5 easy ways to incorporate exercise in your daily routines

As a student I know that most of us won't always have the time or goodwill to go to the gym or to change clothes for exercising otherwise. While exercise is important for looking better and feeling better, I also often happen to wonder 'but when should I do that?' or 'meh, I don't want to dress up for that'. Therefore, I will now post some advices about incorporating exercise in things you do on a daily base, regardless of how much time you have. 

The first advice is to walk or ride your bike whenever you can. Of course, when it is raining cats and dogs, you are excused, but taking the bus on a sunny day while you only have a 10 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride ahead cannot be justified by anyone. A nice bonus is that you get to catch some sun, which means that your body receives vitamin D, which stimulates the production of calcium, which - in turn - is good for your bones, nails, and teeth. 

The second thing to do is to replace the elevators and escalators by stairs. Sure, for a 10 floor building, you may start out with walking only half of the stairs and then continue by elevator/escalator, but in a 4 floor building there is no excuse unless you are in a wheelchair or bound to walking with crutches. 

My third advice is something I tried out myself. Given that you can stand the looks of people when they see you doing it, you might hold your bottles of water in your hands and train your biceps as you walk.Simply buy or fill two 0.5 litre bottles with water and hold one in each of your hands. Then, when you walk on your left foot you train your right biceps and the other way round. Once you arrived at your destination, drink the water. Because it is good for you. 

The fourth thing you might do is for when you stand in a queue or in the bus/train.Squeeze your butt, hold it for a few seconds and then relax again. It is fairly simple and nobody has to see you doing it when it is crowded or when you stand strategically, but you will see results if you manage to do this a couple of times on a daily base! 

Last but not least: your abs! You can train them by squeezing them all day long. Doing this will give you a better posture, a slimmer silhouette and you also train your abdominal muscles to become slightly stronger. Although the real thing is doing sit-ups, this exercise is effective for those do not want to lie down on the floor. 

So, what do you do to stay in shape? Do you make the most of little moments like I do or do you plan actual exercises and gym sessions? Let me know! 

5 reasons to dress up ...

... as soon as you leave your house/(dorm) room.

We all have those days that we just do not feel like dressing up. May be you were late, or you just want to dress comfortable. Regardless of the reason why you may not feel like it, it is important to dress up whenever you leave your place because of the following reasons.

First, you will really feel better when you dressed up. My personal mantra is: "Dress well, feel well". If I have a bad day and I am not dressed well, I feel twice as bad as when I have a bad day while being dressed up fine. 

Did I have a bad day? Can't remember, but I felt good because I was dressed up! 

Second, you never know whom you run into. It can be the cute guy from your English Literature class or the head of the admission committee from the special honours programme you wanted to apply for. In either case, you will want to hit your head against a wall if you walk around with your just-out-of-bed look. 

Imagine some hot dude sitting here while you are wearing your oldest, least charming clothes.

Third, you simply look better. If you are dressed up in class, you show respect to the teacher, because not only you are present, but you also bothered to give your teacher or professor something better to look at than a scarecrow. If you have an appointment scheduled for that day, you show respect for the person with whom you have the appointment. Of course, no need to go all formal, but just make sure you wear clothes! 

Fourth, it is important to distinguish night-clothes from day-clothes. As comfortable as your nightwear is, most of it is just not made to be worn at daytime. Most of my nightwear is too cold, too sporty, or too [insert anything making it unsuitable] for daytime. Under my blankets, a simple tunic is fine, but without them, I become an ice-brick at the spot! 

I don't like wearing thick clothes at night, so if I'd jump out of my window with the snow here, I'd freeze! 

Fifth is related the above: changing clothes for your hygiene. All girls must have read at least a couple of times in their lives that it is important to cleanse your face before you are going to sleep. The same goes for your clothes: change them when you get out of bed. I sweat a lot of night and I would not feel fresh if I wore my night-clothes to class. 

These are my reasons for dressing up during daytime. Do you dress up when you have to leave your place? Are you going to change the bad habit of not dressing up for leaving your place after reading this? Let me know! 

