how to do well in uni (particularly arts subjects)

[strawberries]

hey guys,

so grades have come out and I've done worse than I've hoped to
going in, I was aiming for HDs/100s but that is very hard and you don't always get what you expect which is fine, but i didn't think I'd do as bad as I did.
I feel like I've worked harder and smarter than ever since high school, and idk what's going on...like, I've tried to do work much before it's due (I remember someone on here had the n+2 rule?), i've worried about every single mark and been a perfectionist and stuff etc
obviously there were some days which i was lazy and didn't put in much effort to study, but overall I feel like I've worked harder than ever before and I also enjoy the stuff I"m learning yet still doing pretty bad?
does anyone have any advice or tips?

thanks
strawbs

[Coffee]

Hi Strawberries!

Since I'm in my first semester, I'm by no means an expert, but I'll share a bit about what worked for me. Something I found incredibly useful was planning for assessments in advance and starting early. How are you faring in this respect? What I did at the beginning of the semester was note down all the due dates of all my assessments for each subject on a calendar so I could really visualise it. I usually allowed 2 weeks to complete smaller assessments, and 4 weeks for larger ones, such as essays. So a typical plan for me was:

Week 1: Research + Plan
Week 2: Draft #1
Week 3: Draft #2
Week 4: Optional Draft #3/Final copy + Submit

It might seem like a lot, and you by no means have to follow it, but it's something I found really useful for myself. This meant I wasn't stressed, I could take a day, or even a few days off without falling behind, and if I was running behind, it wasn't an issue, because for me at least, draft #2 is always a matter of tidying things up, not rewriting, and hence doesn't take a whole week to complete anyway. I always completed my assessments a couple of days before the due date, and it just saved me a whole lot of stress.

The other thing I found useful was seeing a learning skills advisor. Most universities should offer some sort of drop-in program where you can meet with a learning skills advisor and get some one-on-one feedback/support. I usually came to them with my second draft, as well as my final copy for last minute tidying up.

I'd also recommend seeing your tutor during office hours if you need a bit more feedback on how you can improve, and of course, definitely take your assessments from the last semester and note down what needs improvement so you can avoid it for the upcoming semester.

Best of luck

[Joseph41]

hey guys,

so grades have come out and I've done worse than I've hoped to
going in, I was aiming for HDs/100s but that is very hard and you don't always get what you expect which is fine, but i didn't think I'd do as bad as I did.
I feel like I've worked harder and smarter than ever since high school, and idk what's going on...like, I've tried to do work much before it's due (I remember someone on here had the n+2 rule?), i've worried about every single mark and been a perfectionist and stuff etc
obviously there were some days which i was lazy and didn't put in much effort to study, but overall I feel like I've worked harder than ever before and I also enjoy the stuff I"m learning yet still doing pretty bad?
does anyone have any advice or tips?

thanks
strawbs

Hey strawberries!

Sorry to hear you were unhappy with your marks.

The first thing I'll address is this:

"going in, I was aiming for HDs/100s"

I've literally never heard of a single Arts student score 100 for a single unit. Ever. Has it happened? Quite possibly, but in general, it's just not a thing that happens. The person who scored the Undergraduate Medal for Arts at my uni recently didn't get an HD in every unit, and had a WAM somewhere in the 80s. And Monash has an excellent Arts faculty. Hopefully that puts things into perspective!

I had a similar thing in my first semester of Arts - like, it's hard to know what constitutes a "good" score and so on. But if you're disappointed if you don't get 100, or don't get in the 90s, it's going to be a difficult degree. Arts degrees aren't like a lot of other degrees, where scores high in the 90s are relatively common.

(I'm not really sure why that's the case - it just is.)

Without more context it's difficult to know exactly how to improve (and irrespective of your actual results, I reckon you will just through greater uni experience - this was the case for me, at least). But I think that's probably my major point - a "high" result in Arts isn't the same as a "high" result in high school, or even a "high" result in many other degrees.

You may be aware of that, but probably best to reinforce it haha.

[Sine]

Hey strawberries!

Sorry to hear you were unhappy with your marks.

The first thing I'll address is this:

"going in, I was aiming for HDs/100s"

I've literally never heard of a single Arts student score 100 for a single unit. Ever. Has it happened? Quite possibly, but in general, it's just not a thing that happens. The person who scored the Undergraduate Medal for Arts at my uni recently didn't get an HD in every unit, and had a WAM somewhere in the 80s. And Monash has an excellent Arts faculty. Hopefully that puts things into perspective!

I had a similar thing in my first semester of Arts - like, it's hard to know what constitutes a "good" score and so on. But if you're disappointed if you don't get 100, or don't get in the 90s, it's going to be a difficult degree. Arts degrees aren't like a lot of other degrees, where scores high in the 90s are relatively common.

(I'm not really sure why that's the case - it just is.)

Without more context it's difficult to know exactly how to improve (and irrespective of your actual results, I reckon you will just through greater uni experience - this was the case for me, at least). But I think that's probably my major point - a "high" result in Arts isn't the same as a "high" result in high school, or even a "high" result in many other degrees.

