Welcome back to a chilly new year and a new semester, and for those who just joined Iowa State this semester, welcome to Iowa State University. We hope everyone returned refreshed, restored and prepared to engage again with their academic venture.

As the semester has already begun this week, it’s an ideal time to acquaint yourself with your classes, schedules and instructors. Also, it’s the right time to recall and analyze rights and wrongs that happened last semester and start off this semester by setting goals before you get started.

Setting goals and resolutions for a new semester or class is the best way for students to start off. This way, students can provide themselves with motivation, focus, clear direction, organization and decision-making power that will ultimately make their new semester more productive, prolific and exciting.

Students can set a plethora of goals for their new semester, but we advise them to choose and set some specific, determinate, attainable and realistic goals that, most importantly, they stick to.

For instance, being organized is a popular, realistic and achievable goal among students. By striving for this goal, students can be more productive and efficient in their studies. They will also have less stress and find more time for family and relaxation.

Crafting a study schedule can be another important and pronounced goal. After getting used to their classes, students can layout a timetable to schedule their study hours while still fulfilling other social commitments which are highly important for their health, growth and personal development. This will allow students to organize their time into quality study time and quality free time.

Besides organization and creating a study schedule, being proactive can be another equally important goal for the new semester. Proactive students can anticipate forthcoming challenges related to exams and class projects and seek advice and help to resolve them ahead of time.

Being proactive can raise a student’s chances of academic success and enable them to take charge of their academic career. Students seeking jobs and internships must set this goal and start planning for spring career fairs by researching their target employer beforehand and knowing what they are looking for.

Office hours are another valuable yet highly under-utilized resource available to students for free, right on campus. Students can make their academic lives easier by setting goals to potentially utilize these hours in which they can get their questions answered or receive some extra help throughout the semester.

Remember, setting goals is not the ultimate solution to everything, but students can be ahead of the game if they stick to and strive for their prearranged goals.

Finally, do not exhaust yourself by being overwhelmed with new classes and all the stress that comes with the start of a new semester. Let’s create goals for this new semester and stick to them. We believe that this exercise will make your studying more efficient and keep you from falling behind in your classes. You will feel the difference when you land on your feet at the end of this semester.