Five ways to live on a budget

Many students around the world live on a budget since studying is not cheap. There are tuition fees, books and other supplies for your study, but you also need to eat, pay rent and/or public transportation costs, and many other things, and not everyone is blessed with rich parents or parents who are willing to pay the college experience for their grown-up children. No matter the cause of your limited budget, here are five simple tips you can follow if your months are longer than your money. 

First, check whether you really need the latest edition of your textbooks or that an earlier edition will suffice. The earlier editions are often offered second-hand on the web, so they are cheaper than the brand-new editions. If you even do not manage money-wise to buy books at all, check at your library whether your course books are available there. In my faculty's library, they have the textbooks at the desk that are not for lending, but for short-term use within the library. You go to the desk, ask whether you can use the book for X hours and bring it back when you're finished. Our library also happens to have the readers of all departments for instant use. Also check whether your faculty has this, because this can also save a significant amount of money. And, now that we're on the topic of books anyway, you might as well check out whether your teacher has written the actual textbook(s) needed for the course. I once had a teacher telling us that she would not mind sending us all other chapters of a book  via e-mail that she had written and published. 

The second advice I can give is to try to print as much as you can with two pages on one sheet of paper. This, of course, depends on the lay-out of the text you're printing, but it has occurred to me a couple of times that I was deceived by the lay-out on the computer screen and therefore printed one page per sheet while I could easily have printed two pages per sheet. If you use the two pages per sheet setting for all your prints (other than official documents, such as papers, essays, and theses, that must be handed in!), your print costs can be reduced by almost 50% !!!

Thirdly, it might be useful to find out whether there are second-hand shops within a reasonable distance from your campus. What is a reasonable distance is different for everyone, but a reasonable price for students is probably not! Second-hand stores are usually closer to reasonable prices for students than the 'normal' stores, unless it comes to collector's items. If you have no objection against using things already used by others, going second-hand is an ideal option for those living on a budget. 

My fourth advice is to keep track of the sales and other special actions of the shops. Since a few years, I am  under the impression that there are more weeks in a year that especially clothing stores have 'sales' racks throughout their shops than that they have not. Also be aware of shops that are about to move, renew the interior of their building, or going bankrupt. These shops usually try to get rid of as much stock as they can by reducing the prices like crazy. This one is for people who do have an objection against used things, but who are also on a budget. Since many fashion trends are also allowed to be worn for a longer period of time, buying during the sales does not necessarily mean that you're dressed old-fashioned next season! 

Last, but not least: think economically! Weigh the costs of an item versus its perceived usefulness or benefits. For example, some biological foods are more expensive than non-biological foods, but biological foods yield a stuffed feeling faster than non-biological foods, so you need less of them. Besides, biological foods really are tastier, so you also weigh the price-quality balance. Also try to find out for which grants and compensation you are eligible as a student. This may cost some time and reading tough paper work, but it might be worth it. Thinking economically is really not that difficult, you just have to make a cost-benefit analysis and be realistic and honest to yourself. If you see a super cute cardigan that does not fit with the rest of your wardrobe and therefore ends up unworn, it might be a waste of money, no matter how cute it is. 

These were my advices for living on a limited budget, but I'm sure that you have your own ways of figuring financial stuff out. How do you manage? Are you the lucky one who get everything from the parents? Or are you okay with taking a loan and having debts for the first years after your graduation? 

4 easy ways to make the world a better place

Why are we in college? If you study medicine, you probably want to help people get healthy again. If you study  to become a teacher, you either want to do as good a job as your favourite teachers, or you want to do better than the horrible teachers from your school. If you study to become a social worker, you want to give families and their members a better life. However, you don't need to be a doctor, teacher, or even Nobel Prize winner to contribute to a better world. Here are four simple things you can do to make others' lives better and you don't need a degree for that! 

