Is it a good idea for people to take "GAP years"?

[Souljette_93]

I just wouldn't like to be in a younger cohort ( like someone mentioned) I'm not against it, just wouldn't prefer it anyway

Lol.

You realise that within any given unit, there might be 1st years, 2nd years, 5th years, honors students, mature age students, overseas students (who in their home countries finish high school at a different age)... you don't really belong to a "cohort" in that sense that you belong to a cohort in high school.

Yes I do..when I first started out, and found that some were mature age, I found it a bit weird. I've always heard of them, but never thought I'd be with them. Plus I did just come from school so I had to adjust myself to the changes

[appianway]

I would really recommend it.

In retrospect, I should've taken a GAP semester. I don't think it has anything to do with how smart you are, how hard you worked in VCE, whether you're going to succeed later on, but sometimes after churning through a system for 13 years, you need a break. You need to see something outside the bubble: you need to understand that raw academic achievements are insignificant in the scheme of things, and you need to discern whether you actually want to do your course. I feel as though a lot of people take courses (particularly law or medicine, but sometimes things like science) because they feel pressured to do so and because they don't know the reality of the careers. I think taking a GAP semester would've allowed me to relax (something that I really needed) and to realize that I loved humanities (particularly languages) as well as physics. University helped me to make this realization, but it's much harder to grapple with this when you have to go to class and study for subjects that you don't care all that much about.

[taiga]

Yeah Stonecold and Rohit we're probably thinking about the same guy.

I wouldn't mind people taking a year off to do UMAT if they went and volunteered, made themselves some money, added to their resume etc, but I think taking a full year out to just study for UMAT is a waste of time. Granted you do get August-March to relax, so an extra 3 or so months to have nothing to do, but it's moreso about what you use that time for.

Most people take a gap year for some sort of purpose, to take time to consider themselves, get some financial stability, add to life experience etc. So if you do that alongside studying, you should  be okay.