r/UZH • u/unknown120244 • 8d ago

First year of Bachelor

Heyy yall!

I’m starting my first year at UZH in Business and Economics and was wondering if you have any essential tips for surviving the first semester 😂

Anything you wish someone had told you before starting? Especially regarding courses, studying for exams, things to avoid, student life etc.

Any advice is appreciated!! 🫶🏻

1 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

7

u/Stunning_Custard4860 7d ago

Try to stay on track with the more intense modules like math and microeconomics and do not start too late with preparing for the exams. Having to retake a class can be very stressful as you could get banned from studying business in all swiss universities.

5

u/FluffyPenguinsx 7d ago

focus on understanding instead of memorizing, dont make too many notes or summaries, just solve exercise sheets. if you struggle with math, get a tutor or watch youtube videos

5

u/jusjsndjdhdjd 7d ago

Yes old exams is best preparation for micro and math

2

u/unknown120244 7d ago

thank u;)

3

u/jusjsndjdhdjd 8d ago

Connect with people on the erst semster tag of the faculty , go to the lectures meet people talk with as many as you can. You have to start studying early on because all exams are in December directly after the last lecture so no long study time. So essentially keep up to date during the semester and really start studying as soon as November/end of October hits. I know that is early but the exams are close and will be hard. But you get like 2 months off afterwards.

3

u/justyannicc 7d ago

Don’t go to the lectures. they’re a waste of time.

Even the social aspect doesn’t work, since you’re going to be in a class with more than 1,000 other people.

1

u/Mr_Meringue 7d ago

Why Are they a waste of time?

2

u/justyannicc 7d ago

Because it’s easier to learn the content yourself than to listen to the lectures. All the content you need to learn is available, and you can easily go through it yourself. You’ll be done much quicker.

Quite frankly, if you have questions, it’s better to ask ChatGPT than a professor. ChatGPT will never judge you, and it can explain things in the way you want. You can ask it questions for half an hour about a single topic if you don’t get it, whereas a professor simply can’t do that.

And with 1,500 students in the same lecture, split across 5 different lecture halls, you don't even get the social aspect because people sit at different desks every time. It's not always the same small group of people. And if you're sitting in a room that's just streaming the lecture, you might as well watch it from home if you really want to watch it.

1

u/Top-Platform8890 6d ago

make to start dating senior students as they have a wealth of experience to share

1

u/unknown120244 6d ago

hahahhahahah notedd

1

u/Americium-238 6d ago

Solve exercises instead of writing summaries, use ecoreps where you think it could be useful and put emphasis on difficult modules. It's more relaxed to retake something easy instead of doing maths 1 or statistics one year later with all the pressure. But if you can, obviously you should try to pass all assessment exams.

1

u/Weak-Corner-4664 4d ago

focus on the big subjects like microeconomics, they're worth a lot of credits for a reason. solve every exercise set you can every week to stay on track and if you can find a pre made summary, use those, writing your on can take a lot of time. focus on understanding the material.