1. Smile! Share your happiness with the world and spread it. I can become very happy when someone smiles at me, so someone else might get happy if you smile at them :) 
2. Turn off your gadgets, or at least leave them in your bag when you're in public. People today often have some sort of gadgets in their hand while in public: smart phone, mp3-player, and on, and on. They have earphones over or in their ears or they constantly look at a small screen. If you would just leave your gadgets in your bag, you would have the opportunity to talk with that old man who sits next to you in the bus or train! Old (but also young) people usually have more interesting stories than you expect from them and conversing with other people allows you to share your story with others, but it also lets others share their story with you. These stories may help you put things into perspective, inspire you to do something new, and thereby guide you in making the world a little bit better.
3. Do volunteer work. Most volunteer work does not cost too much time (usually about one morning / afternoon weekly at most), or you can help with special events when a lot of work must be done. For volunteering, you also do not need special qualifications or degrees, and sometimes - if your work is related to your study - you might get some credits for it! But most important, of course, is that you contribute to a better world.
4. Be nice and polite. This might seem like a no-brainer, but if you are nice and polite, you are likely to receive niceness and politeness from others, and if everyone is nice and polite to each other, the world will be a better place. 

So, as you can see, you don't need to be a Nobel Prize winner or have a college degree. Everyone can contribute to a better world, and by living in a better world, it is likely that you feel better, too. Besides, contributing to something and feeling useful can result in feeling content, which facilitates the aforementioned advices to improve the world, so it's just a positive vicious circle that you start! 

What do you think? Is it important to improve the world on a small scale as suggested above? How do you try to make the world a better place?  

What you need to know about talent shows ...

... before you decide to participate.

Talent shows are all over in the television programming. The hype started with Idol's international derivatives, and today there are shows from X-factor via America's Next Top Model through So You Think You Can Dance and [insert country] Got Talent, each claiming to emphasize a unique part of the participants. I think that almost everybody has at least once wondered how far they would get, were they to participate.

Advantages and disadvantages

While there is an obvious difference between a talent show for upcoming models and a talent show for upcoming singers, as  soon as the audience gets to vote for their favourite participant, it doesn't matter whether you participate in The Voice or X-factor or Popstars. The audience will most of the time not vote for a singer because they have 'the voice' or because they have 'the X-factor', but because the participating singer has something the audience likes about him or her. This can indeed be the voice or the X-factor, but there are also many teenage girls voting because 'the guy looks hot' or 'I don't think the other one should win' or 'she has had such a troublesome youth, she deserves to win'. So, basically the concepts of most, if not all, talent shows come down to the same thing as soon as the audience gets a vote. 

A good thing about talent shows is that people, who do not have the (financial) means to record and produce a nice demo  of themselves or who cannot afford dance lessons, can now show themselves by filling out an online form and head to the nearest audition location. The judges there decide who is good enough for the next rounds and who is not. The further you get in a show, the more coaching you'll receive and the more experience you gain, which both can be valuable on your way to making it. This is way to make a career without having to invest hundreds of bucks per year in voice/dance lessons, demo recordings, and photo shoots.

However, after the show's finished, you usually have to do very much on your own. You have received coaching and gained experience, now it's time to show what you've got. In fact, the real hard work starts now, because you no longer are on TV on a weekly base. Everything now comes down to getting connected with the right people who really want to work with you and not just because they have a contractual duty to help you, doing gigs / photo shoots and show the best of yourself there. It is also important to stay in touch with the fans: one negative story will hurt you more than hundred positive stories will help you to get further! Naturally, this counts as well when you're meeting people from the industry. The worlds are usually small and the lines are short, so remain professional, whoever you meet. 

Another advantage is, of course, the whole experience of participating in talent shows. I am not talking about the experience of performing and media training, but about the experience of being a participant. The media madness, getting to see front row how television works, and the organization of the whole show. I can tell from first-hand experience (not going to specify it further than this) that it's really impressive if you see how much show-specific decoration, how many cameras, how much directing are involved, and how many other impressions you'll get when it's the first time in your life you decide give it a try. For those who are certain that they won't stand a chance: much of what you see on television during the audition phase is already directed by people who are part of the show's crew, except the performances themselves. I am personally glad to have experienced it, as I now have seen a glimpse of such a show is made. For the program I auditioned for, there were 2 audition days. I already knew this because a judge from a small-scale talent show in which I had participated told everyone who was there, but when I heard this, I found it quite surprising. The first day was with 'shadow judges', or local people with some kind of involvement in music who judged whether you are worth being judged by the real judges, for whom you will perform on the second day. However, even on the first day, cameras are also recording each and every audition. These recordings were used for quick clips that were shown right before and right after each commercial break, before the hosts or an actual audition was shown. So even when you don't get to see the real judges, you might still get your minute of fame! 

