Last week, the students at the University of Denver went through one of the worst periods of the quarter: registration week. For some, the period is long-awaited and welcomed. For others, it takes them by surprise. I typically find myself with the latter group.

As students drown in a mixture of panic and excitement at how fast the quarter has gone by, we must also gear up and prepare for battle—getting the best classes is serious business. But, not to worry. Whether you got a terrible time ticket or forgot to get your PIN deleted, here are some tips on how to survive registration week (and the aftermath).

1. Plan, plan, plan. I recently discovered that I could add all the classes I wanted to one registration plan and choose the best (and not full) ones when the time to register came. This way, I could visualize the schedule while keeping track of the enrollment progress. Either way, planning will be your best friend when it comes to registering.
2. My favorite classes have been my least preferred ones. After six registration periods with the worst possible time tickets, I can guarantee that getting stuck with a class you don’t want is not the worst. You might even end up discovering new interests. As long as you’re not stuck with 8 a.m. Intro to Business Calc, you’ll be fine!
3. Trust the professors, not the websites. Besides getting the classes they want, DU students aimlessly fight like Hunger Games participants to get the professors with the highest scores and recommendations from professor-rating websites. Trust me when I say, the amount of effort you put in is what makes a class good or bad. Reach out to professors and TAs, make friends in the class and do the readings—I promise you’ll have a good experience.
4. There’s still a chance that you’ll get into that one class. If you’re like me and always get stuck with bad time tickets, don’t be scared about the waitlists. Because the registration period is so long, there’s constant moving around from class to class. Odds are you’ll most likely get into the class you want.
5. Worst case scenario, you can drop the class. Registration is not set in stone and if you despise a class, you can drop it! Typically, classes dropped by the first week of the quarter don’t get recorded in your transcript. That’s also a good time to pick up new classes or see if you got off of a waitlist.