They say university is nothing like high school… but is it?
I guess it’s different but then again… it’s not really?
In my opinion, I just think of university as high school but bigger, with less help and more flexibility.
Work-Load
Lectures vs Classes
From my experience, it’s harder for me to focus on lectures than it was during class back in high school. Most of this is because, you’re not really doing much other than listening for a good hour or two and it can get kinda hard to keep that motivation going the whole time… High school is slightly different because it’s a lot more interactive and also the lessons are a lot slower and repetitive. During lectures, we don’t revisit ideas as much as I would have liked… but that is why recorded lectures and tutorials becomes our savior!
Also, there’s definitely a LOT of us in one lecture hall in most cases. My biggest one is over 600 students but I know other courses which are well over 1000 students so they have to use an overflow room. So you don’t really get to know everyone in your course either. So I think that it’s always good to find a group to sit with consistently throughout the course duration.
There’s definitely more assignments in relation to the amount of lessons we have. 3 weeks after semester 1 started, I was already underway with my first set of 4 tests… one after the other.
Break Times
Trying to keep in touch with high school friends in university is DIFFICULT!
- Firstly, I’m at a completely different main campus… a good 20 minutes by bus at least! All my friends are at the city campus so obviously, I can’t see them between my Epsom lectures because by the time I get there, I’d have to go back to my next lecture
- Different degrees = different timetables! Even if I do go to the city campus, chances are, my friends are all at lectures – so I found that even a short hour was well worth the meet up!
However! If you’re at the city campus, there’s a lot you can do during your breaks, whether you’re alone or with friends. At high school, I was normally jamming in the music room, hanging with friends or in meetings… but now, the options are limitless!
- Food everywhere! There’s food at the campus (the main one I go to is at the Science block only because it’s close) but there’s Starbucks, Sensational Chicken and St. Pierre’s Sushi literally right next to it. Of course, if you go down to Queen St., there’s HEAPS of options <3
- Study. Ha, well there’s a lot of study spaces (of course, because there’s heaps of students) at Kate Edgar and the General Library and although finding computers may be difficult, you should be able to find study desks in the library anytime! However, if you’re at the Epsom campus, oh ho ho, you’re in luck because there will ALWAYS be a computer free! If you’re lucky (60%), you can have the whole room to yourself too 🙂 See, Epsom has its perks although my friend did question where the “life” was but hey, I’m just happy I can work on my assignment at any time of any given day.
- Queen Street. Apart from all the food, there’s other activities of course; movies, arcade rooms, shopping… and lots more!
- Events! Especially during O’Week, there were lots of events going around! Sports competitions, music performances, clubs expo…. you name it! Follow the University’s Facebook page to keep updated!
Me? Well, currently, I’ve stuck to option one and two… YAH 🙂
Responsibility
No-one is really going to make sure you’re on track. Moments like these make me miss my tutorial teacher and subject teachers who would always make sure their students were on top of things. I guess we are expected to be “old enough” to be self-driven and also, it would be pretty unrealistic to keep track of the many students that attend the same lecture… like I said, hundreds!
Therefore! It would help to plan your assignments and get ahead of things. I’m still learning to do that myself and I’m nowhere near doing it perfectly yet but surely next semester, everything will run smoothly… right?!