Although it all seems amazing, you must reckon with disappointments. The first 'shadow judges' may decide to not let you through to the next round, no matter how good you are. And in the end, only one person can win, out of the thousands that register initially. Calculate your odds. 

'Realness'   

Here in the Netherlands, there have been countless rumours about the winner of the show having been decided upon far before the audience decided. It has also been rumoured that the judges on television get scripts as for what to say to the contestants and that they do not get to express their real opinion about them. Needless to say that the people making the program countered this by stating that there is an official solicitor and that the audience decides. Since I have not further deepened my knowledge about talent shows and reality TV since my auditions, I am not the right person to say whether the aforementioned rumours are true or not. I am also not the one to judge the 'realness' of talent shows. I did, however, have to read a book for a course last year which sort of confirmed me in my personal idea about talent shows that the producers have a profile of the winning candidate. This profile is given to the judges and 'shadow judges', so that they can decide who fits this profile and who does not. Since the odds for finding someone who exactly matches the profile are small, they will aim to find someone who comes as close as possible. Note that this is how I think it goes! It is a personal idea and not how it really works! In my mind, however, a  'winner profile' could look as follows: 

• The winner is into pop music, but also likes R'n'B and soul.
• The winner has therefore a voice similar to Aretha Franklin, Joss Stone, or Beyoncé.
• The winner is skinny, but looks healthy to the audience.
• The winner has a clothing style  similar to Rihanna or Beyoncé. 
• The winner is at least [x] inches / centimetres tall.
• The winner has a heart-shaped face or an oval-shaped face. 

No matter the truth, in order to keep up the veil of 'realness', a variety of contestants will be selected for the live shows. However, even though most of the shows are directed to the second and even though there may be 'winner profiles' and scripts + auto cue for judges or so, it is still a valuable experience that you will remember for life.

Your thoughts
What do you think about talent shows? Do you like them or not? Do you think they're real or that most of it is fake? Have you considered entering? Have you ever participated in big talent show? 

Eating healthy

I must confess, I am a health nut. I believe I mentioned health in almost every post I wrote here. Today, it is time for a post about healthy food, because we all need to eat and student food is not known to be the healthiest.

The first question might be: what is healthy food? It might sound stupid to ask this, as everybody knows that they must eat two pieces of fruit every day, two portions of vegetables, that skipping meat a few times per week does not hurt you when you replace it by soy products or fish, and that you need to drink 1.5 litres each day. There is, however, more to eating healthy. As a matter of fact, one can eat healthy and one can eat healthy. The first healthy is where you, for example, get your vegetables from microwave meals, which might indeed contain enough vitamins and minerals in the veggies, but that also contain a lot of salt and probably artificial additives. The second healthy is where you make everything by yourself with fresh and pure ingredients. Of course, it would be best to make all food by yourself from scratch, to the point where you plant your own vegetables and fruit trees in your garden and raise your own cattle, but most of us won't have the time for that.

The second question to be answered is: how do you recognize fresh and pure ingredients? Fresh ingredients are fairly easy: look for the expiration date and use your common sense if something looks or smells funny. Pure ingredients are more difficult, but after a few years of reading various articles, books, watching documentaries and TV shows, and trying things out, I have gathered some knowledge about what pure food means.

An easy way to find out how healthy your food is, is to look at the length of the ingredient list of the products you buy. Don't look for 'healthy choice' labels! These are often misleading, already put on a product as soon as there is less sugar or fat in it than the equivalent of another brand. A general, very rough rule of thumb without any nuance to it is that the longer the list of ingredients, the more likely it is that there is something bad, processed, or artificial in it. As stated above, it is a general and rough rule without any nuance: some pure products list 10 ingredients while some 'artificial' products contain only 3 or 4 ingredients.

In the European Union (EU), some 'artificial' products are easily recognizable. The EU has a list of approved artificial and natural additives that are added to food to make it look better, tastier, more smelly, or simply to be able to preserve it longer without it rotting away. These additives have gotten numerical codes, all starting with an E, also called E-numbers. Although the EU has approved these, some additives from the 'European' list are forbidden in some individual EU-countries or in the USA, so just because a supranational institution has approved of it, doesn't necessarily make it good!

