Swinburne Commons - Transcript
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Title: Study habits (Introduction to University)
Author(s): John Schwartz, Katrina Cominos , Sam Lockart
Year: 2015
Okay, so let's start talking about your study habits.
You've been doing this ever since you were at early high school, but now you're going to have to
basically make sure you are on top of the way in which you study, where you study best, how you
study. Where you study is really an important thing to do. It's a twelve week semester as we've
mentioned before and it really starts from day one.
The deadlines that you're going to be getting from really week one are going to be crucial, and one of
the most important things that you now need to do is have a diary, have something that's very, very
clear and close to you, that you understand what the requirements are as the semester goes through.
If you're a full time student doing four units, there's going to be a number of short essays, longer
essays, lab reports, tests, quizzes, a whole host of things on the assessment front that are going to be
confronting you.
You should never be taken by surprise here, it goes so quickly this twelve weeks, and don't be
surprised if in a sense you get three essays due in one week and you can't basically give the excuse
that there are three essays to do in one week and you're not going to hand it in, they take marks off
when you hand in work late, so studying and studying every night, every day throughout the semester
becomes important it's essential that you understand that that's a really important way to get good
marks and not get left behind, getting left behind. Getting behind in one subject often creates panic
often creates stress and then it adversely effects other subjects.
I can't emphasise enough to you the fact that when there's a twelve week semester the pressure is
double, if not triple, what is has been in previous years of study when you've had a whole year to do a
whole course, you know best when to study, morning nights, evenings, weekends, everyone is
different in terms of when they're most alert, when they're most if you like, awake, what I'm saying is
to spend quality time when you're alert and awake is really crucial. To spend six hours when you're
half asleep after you've worked four hours at McDonald's and you're really exhausted is basically time
wasted
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You have to be strategic in the way that you study when you study and how you study.
From the outset, you have to also understand that when you get a lot of written work, and for those of
you who do a lot of writing in your course work throughout the semester, and even those doing
projects, there has to be a lot of planning, a lot of drafting.
You can't expect to have your first or your rough draft and to hand that in as the finished product. You
and only you know how many drafts you're going to need and I'm suggesting that when you do the
reading and when you do the research, when you do the planning, when you do the drafting very
often you need to polish it. You need to spend more time on it you need to really devote if you like
time and effort to making sure that what you're hand in is the best possible work that you can actually
complete.
Now that requires a strategic use of your time and also your study habits have to basically allow that
this is going to occur, so good quality time, good quality study, basically being able to do drafts,
second drafts, improve always on the work before you finally hand it in. To hand something in rushed,
last minute, doing it the night before you might have been able to get away with it earlier but you're
not going be able to get away with it as often now, and you're certainly not going to get marks. It's
going to look rushed and look untidy.
Now having said that what I'm going to now suggest is that there's going to be times when you are
going to basically be behind. Let's be realistic, the ways students study very often means that there's
going to be a hiccup along the way. You can basically ask for extensions on this level. For an essay
for a short sort of piece, a presentation, a lab report, something that happens during the semester you
can go directly to your tutor.
Your tutor basically does the marking for that unit, he/she will be doing the assessment for you in this
unit. If you ask for an extension and ask for it not on the day it was due but a little bit before, you may
well get extra time where you don't get penalised. They won't take five, ten twenty whatever marks off
because you've handed it in late, and you've actually shown the initiative of going up to the tutor and
saying "hey I've been a bit behind, I'm sick, I was crook" or whatever. Now on this level, you can
basically not lose marks and not be penalised.
When it comes to exams, and these are end of semester exams that's a different kettle of fish. That's
what's called ‘special consideration’. Now to get special consideration, again, it's through illness;
yours, someone you live with, some personal issue that you've been confronted by, then you actually
have to go through the actual process of applying formally through HQ and getting, if you like, special
consideration that the exam not take place, or you have special arrangements for the exam. It's their
call whether they give it to you but what you're then saving in a sense is losing marks.
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The next thing apart from special consideration and getting an extension is make sure you spend time
with your studies by asking questions. I'm asking that here, what we need to think about is the idea of
study groups ask other students in your tutorial to join with you in some time, some time that you have
that's free to talk about the lectures, to talk about the tutes, to talk about the reading, to talk about the
assignment that's coming up next, and to make sure that you don't work as an island, that you don't
basically think that it's you verses the world.
The way to understand this is that there are other students who are having the same issues, going
through the same text books, having to do the same assignment.
Now what you need to really do, and no one is going to organise this for you, you have to organise it
yourself, get into the idea of talking to other students, forming study groups asking for a mentor
basically making certain that you're on top of the material and you're getting as much information as
you possibly can.
And if you do need an extension or you're applying for special consideration, ask for help. Basically
you can speak to academic advisers such as myself, we're existing in all faculties so basically you can
get information, get some advice on this, speak to your tutors, speak to us and basically we'll go
through the process of what it takes to basically get special consideration and if you like, get
extensions for your work.
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