At the beginning of each term, most students are confronted with the difficulties of class registration.   Of course, there are students in some departments who don’t need to schedule their classes by themselves, but most students have to and they have a hard time doing so. Therefore, CBT will provide you with a lot of tips on how to register. Let’s take a look at the registration day, the day before and the day after.



Why are we afraid to register for classes?

  Every year in February and August, the PC rooms and the university computer labs are crowded with students in the morning. On D-Day at 9 a.m., the students sitting in front of the computers all have nervous looks. Maybe, if you are a freshman, you might ask yourself, ‘If they can take any class that they want, why are they so anxious about it?’
  There are a lot of reasons why the term ‘registration wars’ was created. For example, the classes that are popular are the ones in which the lecture is fun, the professor is an easy grader, or the lecture quality is high, and it’s even better if the class has an outdoor activity. However, these kinds of classes are very limited. Therefore, students have to wait patiently and click on their mouses for their future schedules. In fact, a popular classes’ registration usually ends in just one second after it opens.
  Seniors obtain a certain know-how on these matters, and they even cheat to have their ideal class schedule. Thus, we have prepared many tips for freshmen who don’t know anything about registering for class. What can you do to make a perfect schedule? Let’s look at the preparation process with CBT.

What to prepare before registration

1) A week before
  Many students might wonder, ‘Why do we have to prepare a week before the registration session?’ However, to make a perfect schedule for our classes, we have to. In each department, there are required classes we need to take in order to graduate. You need to make sure not to leave out even one single class.
  First, go to the school website and write down your required courses. At this moment, you should outline the whole picture and roughly think about when to take each class during the 4 years of university. Next, choose the major and liberal arts classes you want to take in the current semester. When you choose subjects, you have to read the course syllabus very carefully.
  The most important thing about scheduling for classes is that we must consider lunch time and our movements. If you make a really tight schedule, you might end up in hell for one semester. Also, in the cases of location and time, you should consider the distance between buildings. If you don’t, then your school life will be full of extreme workouts. Also, if you need some quiet time, you can always make a recess between classes. Actually, there are a lot of students who try to make these intentionally.
  After you choose what classes you want to take, use the ‘shopping cart function’. Our university website has a shopping cart for classes, so we don’t need to write down the long and complex class code. Next, just in case your planning doesn’t work as planned, make a backup schedule. That’s it. For our university, the registration period is different for each grade, so some of the classes you wish to attend might already be full from the other grades’ sessions. That’s why we said that you should prepare a backup plan for your classes.

2) D-Day
  Due to your thorough planning, you can just click on the objects in the shopping cart. Now, most of you might be thinking, “What? That sounds simple.” However, it is very hard because we will be joined by hundreds of other students in that instant. Also, the place where we click the subjects is important, too. The common places where students register are PC rooms or their houses. One student, Kim Seo-hyun (’15, Dept. of Animal Science), said, “We should choose a PC room very carefully. Famous PC rooms mostly have the fastest computers. Unfortunately, some students who go to any ordinary PC room fail to register on time.”
  Then, what might be the most efficient way to register? The common way is to pull up a lot of screens. Pull up as many screens as you want, and then you can register for one subject on the first screen and register for the other subjects on the other screens. Also, Choi Da-young (’13, School of Business) said, “I usually use the Interpark ticketing clock. It is very useful. Then, I decide the specific order on how to click.” Many students use their own rules of thumb. For example, we can use a Macro program to automatically click at a certain time.

3) After the registration for classes
  You might end up failing to do what you planned, despite reading our awesome advice. But don’t get too upset because we have a correction period. This period is for about one week. We might even get the popular classes with the help of a little luck. Keep an eye out during that period, and it might decide our fates of a semester. You must read the course syllabus carefully and check if the lecture fits with your schedule.
  Also, another solution is to send an excess application form. The class might already be full, but we can send an email to the professor or ask him or her a favor on the first day of class. Fortunately, some professors might take you in, so don’t worry too much!

Finally

  Thorough planning will deliver you a rewarding semester and a happy school life. CBT wishes everybody a successful registration!

By Choi Ji-su
js36@cbnu.ac.kr