Also, producers of food replace the E-number codes by the names of the additives today, resulting in packages almost as easily readable as the table of elements we had to learn in Chemistry during high school. In order to read and understand these lists, you really need to be into chemistry. Again, as a very general rule of thumb: the harder an ingredient is to pronounce, the more likely it is that it is unhealthy. This again a very general rule of thumb, because ascorbic acid sounds quite scary, but actually it just vitamin C.

Another reason to be wary of packages is that they sometimes scream 'no preservatives!' or 'does not contain colorants!' Some additives serve several functions and they usually are added for their primary function. The second function is just a side effect, and therefore, the producers tend to derive the claim of 'no whatever type of additives' from the primary and initial reason why the stuff was added to the product.

So, what should you avoid at all costs?

First, diet / light products, and products that claim to contain no sugar / no fat. The sugar that ought to be in the product is most often replaced by sweeteners, such as sucrose, aspartame (E951), sucralose (E955), and acesulfame-K (E950). While your teeth might be happy and shiny with the sugar being replaced by these sweeteners, the rest of your body may disagree with your teeth. And after all, your teeth prefer water and milk above everything.

Second, microwave meals / ready-to-eat salads with dressing and basically ALL ready-to-use dressings / sauces / whatever. I have come across a few microwave meals that contain no additives, but make up for this by using excessive amounts of salt. Most of these ready-to-eat meals / salads / dressings / sauces contain preservatives, flavour modifiers, emulsifiers and other things that make me personally feel sick and loose all appetite. Especially the flavour modifier monosodium glutamate (E621) is a well-known one and even referred to as 'Chinese restaurant syndrome', because Chinese restaurants often use it in their food. If you are allergic to this flavour modifier, you can actually feel very unwell after consuming it. It is present in most ready-to-use sauces, dressings, bouillon preparations, but also in potato chips with additional flavours and many other well-seasoned food products. I would also categorize cakes, cookies, pop tarts and almost anything sweet you can get at the supermarket.

Third, meat and meat products, especially when they are flavoured with spices and marinades. It is not secret that many cattle farmers feed their animals with growth hormones (which may lead to hormonal disturbances in your body) and antibiotics (which has already resulted in the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria), but once in the meat factory, additives are added for taste and preservation on top of the hormones and antibiotics.

Fourth, so-called healthy and / or tasty dairy variations, such as chocolate milk from cans (emulsifiers) and strawberry yoghurt drink without sugar (sweeteners). Yes, I know these are tasty, but it really is better to drink a cup of milk and eat the strawberries separately and it also really is better to mix some pure and dark cocoa powder with milk (and maybe some sugar).

As a last word of advice, ingredients differ per brand, per company, and per shop. The examples of products containing (artificial) additives are generalizations and there are also many more products containing these additives. This article provides you with some guidelines that help you choose when you are busy and do not have so much time for grocery shopping. I will, however, recommend you to really take the time once and look at the ingredient lists on all products you wish to buy / eat. I also want to recommend you, if this topic has your interest, to just look up things on the internet. Wikipedia has a list of sub-categories and pages on which you can find plenty of information about additives. While Wikipedia may not be the most academic or scientific source, it is always a good starting point for extending your web search.

Last but not least: why the heck would you bother? Simple: because it has significant health benefits. Today, people are becoming more conscious of the additives, but they still are not knowledgeable enough to really make a decision on what is healthy and what is not. That makes perfect sense, as it took me years to find out what really is good for me, after extensive searches on the internet and in other sources. It is, however, a fact that some kids who were diagnosed with ADHD got rid of their disorder by following a diet based on avoiding unhealthy food as defined above. These kids never needed Ritalin / Concerta / Adderall, just a simple and healthy diet. Some additives have also been related to increased risk of getting cancer and other unpleasant diseases, but there is still much research going on and the results sometimes contradict each other. Some diets for people with severe and headstrong fungal infections strongly suggest eating pure food, without additives. My own experiences are: I'm feeling mentally and physically stronger, I've overcome the chronic winter colds that I had back during adolescence, I can focus better, and I have more energy than ever. While my life was pretty good before leaving the (in most cases) unnecessary additives aside, it is now so much better.

