecture sections, you will also sign up for a matching discussion section. Attendance in both sections is mandatory. During discussion, you will be part of a thoughtful, engaging learning community led by either the professor or a graduate Teaching Fellow. In these sections, you will have opportunities to collaborate with your peers, form opinions, share your ideas, and respond to others’ points of view.

Yes. At the beginning of the semester, each of your professors will distribute a syllabus that includes the breakdown of how your final grade will be calculated. Final grades can be based on many different components such as exams, quizzes, presentations, papers, attendance, and participation. The weight professors assign to each of these components varies, depending on what the professor’s learning goals are for the course.

Professors offer weekly office hours to make themselves available to students who are taking their courses. Office hours are a fantastic opportunity to talk through challenging practice problems, clarify questions you have about the course content, discuss study strategies for the next exam, seek advice about grad school or career paths, and more!
It’s important to build professional relationships with your professors from your first year at BU. There will be many occasions during your undergraduate career when you will need to ask professors for letters of recommendations, and it is difficult for a professor to write you a substantive letter if they have never spoken with you one-on-one!

Both you and your professors have busy schedules! Most professors will list their regularly scheduled office hours on their syllabi, and many will include the option to schedule office hours “by appointment.”

If you have a conflict with your professor’s regular office hours, email your professor to ask whether it would be possible to meet at a different time. It’s a good idea to indicate what you would like to discuss and to propose 3-4 alternative times that would work with your schedule. This makes it easier for your professor to identify a time that will work well for both of you.

You’ll want to refer to your courses’ Blackboard sites and/or course syllabi to find information regarding ordering course materials. Each of the courses you’re enrolled in will appear in the My Courses tab. If you would like to order your textbooks through Barnes & Noble at BU, the best way to order your textbooks is through Barnes & Noble at BU. Barnes & Noble at BU recommends ordering your textbooks by the first week of August.

Most of your courses at BU will have a Blackboard site where your professor will post assignments and exam grades. Throughout the semester, you will use Blackboard to participate in discussion boards, submit assignments, take quizzes, and more.

Keep in mind that some schools at BU use other learning management systems such as Sakai and edX.

3R’s: Rest, Read, and Reflect. You’ve just completed an intense year of test taking, applications, and decisions. Before you begin the next chapter in your educational journey, take a moment to catch your breath. Second, read for pleasure! Many college students find that they are too busy during the academic year to read for pleasure, so take this opportunity to read for fun and to learn about issues that interest you. Third, reflect on your educational experiences thus far, taking stock of what helped you grow and what held you back. This reflection can help you enter your college career with a renewed sense of focus.

Your academic advisor can provide you with guidance on course selection, choosing a major, and planning a degree program. However, advisors can also help you navigate academic concerns and can connect you with additional assistance for personal, career, and financial concerns.

If you have concerns about the content of a specific course, ERC Peer Tutors offer support for a number of 100 and 200-level courses. Also, it’s a good idea to stay in communication with your Teaching Fellows and professors and visit their office hours regularly. Often, professors can give you guidance about what to focus on in their courses, so that you can feel less overwhelmed.

If you would like to take a holistic look at your weekly schedule or work on a particular study skill, such as note taking or reading strategies, an Academic Coaching appointment at the ERC is an excellent place to start. Our professional staff will learn more about your unique situation and make recommendations to support your success.

If feelings of stress and overwhelm persist, you may want to consider scheduling a free, confidential appointment with Behavioral Medicine. The counselors there can help you develop a plan that supports your wellbeing and success.

The ERC regularly works with students with anxiety. We offer a workshop on Test Taking & Test Anxiety. You can also schedule an Academic Coaching appointment to meet with a professional staff member to discuss a personalized plan that will help you cope with test anxiety.

Some strategies that can help you reduce test anxiety are engaging in self-care, practicing relaxation techniques (progressive muscle relaxation, visualization, breathing exercises, meditation exercises, etc.), and simulating the test taking environment. It’s also important to establish connections with your instructors to determine what the format of the test will be and to find out what chapters/ topics you’ll be tested on. During the test, engage in breathing exercises, avoid thoughts about the past and future, and keep realistic expectations.

Maintaining a balanced schedule, with adequate sleep, nutrition, and exercise, will go a long way to preventing burnout! Building relationships with peers and mentors will also give you crucial sources of social support. Check out this article to learn more about tips to prevent academic burnout.

The ERC’s Resource Guide is an excellent way to learn about other services and programs around campus.