Attention high school students, life WILL go on after VCE!
Most definitely but even then i think you should enjoy highschool while it lasts, year 11 and 12 were probably the best years of my life so far and the overall feel of uni for me so far pales in comparison. I really will cherish those memories forever. Really, do study hard but do enjoy highschool as well, everyone will end up all over the place sooner or later.
For most of us, that thing called ‘life’ is actually called ‘Uni’, and once you’ve dived into this epic battle of books and study and balancing a social life and sleep deprivation, yep, you think it’ll never end, but it does! Drawing on my own experience, you think that year 12 is the be all and end all, but once you’re passed VCE, now you can get on with your life. But the trouble is, and the point I want to generate here, is that perhaps we are all too focused on sticking to study designs and knowing ‘the system’ so well that we get a bit, well, *baffled* when we get into Uni.
And it’s not surprising really. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s been a few media releases in the papers lately talking about how even some really, really high achievers in high school were struggling to make sense of how to study independently, how to use time effectively and, yes, how to even take notes in lectures! Which got me thinking that yes, I am feeling in the same boat as some of these kiddos, fresh out of dominating high school and then feeling a little lost.
Haha, i think its half that but also half people tend to really get more lazier once they get into uni. For all those people already in uni, you know what i'm talking about.
I think its just the utter freedom you get in uni. If you dont do your work or never show up no one will scream at you and half the time they won't really even care enough to bring you up on it until it gets really bad.
The kind of people who do very well in the VCE are already people who do very well under structure or became people that do very well under structure. You then go to uni and it hits you with a massive dose of free reign.
In my first year (now in 2nd) i just literally had no idea what to do. I'd go to my lectures and go home but i felt like i should be working or doing something.... they didn't give us any actual homework to do though...
Thats the thing, thats where the freedom comes in. There's no real 'best way' in uni like their is in VCE. If you want to go home and do extra textbook questions, thats your choice. If you want to form a study group, thats your choice. Even if you just want to go off the lectures and never touch a textbook (very achievable for most subjects) thats your choice. Its all your choice and its all up to you, i think it just disorientates people.
That and in uni people tend to be way less hardcore than VCE. If you didn't have time to enjoy your life and actually live in VCE....will you have time in uni? If not now, then when?
Uni is so much bigger than just work as well. There are plenty of people who just show up for their classes and leave, they dont even form strong friendships, they just 'know' people or keep the old highschool ones going if they're lucky enough to have them. You're exposed to a totally new enviroment with people from all over the world and from all backgrounds. In highschool, a lot of the cohort had similar ethnic/socioeconomic/religious backgrounds depending on the type of school and where you lived, uni totally turns that upside down on its head. Uni really is the time to have fun and meet people (great place to pick up a partner as well, imagine how much more difficult that would be without uni/school). So, i think its actually a good sign they're not working as hard as they did in VCE.
but knowing HOW the whole VCE operates is really imperative in terms of achieving your highest possible ATAR.
Haha yeah thats next to impossible in uni, not that it matters, the marking tends to be a lot more easier to understand.
slot you into the right Uni course,
Not very sure about this, a lot of people are still unsure. Especially in generalist courses like Bsc or BA there is a serious lack of direction amongst a lot of people, even myself to some degree. I know plenty of people in my Bsc who intended to swap out or wanted to be a "scientist" after they graduated (little bit more specific obviously). I really think half the people in my course and indeed in a lot of courses are just there because they want something to do, they want to continue on the kind of highschool thing they had, they want to stay out of the real world for a bit longer. Kind of...procrastinating on life.. This obviously isn't true for all but it is true for many.
it’s ironic that this system which helps you achieve your potential into GETTING into Uni then does you a disservice by NOT preparing you for what Uni is all about.
I think its all about preparing yourself. You shouldn't need to be spoonfed anymore. It's sort of a baptism by fire, they throw you in the deep end but thats how you learn, thats how you grow.
It reminds me of an article i read about people suffering depression, it's an absolutely horrible thing to have of course and to go through but at the end of their own little personal hell, if they got through it, a lot of these people ended up stronger. They might of had thought patterns or ways of thinking or living that weren't as great, if they didn't go through all that pain, they wouldn't of bettered themselves. It's sort of like that, its a massive shock to the system at first but you really need to start being independent and taking responsibility for yourself, its what will make you successful in almost all facets of life.
For instance, learn how to properly research things, or start going one step further in finding additional materials, documentaries, movie interpretations of your novels, etc. Plenty of people get to Uni unsure how a library really operates, that was me included.
Haha, i think you're jumping the gun a bit here. I reckon that can wait untill uni. It may be useful for english but outside courses like that, barring personal interest, its not very useful for VCE unfortunately.
My advice would be just really focus on the actual process of learning, what works for you, what doesn't? What distracts you, what helps? Even general life skills like how to cope with stress. The big wide world out there won't always be a standardised test, these things are important.
Savour every drop of your last 2 years of school. Before you know it, it’ll be hard to make time for even some of your closest friends who go to different Unis when suffocating from a pile of assignments and juggling part-time work. You won’t know how lucky you were seeing them so often at school until that luxury is gone.
^^
Or do you think that this is a problem only affecting a minority of post-VCE students?
Sort of do and sort of don't. This forum is obviously full of the near elite of VCE, even by being here and participating you're pretty hardcore, to the point of a near obsession sometimes.
A lot of people are heavily invested in the whole system. We are but a tiny slice of the general VCE population though.
So, i think in regards to just being use to the systems and knowing all the ins and outs, thats a minority. I mean a lot of people here would know more than the VCE co-ordinators and thats what they're paid for..
However, Uni being a shock to the system, i think almost everyone goes through that. It's just like any struggle in life though, you grow and wind up better. It's good you're "on your own" not having some professionals holding your hand, that way you really grow. In second year now i've seen relatively few people crumble. There are obviously those who never did work to begin with but those who actually tried adapted pretty well.
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