Study Tips for enabling students - #1 Be ready for changes

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• Expect some time pressure...

  ...you will need to manage your time

  What students said:

  I expected it to be hard to go from working to learning after 10 years. I wasn't quite prepared for the amount of content to be learned in each class and juggling work and assessments and family is harder than I imagined.

  I expected that I would have to time-manage quite well and so far that has been the biggest and by far the hardest part of studying at university level.

  I knew I’d have to work hard; it wasn’t going to be easy but I also knew I had to dedicate time to it. I now don't work full-time.

  I think I’m a realist in that I hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I don't try to build things up too much. I think that was a good thing because it’s turned out to be a lot more pressured than I thought it was going to be so I’m glad I didn’t expect anything that was going to be too cruisy.

  Had to make adjustments at home, such as minimizing distractions such as TV and household chores such as yard maintenance.

• Expect impacts on your life,,,

  ...be patient with yourself and others

  What students said:

  I knew there would be changes but again I didn’t sort of imagine too much until I realised that 10-15 hours a week per subject was expected on top of the actual class time. That’s when I realised it was going to be quite an impact, especially weekends; very late nights like last night. That I think I was unprepared for however, you can’t expect for everything or you can’t prepare for everything. You don't know what you don't know.

  I struggled the first semester; I felt like I was struggling to catch up all the time with everything so what I did over the break was do what they had been saying from the start and actually plan the next semester. So I’ve got planned study times, I give myself extra time in a week before assessments are due, I plan times for exercise, I plan times to plan meals. ... It’s working better. I have to adjust the plan as I go but it’s a big steep learning curve, jumping in.

• Expect to feel a little like a traveller in a new land

  What students said:

  It’s very much like moving to a foreign country where you don't speak the language. Having been out of school for so long. ... So you’re swapping one framework for the other pretty much and just having that, you can do it.

  That’s kind of how I feel at times because with university, it is a different language, it is a different way of writing, it is a different way of communicating…

  Even as simple as telling you the difference between a lecture and a tutorial, I didn’t even know what they were sort of thing, you know.

• It's normal to have doubts...

  ...but just ignore them and do the next thing

  What students said:

  Well I didn't quit ... that's the big one. I earned a HD in law and a D in Sociology. It's probably the first time in my life that I have received an acknowledgment for anything.

  Now I have shaken off the ghosts from past experiences that left me feel the doubt I had with being able to learn and better myself.

  Some people have self doubt about their ability to undergo study, they might think they would not do well, but I was one of those people, and I am passing!