Summer is not only about vacations! It can also be a crucial time for your student to start thinking ahead and taking advantage of opportunities that can aid them in career development and professional skills.
There are many internships, on-campus jobs, co-ops, and federal work study opportunities for students. Regardless of student’s year, these work experience can greatly benefit students’ future! Some students take advantage of early career experiences to figure out what they might be interested in doing professionally.
If your student is interested in searching for a position, encourage them to visit the UCF Career Services website. Take a closer look under ‘Student’ tab since they are offering resources to discover career interests, search, explore, and prepare interviews.
Taking summer classes is a great way to help your student balance fall and spring workloads so that they can continue their path to graduation. There are four different summer terms at UCF. Summer terms have different start and end dates. We call different summer terms Summer A, B, C, and D. Encourage your student to choose a summer term that works for them, their progress to their degree, and the classes offered during these terms.
If you are an FTIC student admitted for the Summer semester, your first set of classes will be during Summer B. You can view the dates for each summer term on the academic calendar.
calendar.ucf.edu.
Calculating a GPA (Grade Point Average) can be confusing, but it could be important to project a final GPA correctly. MyUCF has a feature called “GPA Estimator” which can help in estimating a student’s GPA. Click here to see how you can utilize “GPA Estimator.”
For a full guide on the resources that UCF offers, how they can help your student to ace their final exams, and more head here: https://fye.sdes.ucf.edu/a-guide-to-preparing-for-final-exams/
Final scores are highly weighted toward students’ final grades. Some classes require students to submit final exams on Webcourses (UCF’s learning management system) as well. No matter what: it is very important students submit these things on time! When students submit their final work on time, it allows faculty to then have their full allotted time to finish the grading process, and also gives students time to ask questions about grading before it is finalized for the semester in the system.
Final exam schedules vary from class to class, so it is important for students to understand that everyone will have a different schedule. Students should be aware of each class’s exam date and plan to review accordingly. The Spring 2023 final exam schedule search can be found here: https://exams.sdes.ucf.edu/2023/spring. Also, students should check the material covered in the final exam because the exam might be cumulative (cover material from the whole semester) or just material discussed since a midterm exam. If your student needs to adjust their exam schedule or have questions about policies related to final exams, the best point of contact is their instructor.
Not many students utilize their professor’s office hours. Let’s change that! Encourage your student to ask questions during the instructor’s office hours or send an email. This not only helps students perform better on the final exam but can build positive relationships with their faculty as well.
If your student is overly stressed about final exams, remind them it’s important to take care of themselves in order to perform well academically. We know that most students don’t sleep and eat well during the final exam period, but it’s important for students to build healthier habits now so they can successfully navigate future final exam schedules too (they have eight total final exam weeks before they graduate after all!). Encourage them to avoid “all-nighters” and aim to get enough sleep instead. Eating well-balanced meals can also aid in staying healthy and going into exams feeling fueled and ready. Remind them their summer is just around the corner too!
Every student has different study habits. Some students utilize flashcards, some prefer group studying, while some students need to talk about the material out loud. Encourage your student to think about methods they have used all semester that they found effective and stick to those. If they are struggling with finding the right study place or method, the Student Academic Resource Center has some great links to learning skills resources they can check out here: https://academicsuccess.ucf.edu/sarc/resources/.