Is uni like the HSC studying wise? (1 Viewer)

[cookiebook]

What I mean by this is, do courses have a syllabus or a guideline on exactly what you have to know like the HSC? Do students do past exams done by past students of the course to practice? Do assignments come with a marking criteria on exactly what you have to do like high school? Do you have to memorise and regurgitate information like the HSC? Do uni students make notes under dot points of their syllabus if they have one? If they don't provide a syllabus or something like that, how do you know what to study?

 

[iBibah]

I don't think uni spoon feeds you as much. Just what i've gathered.

 

[OzKo]

A syllabus or guidelines is pretty much absent. You are pretty much expected to learn all the concepts from the lectures and apply those concepts in exams (unless other specified).

A lot of units of study don't release past papers because they tend to re-use them. From experience, maybe <20% of my units have had available past papers.

Assignments generally don't come with a marking criteria unless it's a significantly large assignment but even then, they are very brief.

Regurgitation of information is strongly discouraged and if that's a method which a student relies on during university, then they are pretty much capped at a pass average.

 

[cookiebook]

Whaat I'm scared I won't cope D: Will you only be tested on what you learn at least? Or will there be things in exams which you've never come across before? How are you supposed to know if you're on the right track cause I hear it's hard to get a hold of a tutor or lecturer for any doubts.

 

[OzKo]

Whaat I'm scared I won't cope D: Will you only be tested on what you learn at least? Or will there be things in exams which you've never come across before? How are you supposed to know if you're on the right track cause I hear it's hard to get a hold of a tutor or lecturer for any doubts.

They won't introduce something totally random in an exam but you are expected to apply the knowledge you learn in the lectures.

Tutors and lecturers aren't difficult to get a hold of from experience (but that depends on what major you are doing; what faculty; what university etc.). They had consultation hours every week as well if you want extra guidance.

As I said though, the lectures and the tutorials are sufficient enough for any student to get a grasp of what they are supposed to be doing.

 

[nerdasdasd]

A syllabus or guidelines is pretty much absent. You are pretty much expected to learn all the concepts from the lectures and apply those concepts in exams (unless other specified).

A lot of units of study don't release past papers because they tend to re-use them. From experience, maybe <20% of my units have had available past papers.

Assignments generally don't come with a marking criteria unless it's a significantly large assignment but even then, they are very brief.

Regurgitation of information is strongly discouraged and if that's a method which a student relies on during university, then they are pretty much capped at a pass average.

You can get them off friends who get them off uni tutoring

 

[D94]

No syllabus, but a course outline is provided which usually indicates what you will be learning each week. There is usually a reference to a textbook or some other resource which will aid with problems or questions for tutorials.

In my experience, about two-thirds of the courses have been structured really well so you know what will be tested in tests/quizzes/exams. The other one-third have been terrible, they just say "if we have uploaded lecture notes, then that can be examined; we don't need to physically teach you, but you are expected to learn foundational concepts in engineering by yourselves", and then expect us to do well, or question why we didn't do well. *facepalm*

A lot of people will find it harder to cope, but as long as you work with your peers, it's fine. As for notes, I guess it's a bit different in engineering where doing problems will be sufficient, as you will learn the concepts whilst you do questions.

Communication with lecturers/tutors is best done in person. Don't 'expect' a reply via email.

As for past papers, some won't upload past papers, so it's basically up to you to do tutorial problems, or ask higher years if they managed to obtain a paper.

 

[Drifting95]

You can get them off friends who get them off uni tutoring

Of course you say this lol

 

[michaeljennings]

Uni doesnt spoon feed you as much as high school teachers do, its more about independent learning. I myself dont attend lectures, pretty much read the textbook etc in my own time. University teaches you how to be more efficient at studying I reckon, ive progressively put in less effort but my WAM has gotten higher and higher each semester

 

[cookiebook]

You can get them off friends who get them off uni tutoring

I didn't know you could get a tutor in uni. :O

Uni doesnt spoon feed you as much as high school teachers do, its more about independent learning. I myself dont attend lectures, pretty much read the textbook etc in my own time. University teaches you how to be more efficient at studying I reckon, ive progressively put in less effort but my WAM has gotten higher and higher each semester

Oh, I guess if you're able to manage without even going to the lectures, it shouldn't be too hard to cope.That's good.

 

[michaeljennings]

Oh, I guess if you're able to manage without even going to the lectures, it shouldn't be too hard to cope.That's good.