What are your thoughts? Did you already try to eat healthy or are you going to change your eating pattern after reading this? Do you think that the food industry should be legally forced to reduce their additives to an absolute minimum or do you think it is unstoppable no matter what? Do you think it is worthwhile spending hours on the internet looking up more specific information and preparing all your food by yourself? Maybe you happen to be a formerly ADHD kid who was cured by a diet? Let me know!

The last day of summer

Tomorrow will be my last day of the summer! Monday morning, my alarm will beep and wake me up. I am probably not the only one. You can sit down and be melancholic and reflect on your summer, but you can also try to make the most of that last day of freedom and I can tell you how to do it. 

Of course, it depends on what type of person you are, but the most important thing is that you enjoy this last day. 

So, for the sporty people: maybe your sports club or team has a match to play on a kind of summer tournament. Make it fun by not just playing the match and say 'goodbye, see ya at the next training' , but propose to your team to go out after the match and make some fun! If you have no matches to play (or if you are involved with individual sports), you might as well work out a bit on your own. I personally love to go hike in a nearby forest or ride my bike around my town and its surroundings. Running is another good thing to do, although not so much my cup of tea. 

For the creative people: you might be enrolled in a more or less creative college course like Photography or Conservatory. In this case, there is no reason to worry about lack of assignments through which you can let your creativity speak, but if you are creative and enrolled in a non-creative college course, this last day should definitely be used to make something out of it! Go paint, draw, take pictures, sing, write, whatever your creative mind tells you to do and have fun with it! 

For the fashionistas: you do not want to look like everyone else in class, so you need to fix some outfits for the new year in college. Go experiment with whatever you have in your wardrobe, and - even though it might still be hot where you live - try out some outfits for colder days as well, as autumn is knocking on your door and maybe even peeking around the corner already. If you feel your wardrobe is not satisfactory, go out for some shopping. 

For those who just want to relax: if the weather is nice, just go outside wherever you want to and with whomever you want to. Sitting down in a park with a book and some nice snacks and drinks can be very relaxing, but your backyard might do too. Maybe this is also a day to invite one or more of your friends for girls'/guys' afternoon of catching up with each other's lives. Just do whatever makes you feel calm, ready and steady for the new year in college. I am a fan of reading; what do you like to do? 

For those who have to work: whether it is volunteer work, a job, or an internship - work is work. Since it is unlikely that you will have to work from 7 AM through 10 PM, look at your timetable and plan some nice things around your work schedule (see tips above). You can also use the last day of summer as an excuse to go out with colleagues, if they are nice, or just have some extra fun at work by bringing cupcakes or something. 

I am one of the people who has to work, although it is technically not a job, but I am just going to make the most of it. I'll head to the city early, have a nice lunch there, go to work and then have a nice dinner afterwards (my mother is a very good companion for such things as she really likes going to shop!)

So, what type of person are you? What type of activity suits you? Or are you one of the lucky ducks who has one or two more weeks of holidays ahead? Let me know! 

When autumn is coming closer ...

While today and tomorrow are good days in terms of weather where I live, we are all aware that autumn is approaching slowly. Past night and the night before gave rather low temperatures, which were close to freezing point. In fact, the summer in the Netherlands has not been much of a summer, although there were a few good days. As the clock keeps ticking and autumn draws nearer, it is becoming more of a challenge to dress nicely without looking like a mummy.

The start of autumn also means the start of a new year in college, meaning that notebooks and textbooks have to be taken out again for some serious studying every now and then. As the days gradually grow shorter, it seems very tempting to stay in bed longer in the mornings, but there just is no time for it if you want to finish your studying during the daytime!

People who longer live with their parents, move (back) into their dorm rooms or rooms elsewhere in town and they probably face the challenge of arranging their rooms and getting on with their room mates. I wish you all the best! Students who stay with their parents face the challenge of getting up early every day; catching their trains, and getting on with their parents.

All in all, autumn always sets a few challenges, each and every year, and every time it feels to me like I forgot how I managed the year before. However, if you follow some of the tips from earlier posts - or if you are a creative nut yourself - you should be able to work your way around most of the issues. I wish all of you a pleasant autumn and good luck if you consider aforementioned issues a challenge!

