The first year
About a week ago I got the results for my first year of university - I passed! I'm now officially a second year student. Wow.
One thing that bothers me a little is the fact your first year marks don’t count towards your final grade. I know the reason behind this is to give you a chance to adjust to the differences in the way degrees are run and also living away from home for the first time (in most people’s cases), but I don’t really understand that.
When I started college, I really noticed the differences between GCSEs and A Levels. A Levels were much more challenging in an academic sense but also because I didn’t realise just how much you had to put in yourself. It was much more of an independent thing. University is even more like that but I feel like it’s almost entirely down to what you make of it – lecturers provide you with the barebones of what you need to know, and then you go out and look into it yourself.
It took me quite a while to find my feet. At first I just didn’t feel good enough to be there; when the course first started I couldn’t help but feel intimidated by everyone sat around me in lectures, particularly when I struggled with a topic that everyone else appeared to grasp quite easily.
The start of the year was when I probably would’ve benefitted most from being in halls and having flatmates in the same boat – it was nice to have Alex at home for support but I couldn’t ask for advice on a report or ask him if he’d got the same result on a t-test. Eventually I did make friends who I could ask for help and after that things seemed so much easier, especially when I realised I wasn’t alone in struggling with certain things.
So yes, I would agree that it takes time in the first year to adjust but I don’t think your efforts should go unnoticed. I know so many people who have put in the least amount of effort possible to pass because “it doesn’t matter”, but I think that encourages a bad attitude towards your degree. If you don’t put in the effort to begin with, it’s quite likely that you’ll struggle with the second and third year because of how intensive they become.
You might think I’m crazy for complaining about this, but it’s just something that’s been on my mind. If you think the first year marks shouldn’t count, let me know!
One thing that bothers me a little is the fact your first year marks don’t count towards your final grade. I know the reason behind this is to give you a chance to adjust to the differences in the way degrees are run and also living away from home for the first time (in most people’s cases), but I don’t really understand that.
When I started college, I really noticed the differences between GCSEs and A Levels. A Levels were much more challenging in an academic sense but also because I didn’t realise just how much you had to put in yourself. It was much more of an independent thing. University is even more like that but I feel like it’s almost entirely down to what you make of it – lecturers provide you with the barebones of what you need to know, and then you go out and look into it yourself.
It took me quite a while to find my feet. At first I just didn’t feel good enough to be there; when the course first started I couldn’t help but feel intimidated by everyone sat around me in lectures, particularly when I struggled with a topic that everyone else appeared to grasp quite easily.
The start of the year was when I probably would’ve benefitted most from being in halls and having flatmates in the same boat – it was nice to have Alex at home for support but I couldn’t ask for advice on a report or ask him if he’d got the same result on a t-test. Eventually I did make friends who I could ask for help and after that things seemed so much easier, especially when I realised I wasn’t alone in struggling with certain things.
So yes, I would agree that it takes time in the first year to adjust but I don’t think your efforts should go unnoticed. I know so many people who have put in the least amount of effort possible to pass because “it doesn’t matter”, but I think that encourages a bad attitude towards your degree. If you don’t put in the effort to begin with, it’s quite likely that you’ll struggle with the second and third year because of how intensive they become.
You might think I’m crazy for complaining about this, but it’s just something that’s been on my mind. If you think the first year marks shouldn’t count, let me know!
Congratulations on passing! I'm going into my 3rd year eep!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in one sense. i did so much better and worked so much harder in 2nd year that i look back and think "wow i could've done that in first year" but i reckon it was a subconscious thing that i knew it didn't count!
On the other hand when i took my first set of exams in january of 1st year and had no clue what to expect from a university exam, at least for psychology where at my uni they dont give you past papers- life sciences do though. And when i had a crazy weird exam where the lecturer was said to be sacked after doing such a bad job and its rumoured that they had to bump everybody up so that enough people passed, i'm sure glad 1st year exams didn't count!
xxx