Yea hah like half the people dont attend lectures and they still make it through. Just gotta stay on top of homework and assessments and its really not that bad. Like for me I do commerce so Im only at uni twice a week, so that leaves 3 days free to stay on top of stuff, after you take away weekends,

 

[cookiebook]

Yea hah like half the people dont attend lectures and they still make it through. Just gotta stay on top of homework and assessments and its really not that bad. Like for me I do commerce so Im only at uni twice a week, so that leaves 3 days free to stay on top of stuff, after you take away weekends,

Ahh great, feeling more confident now. I have a friend who just said that the only reason he doesn't attend his lectures is because they talk too fast, can't hear them and never understand a thing they're saying anyways and he still copes so it shouldn't be too bad,

 

[michaeljennings]

Ahh great, feeling more confident now. I have a friend who just said that the only reason he doesn't attend his lectures is because they talk too fast, can't hear them and never understand a thing they're saying anyways and he still copes so it shouldn't be too bad,

hahha thats exactly why I dont go. Most of my lecturers have accents so I cant understand what they are talking about. Also i find that when i did go to lectures, I would end up re-reading the lecture notes once I got home anyway so I was doubling up in a way so there was no real point of going to lectures

 

[flashyGoldFish]

No set dot points like HSC.
And probably as much to more work per subject each semester and you get about a week to study properly for them rather than the whole year of HSC.
I wish I was still back doing HSC.

 

[-may-cat-]

I've had assignments set by word of mouth, along the lines of "write an essay on something that we studied this semester that interests you. Make it as long as it needs to be. Hand it in when it's finished".

 

[madharris]

In uni, rote learning is not your friend

 

[cookiebook]

I'm getting mixed answers haha..I guess there's only one way to find out how uni is like

 

[JPXiao]

In many ways YES, and in many ways NO:

Yes:
- it is tough at times, and there are 3-4 tests or assignments that you will have to work hard for.
- there are the fears of failing.

No:
- however, failing in Uni means that you just have to repeat and that's it.
- most exams/assignments are focused on 'self learning' so you won't spoon fed. Usually the exams are very directed and assignments will guide you in a direction. This is because you self learn, in high school, because you're given soo much information, and have a period of 1 year to study, there's more information that is tested.

Check out this blog on differences between high school and university: http://thestudylounge.wordpress.com...es-between-universities-and-your-high-school/

 

[OzKo]

In many ways YES, and in many ways NO:

Yes:
- it is tough at times, and there are 3-4 tests or assignments that you will have to work hard for.
- there are the fears of failing.

No:
- however, failing in Uni means that you just have to repeat and that's it.
- most exams/assignments are focused on 'self learning' so you won't spoon fed. Usually the exams are very directed and assignments will guide you in a direction. This is because you self learn, in high school, because you're given soo much information, and have a period of 1 year to study, there's more information that is tested.

Check out this blog on differences between high school and university: http://thestudylounge.wordpress.com...es-between-universities-and-your-high-school/

Just want to emphasise that having a fail on your academic transcript can severely hamper getting a competitive WAM/GPA by the time you graduate.

 

[mylucky9]

In high school you're told that the syllabus is like your bible. Very applicable thing to say and I would agree on this for business studies. I was told because of those students who studied accordingly to the syllabus almost exactly, they were comparatively better than those who didn't follow it. But I think most of these students, and personally some of my friends, who relied too much onto the syllabus ended up in the band 5 and occassionally a band 6 range. Anyway, so like everyone else is saying and what most of my former teachers and uni friends told me is that you won't get the same spoon feeding in uni like you did in high school. No one to constantly remind you to do homework, when the online quiz is due, and in some cases you won't even have any past papers from that unit to practice on. You're experience in a unit IMO depends a lot on the unit convenor, the lecture(s), tutorials. What I noticed with one particular unit which my friend took last semester and what I am taking now, is that last semester the unit was just shit boring. Excuse my french. The new unit convenor has made it so much more fun, and he gives us a looooot of resources. Making sure we get his own lecture revision notes everyweek, a self-made tutorial video for those who didn't go to theirs that week (I don't know many unis/units that usually do this, they either just upload the horribly recorded lectures or upload nothing at all). You can tell they really take into account what went wrong the previous semester(s) and they do their best not to fail us. I don't think the course coordinators would want to fail you, imagine the high failure rates from your students.. you'd have to report to the head faculty and explain why your teaching methods didn't get sink in. Even though there's a set unit guide or outline which is pretty much the same every new semester, different course coordinators can make some sort of difference :L