No one likes studying, but the bane of university life is that all students have to do it. Other than your comfortable room in residence or in your rented accommodation, what are the other places you can go where you feel relaxed enough to take in the complexities of stats, chemistry, business and all those other subjects that make upour four years at Laurier?
A stroll through campus gives great insight into the interesting, quaint, usual and unusual nooks and crannies that students find to hit the books.
Each area offers a comfortable learning experience for students to sit with their laptops, fiddling with their essays or calculating logarithms in between classes. There are great places for students who work well with constant background noise and, alternatively, for those who get distracted easily and prefer a silent study area.
Like at any university, the WLU library is considered the great centre of learning. Not only is every book, magazine and academic journal there for easy access, but, given its size, it is still a heck of a lot quieter than any residence building or student house.
For group work and not-so-quiet studying, most students stick to the lower levels. Alternatively, those who prefer a quieter study environment will find what they’re looking for on the upper levels; there is an unwritten rule that the higher you go, the quieter the crowd is.
The Science Building is a great place for group work and it also has a silent study room for serious studying. A word of warning: if you’re going there at night try to bundle up shelf, as it can get pretty chilly. Also, half of the lights shut off at around 11:00 every night so try and sit under the big lights attached to the wall.
Some other common areas where one would typically find students revising their notes or simply doing some “people watching” are the Concourse and the dining hall.
With Waterloo’s unfortunate location amidst the Snow Belt, it is not common to find students studying outside on the soccer field or on the grassy areas around campus at this time of year. The solarium, however, provides students with the outdoor experience in an enclosed space. The glass walls allow students to view the outside, while also being able to watch the shelfthrong of people walking by.
Now that Laurier has decided to network their wireless Internet across almost the entire campus without any cost, more students have found interesting – and some would say out-of-the-ordinary – spots to study. This tool has provided students with endless possibilities as to where one might park themselves for studying purposes.
The women’s bathroomjust behind The Hub features a long shelf across from the sinks where there have been cases of short but beneficial study sessions.
Another strange place to hit the books is, ironically, in lectures – not necessarily the lecture corresponding to the upcoming exam or quiz, but a classroom where it’s not obvious to the professor that the student, rather than taking notes, is studying for another class. For many, the fact that you even showed up to class is likely enough to make you feel less guilty.
Students who prefer the quiet but may not necessarily enjoy the overwhelming feeling of being at the near-silent library congregate high up in the Fred Nichols Campus Centre in the 24-hour lounge.
Collectively, Laurier students have clearly found numerous sweet spots to lessen the stress of studying. In the end, though, all that really matters is that you find a place that works with your personal study habits.