A must-have list for college - just so that you can study

It's a lovely rainy Sunday where I live, and I figured that I would have liked a must-have list for college, even while it may seem easy to buy school supplies. 

First and foremost, college =/= high school. Your teachers probably will not require you to have a separate notebook for each subject or to have (within a subject) separate notebooks for lecture notes and homework. 

Secondly, it is likely that you will not have as many subjects each term as in high school. Whereas I had between 7-15 subjects throughout the year in high school, I now have 3 or 4 subjects each term. This may differ for each course: for example, I know that the Bachelor Law school in Groningen works with about 6 subjects per semester, but Educational Sciences has 3 or 4 subjects per term, which is half a semester in time. So: count your subjects!

So, then, what do you need?

1. Your textbooks and syllabi / readers / whatever your teachers call them. Without your textbooks and syllabi, you do not have the literature available you have to know for your exams. If you cannot afford buying all the textbooks and readers, I would recommend to look at the library of your university or faculty, to see if you can loan the books there. Make sure you can have them available when you need them, either way. 

2. Notebooks! Yes, you still need notebooks, but probably not as many as in high school. How you value technology and neatness might influence how many notebooks you need. If you prefer reading from your laptop screen, you just need to have your laptop ready during lectures and if you do not mind having Constitutional Law notes next to International Law notes and other things, you can get away with 1 notebook. They are available in many price classes and designs. If you can afford it, buy some notebooks that suit your style. That way, it will be much more fun to use them. 

3. Stuff to write with: pens in different colours, pencils, an eraser, a ruler and text markers are things I have always with me. I personally like to have the number of the lecture in red on top of the page and the key words in blue. For drawings, I still prefer a good old grey pencil and a ruler in case rectangles and square shapes must be drawn in the notes. Text markers are handy to mark the most important words in a text from your book or syllabus. 

4. A diary. Not necessary a school diary though, since your life might continue during traditional holidays, but a diary is necessary. College students are busy people; we have to study, work, be on boards and committees for our CV, keep up with friends, take some basic care of ourselves, etc. Again, there is a wide variety, so it depends on your budget, preferences and style which one you take. I personally like my diary to be not too big, but still big enough so that a decent amount of activities fit. Preferably with the hours of the day, because I am somewhat lazy. The photos below are from my own diary.

5. A few email addresses of people in your class and your teachers' email addresses. Questions may arise while you're studying a topic or when you're working on an assignment. In such cases it can help a lot if you can ask someone who is involved with the same topics and assignments as you. 

6. Folders and/or binders. For the tidy, neat and organised people among us, not so much for the techno students who do everything on their laptop. As subjects advance, your teacher might hand out more stencils and paper work or (s)he will put them online for you to print. Once printed/received, it is tempting to put them on your desk and eventually have them drowned in plenty other stuff. This does not make for a successful academic career, so it is more efficient to have a folder or binder in which you can put away your prints. I have planned to buy one notebook this year, but put all my notes and prints in a binder, with a tab for each subject. 

So, that is my list of must-haves to succeed in college (or at least pass your exams). Remember this blog is young, so there is much more to come, but if you think I forgot something important regarding this subject, please let me know =) You are also welcome to share your thoughts of course or just randomly drop by and say something. 

Welcome to my world

Hello and a warm welcome to everyone who has found this blog! It doesn't matter how you came here; what matters is what you're searching here. This blog is not just about college life, because I know you would soon be fed up with wisdom like 'don't get wasted the night before an exam'. Also, I am a girl, so there will be stuff about fashion on here too, although I might give an update on the Dutch football competition and Champions/Europe League too. Past week I actually developed the etiquette for hooligans watching a soccer match at TV, which I might post up here as well, just to keep guys interested. 

I just want to share my experiences as a college student and I hope that others are interested in that. Besides, I would like to offer general advice for the student audience in general. As universal as I'll attempt to be, everyone's experiences are different, since we all have our own backgrounds and lives, so my advices may not count as a general, universal and undeniable truth :) 

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this blog, because this is something I plan to continue. I already have a few interesting items in mind about fashion, music, movies, college life and other issues. Have a nice weekend and I hope to see you around in the comments section :)