Archive for the ‘Room mates’ Category

How to Study in Your Dorm With Used Textbooks: Study tips for the roommate challenged

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Study trick number one: trade textbooks with your dorm roommate and share used textbooks for the most study material. 

Trade textbooks with your roommate.

Trade textbooks with your roommate.

Thanks to my four years at university I learned a few study tricks or two when it came to successful dorm room study sessions. So pile up on your Canadian textbooks from locazU.com and get started.  

At first I made many failed attempts to study from my used university textbooks in my dorm room. My dorm roommate failed to take my subtle hints about the difficulties of studying around her propensity for noise. Think online computer games. Think electronica. Think yelling out the window at 2am. 

This led me to stumble upon my dorm study trick number two: if you share a dorm with another human being, invest in a good pair of earplugs. 

While these handy little objects managed to muffle out the sound of my dorm roommate’s drum and bass obsession, I didn’t count on their inability to block sound waves from vibrating through my body. But it’s all about trial and error, right? 

And while my dorm mate wasn’t exactly a studious gal, she somehow managed to earn herself A’s in all her computer science classes (and went on to earn more money than I can ever dream of). But I learned a valuable life lesson from this: life isn’t fair. 

Invest in a good pair of earplugs.

Invest in a good pair of earplugs.

Which leads me to my dorm study trick number three: find yourself a smart dorm mate and ask her for help. 

It’s a great trade-off, really. You put up with her A.D.H.D. and she helps you pass difficult classes. I mean, if you’re going to have another human being sleeping and snoring in the bunk beside yours, they might as well be smart, right? It’s handy to know that beneath your dorm mate’s pink Mohawk façade there is a genius at work. 

Finally, my dorm study trick number four (and the most important): lots and lots of caffeine. Get it anyway you can get it: coca-colas, coffees, frapachino’s, 90% pure chocolate bars. Sure, there are a few repercussions from ingesting large quantities of caffeine. 

Ask my previous dorm roommate about her red bull faze. I remember it well. I think her heart actually skipped a beat. So you might want to avoid that substance. 

There you have it. Expert advice from an expert student: used textbooks, earplugs, genius dorm roommate, and caffeine.  Good luck surviving your dorm.

By Ann Schwab

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Posted in Room mates, Tips, used textbooks | No Comments »

Trade textbooks and make the most of shared dorm living

Friday, August 14th, 2009

You can trade textbooks with friends and university roommates. 

Set your ground rules at the beginning.

Set your ground rules at the beginning.

Pool resources and share the costs of used university textbooks. Trade textbooks with each other each night to make sure that everyone gets enough time to study. Used textbooks are a great way to start study groups in the dorm. 

You see it doesn’t matter whether you share a small dorm with a roommate or rent an apartment together. When you have a roommate student life can be a lot sweeter. 

Or not. 

How to find the perfect university roommate  

If you want to get through your university year alive then take some well-earned advice on how to find happiness with your dorm roommate: 

  • -   Speak in person before agreeing to live together. Sound like common-sense right? You’d be surprised how many students fail to do this. Some people think that because they like their future roommate’s Facebook profile that they will like them in real life. Wrong. So wrong.
  • -   Meet before move-in day when you’re not hauling seven loads of boxes up the stairwell. This way they won’t judge you based on your sweaty armpits, anxiety, and the two over-eager parents smiling in the background.
  • -   Make a good first impression. Cross your fingers that they will forgive you in advance for all the blunders you will make in your freshman year. Don’t tell you snore (they’ll find out soon enough).
  • -   Set ground rules (which you both know you’ll break). Talk about cleaning (no ants please), lights out and quiet-time (4am is too late for electronica), home décor, copying homework, and “borrowing” clothes. If your roommate doesn’t want to talk about ground rules, be alarmed, very alarmed.
  • -    Relax. We’re not making you paranoid, are we?  Some of the best friendships and most fun experiences come from your roommates.

We forgot to mention the most important piece of advice of all: find a roommate who studies in the same department as you. That way you can trade textbooks and class resources to save money. 

If saving money on used textbooks doesn’t bring you two crazy kids together, then who knows what will. 

So there you have it – first class advice from locazu.com. Follow our tips for roommate success and you’ll be like two peas in a pod in no time.

By Ann Schwab

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Posted in back to school, Room mates, Tips | No Comments »