uni update

Hi @yeah_it_tahtperson 

It's nice to hear from you. Hope you are doing fine.  

It seems that you are a bit conflicted with uni stuff with the amount of course work, and appropriate effort that should be put into it. And you also seem to be thinking about your post-undergraduate life. 

Unnecessary Uni Courses

I honestly feel the same about uni.There are alot of courses that we have to pay for, even if they are not in our main study pathway, and if feels unfair. However, I had learnt in one of my career courses that universities have been re-designing their degrees to suit a wide range of jobs. 

As our job industry evolves into a new generation, a lot of new jobs have come into the market which weren't even thought of a few years back. And to cater for the wide range of new opportunities, our degrees are also changing. 

Boring Uni Lectures

With regards to boring lectures, and heavy content it's a never ending story. I can understand how some degrees have alot more content with their coursework than others. I feel the same every Trimester. There have also been times when I have felt completely demotivated to cover my uni content because of how boring it can be. 

One thing that works for me is balancing my uni work with my extra-curricular activities or hobbies. For example: if I have an online lecture which has alot of talking, I tended to knitt while listening to my lectures. 

With face to face lectures/tutorials I hand write notes to understand things properly, and it helps me avoid losing concentration.

When studying becomes boring, I listen to songs or instrumental music as I cover topic by topic. I also watch k-drama episodes to reward myself after completing a week's content. So you just have to make things interesting your way by switching between uni stuff and hobbies or extracurricular things. 

What is the Right Way to Study at Uni?

I have also compared myself to my colleagues a couples of times in the past on the time and method of study. And everytime I compared and tried to study like them, I would end up getting lower grades than them. 

I have uni collegues who study just a day before the exam and are able to get really high marks. I also have colleagues who study everything from A-Z included the optional readings and they get average marks. 

What I have learnt from my experience is that the time spend doesn't matter. And some study techniques may work for others but may not work for you at all. What matters is to what extent you can understand the content, and apply it to your assessment. 

And it's okay if you're not studying like your friends because what works for you might not work for others, and vice versa. 

Thinking About Career Plans

I can understand how thinking about future career plans while being in uni can be super confusing and stressful. Something that has worked for me is to talk to your Student Advisors, or get into practical/internship courses whenever possible. 

Student Advisors can help guide you on alot from choosing your career path to making a plan to achieve your goals.Practical courses/ internship courses can help in determining what feels right and what interests you. 

I would say that uni is basically a trial and error journey where you try and see what works and what doesn't work for you. So don't feel stressed if you don't have anything in mind yet. Somethings take time...

 I hope the above tips could help you a bit, and I also hope that you would be able to find your own way of enjoying uni, learning, and discovering your career path. 

Take care.

Hey @yeah_it_tahtperson 

I can definitely relate to being swamped with content and slogging through lectures. It's a tough battle of balance: you want to push yourself enough to do well in your assessments and get through those boring classes, but don't want to push yourself too much and get burnt out. I definitely also struggle with comparing myself to my friends and other people in my classes, but I'm realising how long you spend on something really doesn't equate to how much effort you're putting in (I think we've all had those days where we've spent an hour to only end up writing like 2 sentences of an essay haha). If you're keeping up with classes and not falling behind then you're doing enough. 

Do you have someone like a career advisor at your uni you could see to figure out what you want to do career-wise? I imagine it's different for everyone but I felt a lot more motivated to do well in my classes when I knew why I was doing it and had a tangible end-goal of a certain career. 

I hope things get a bit better soon, and don't forget you can always take a break from uni if it does end up becoming too much. Keep pushing through it, you've got this.

Hi @yeah_it_tahtperson,

I can relate to you about finding lectures boring and being overwhelmed with the content. Sitting through a lecture for an hour or more and doing nothing but listening and taking notes can be such a pain and I feel that so much. Honestly, I can’t think of anything that can make lectures more enjoyable for you but I’m wondering if you know anyone in your class that you can go to the lectures with? Perhaps sitting with someone you know and can talk to can make the lectures at least a bit bearable. For me, I found that being able to talk about the content helped me become more engaged with the lecture.

You also said that you find yourself not as busy as your friends with uni and that it’s making you wonder if you’re exerting enough effort. I’m wondering if your friends are from the same course? Or they from a different one? Sometimes, some courses have more workload and fuller schedule than others, making them busier. You also mentioned that you’re only doing core subjects this year so it could be that your friends are doing their minor subjects or electives at this time too that’s why they tend to be busier. In any case, I’m sure you’re doing your best at uni and that’s enough.

I wish you all the best at uni and I hope you find something that can make uni a bit more enjoyable. It is a tough place so finding at least one thing you like about it can really help 💙