3 Must read tips for your 3rd semester!
By Macy Jackson on April 24, 2026
Hello new 3rds, and welcome to your 3rd semester in the Radio program. Fortunately, you’re officially almost done with school and hopefully one day won’t have to worry about homework anymore. Unfortunately, you’ve still got to get through this last big push of a semester, and it’s very busy. Busier than you’d expect. So in order to ensure that you’re sufficiently prepared, here are 3 tips to get you through your semester before you go on to your practicums.
- Prepare for your assignments
Something that’s great about your 3rd semester is that you get a lot more freedom. You’re an adult, you can set your own schedule. So if you don’t want to do your full Voice Track shift (or any Voice Tracks at all) then you don’t have to! However, it’s still a good idea to do at least 2 hours so you can have something prepared for your airchecks with Pat. Don’t leave him hanging, and don’t leave yourself with a needlessly lower grade
Since there was nothing to hand in when your airchecks started costing marks, all because you kept telling yourself ‘i’ll do it later’ (sometimes, later doesn’t come!)
The same thing goes for your social media week. It’s a lot busier than you’ll expect, and while it’s fun (and also a good idea) to rely on your fellow classmates to help you with posting, it gets a lot easier to plan out what you’d like to post for specific platforms so you don’t find yourself scrambling when suddenly your week is finally upon you. My semester didn’t do so great with YouTube videos and the New Music Nooner, so when you get a free moment, that voice telling you to go home and do nothing is not to be listened to. Find an artist to interview, or plan out your YouTube video and prove you’re better than the previous semester.
- DO your assignments, even (or maybe especially) when you don’t feel like it.
This tip mostly goes for assignments that are in the 2-6% range. The tiny ones that don’t feel very worth it because you’re sleepy and don’t feel like it. These blog assignments are only worth 2% but there’s enough of them to stack up, and whether you like (or expect) it or not, you may find yourself needing to write blogs in the future, so they’re at least good practice.
The end of the 3rd semester is when you have to hand in your online portfolio for Radio Advertising class. This assignment is why you’ll be glad you did all your other ones, big and small. When I had to start making it I panicked and didn’t think I had anything useful to put in. But, lo and behold, all that old production and copy work, including the blogs, were just right, and I found myself with a pretty filled out and diverse portfolio that had work from both my 2nd and 3rd semester inside.
3. Have fun during your radio shifts!
2nd semester radio shifts were filled with rules. Never delete Canadian songs, don’t rearrange/put a random commercial in, always report your faults. All that’s useful, especially if you’ll be working at a radio station after school. However, you get a lot more freedom in your 3rd semester to do what you like, including playing your favourite music. This is the best way to get over the woes of having an early shift. You can just have fun with it, so why not do so before you go to a station and have to listen to the same type of music over and over again?
(Another image of a nicely drawn stick person in the booth was supposed to be next to this paragraph, with the words ‘play whatever!’ above them)
And there you have it, your 3 tips on how to prepare for your 3rd semester. All of which boiled down to ‘just do your work and have fun.’ Hopefully you’ll internalize these tips, and do such a great job your teachers will forget all about us! Good luck!