Final Push: Clarice's Study Tip #5 – Preparing for the real BIG one

By: Clarice Fu

You’ve finished your last exam and can finally breathe a sigh of relief.  The countless hours you spent slaving over your textbooks and those restless nights before each exam…wow, what a stressful couple of weeks!  You’ve finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel and you feel like you’ve conquered the impossible.  Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back!

But now what? Party hard ‘til next term and then brace yourself for another round? 

Today I share with you my fifth and final tip, dear Rovers.  It trumps and outlasts all the previous ones.  It requires more contemplation and persistence than any course you’ll take.  And it will make a bigger impact on your life than a glowing straight-A transcript.

Survival tip #5: Preparing for the real BIG one

I’m sure many of you can answer me without hesitation – what is a student’s biggest responsibility to him/herself?  To pursue knowledge, study hard, and to do your best to get good grades.  Simple.

But there’s gotta be more to a student’s life than that!!   Right?  …right???

Yes, my dears.  There is indeed.  Much, much more.

The real question is:  What are you doing to prepare for the REAL exam?  The one that is ultimate, the most important.  This exam begins the moment you graduate and continues until you find a job, build a career, achieve success, and retire.   Do you think becoming a super-student and an expert test-taker is enough to prepare you for adult life?  I tell you most honestly – absolutely not. 

 In reviewing my own tips from the last four days, I can say that none of them help me in my day job.  Now don’t get me wrong – school is extremely important and deserves your best effort.  It gave me a lot of valuable knowledge, developed my critical thinking skills, trained me to better handle stress, and a transcript that got my foot in the door.  But here are some skills that I didn’t get from 7 years of university:

• The ability to execute a 6-month teambuilding program for my department of 25 people
• The ability to build a meeting agenda, chair the meeting and effectively facilitate discussion
• The ability to network and confidently interact with a room of CEOs at a business conference
• The ability to drive improvements in my department
• The ability to communicate concisely and professionally whether it be speaking to a room of 100 coworkers, proposing a plan some VPs, or even just in daily emails with customers and colleagues

These are the real skills that are truly helping me achieve my career goal.

These are skills that I learned from the Rover Crew.

Most of you joined us in search of personal development.  You’ve taken such an important first step!  But you can’t stop there – you have simply opened the doors of opportunity.  You must continually seek and grasp chances to practice real life skills.  Take theinitiative to engage yourself in our projects, to work with different people, to learn from everyone else.   And when I say “engage”, I mean take a leap of faith and dive head-first into a new challenge!   The skills that you gain will prove to be more useful than any term paper you submit, any course you ace.

Don’t wait until the summer, or until you graduate, or until you can find time.   By then, it’ll be too late – you’re already behind.  You must start building your skills NOW.

So what’s the best thing you can do for yourself over this Christmas break?  Of course relax, celebrate, and party a bit – you deserve it.  But don’t let this time slip away.

There really is no better time.  Get engaged in a project now and start preparing yourself for your future.

With much love and big big hugs,

<3 Clarice

Check out the entire Final Push series

Tip #1: Plan a Study Schedule
Tip #2: Make a 1 Page Cheat Sheet
Tip #3: Be Prepared
Tip #4: Exam Writing Strategies
Tip #5: Preparing for the real Big one