You may be aware of that, but probably best to reinforce it haha.

well said

really curious to know what degrees have scores commonly in the high 90's?

[heids]

really curious to know what degrees have scores commonly in the high 90's?

Perhaps not "commonly", but it's pretty clear that a maths genius can score in the 90s or even 100, while a Dickens of a writer is quite likely to be scored in the 80s even when they write a piece of true genius.

[tashhhaaa]

getting 90s and 100s isn't very likely at university in most faculties

this forum has a high proportion of incredibly talented and intelligent people, but in my opinion it doesn't reflect wider university populations anywhere.

great work if you can achieve those results, but even if you don't, a result in the 80s or even high 70s is an achievement you should be proud of. Having made it to university is an achievement you should be proud of

expecting 'perfect' results every time can be damaging to your overall performance & mental health in the long term so please try to be easy on yourself sometimes. Absolutely try your best, but try not to feel bad if you don't have an 80 WAM or something, because like Joseph41 said even the Arts medal recipient didn't HD everything

[K888]

+1 to what Joseph41 and tashhhaaa said!

I don't think I can offer much wisdom, having only done one semester of uni and also doing a degree in a completely different faculty, but would like to add my two cents.

I think it's important to have realistic expectations (that's not to say you can't push yourself to score highly), in terms of what scores are more commonly achievable in uni, if that makes sense. I've noticed, and my cohort also had it explained to us on our first day, that at uni the marking is generally a lot more harsh - whether that be because they scrutinise things more closely, or they hold us to a higher standard, or something else. So therefore, it's not as "easy" to achieve high 90s and beyond in uni, compared to high school. Hence why, for example, you get a D if you score in the 70-79 range, or a HD if you score 80-100 - they recognise that it's harder to do as well and hence "reward" (can't think of a better word) you for what you've done with this in mind.

I can't comment on what scoring is like for Arts (Joseph41 has done this perfectly), but for what it's worth, (and I'll be able to provide more current information when results are released) last year, only one person in the whole first year physio cohort for semester 1 got 90+.

In terms of tips - maybe follow what Coffee has said and speak to the learning skills advisors at your uni, and speak to your tutors as well. Keep on persevering and your hard work will pay off

[strawberries]

Thanks guys for your replies

Since I'm in my first semester, I'm by no means an expert, but I'll share a bit about what worked for me. Something I found incredibly useful was planning for assessments in advance and starting early. How are you faring in this respect? What I did at the beginning of the semester was note down all the due dates of all my assessments for each subject on a calendar so I could really visualise it. I usually allowed 2 weeks to complete smaller assessments, and 4 weeks for larger ones, such as essays. So a typical plan for me was:

Week 1: Research + Plan
Week 2: Draft #1
Week 3: Draft #2
Week 4: Optional Draft #3/Final copy + Submit

It might seem like a lot, and you by no means have to follow it, but it's something I found really useful for myself. This meant I wasn't stressed, I could take a day, or even a few days off without falling behind, and if I was running behind, it wasn't an issue, because for me at least, draft #2 is always a matter of tidying things up, not rewriting, and hence doesn't take a whole week to complete anyway. I always completed my assessments a couple of days before the due date, and it just saved me a whole lot of stress.

The other thing I found useful was seeing a learning skills advisor. Most universities should offer some sort of drop-in program where you can meet with a learning skills advisor and get some one-on-one feedback/support. I usually came to them with my second draft, as well as my final copy for last minute tidying up.

I'd also recommend seeing your tutor during office hours if you need a bit more feedback on how you can improve, and of course, definitely take your assessments from the last semester and note down what needs improvement so you can avoid it for the upcoming semester.

Thanks Coffee This is actually a good idea!
If you don't mind me asking, how long does it take for you to get the actual research and full plan done and such? (or anyone can answer this)

Spoiler

I will admit that I did try to start early and a couple of times it didn't happen
I felt like, I could write an essay very quickly, but it would only be a 'passing' essay rather than a 'good' essay, and I felt that a good essay would take me forever to do. I find that doing the research takes a lot of time. Usually I did rewrite whole drafts again though, so idk, would I be spending too much time in the wrong aspect?

I've been seeing learning advisors for help, but unfortunately at my uni we can only see them only once every 2 weeks, and we can't get them to reread a 2nd draft or something, and sometimes I had 2 essays due at the same time so I could only see them for one of my essays

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Thanks guys for replying. I was in a bad mood this morning so I kinda wrote my message quickly without thinking
Obviously I know 100 is pretty much impossible, I think it was more of the "getting HDs" and "doing the best I could do". Like, I didn't want to aim 'just for a pass', like, I want to aim for 100 if this makes sense? Like, I did all the quizzes which were worth like <5% (even 1%), I turned up to tutes, participated and such...I tried to get every single mark I could...(sorry this is a ramble)
The thing was, even in high school, I didn't do that well either (but I can understand why, I didn't work that hard compared to in uni right now). I've just never done well at anything academically so I thought it'd be the time right now and I've worked harder than ever before  

Sorry if any of this sounded rude, but I actually do appreciate all of your comments and has made me feel better a bit