Stories of the first-year experience

Student (Mature Age): Faculty of Arts

Transition to university from secondary school usually marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. It is not the actual initiation ceremony of becoming an adult, which in this society, as everybody knows, is the acquisition of the Driving Licence. But it occurs at the same approximate time, and is marked by an appreciable difference in the way a student is treated by his or her teachers. At university you are treated as an adult - no one tells you what to do - you can attend the lectures or not, depending on your own proclivities. This is sometimes hard to take for young students, who have hitherto been told what to do every step of the way; but for mature-age students, of whom I am one, this is not such a difficult regime to accept. Most students, however, are enlivened by this new freedom which coincides with their burgeoning sense of independence.

My entrance to university was not such a shock to the system as it might be for younger students. Being middle-aged and having already spent two years acquiring a Diploma of Arts at Holmesglen TAFE where a similar teaching modus operandi operates, I found I could easily cope with this type of study and due dates were not new to me.

Of course, there is a danger in enjoying the freedom of studying at your leisure. In the back of your mind there is the lingering knowledge of the due dates for the major essays creeping ever closer, which all seem to occur at once towards the end of the semester. The niggling worry becomes a controlled panic as the time is frittered away on all the other activities the university has to offer, such as societies, sports, political activities and fraternising with your fellow students. It can suddenly develop into a full-blown crisis especially if you have neglected the reading set out for your subjects, or are struck by the catatonic state known as 'writer's block'.

I have to mention here, that my remarks are more appropriate to arts students and perhaps not to students from the sciences or other faculties. They have the peculiar dynamics of their own mystical worlds of Lab Reports and Mathematical Models to wrestle with, which are more cut and dried and possibly not so beset with the rising crescendo of the horror of non-completion known to arts essay writers.

My message is that if you find yourself in a hole like this, and don't know which way to turn, go and talk to your teachers. Tutors and lecturers are not inhuman monsters and it is in their interest you pass the subjects they are teaching. It doesn't look good for them if there are lots of drop outs. I have known fellow students pull credits out of subjects that seemed doomed to the graveyard of failure, just by discussing the situation with their professors. Usually a compromise schedule can be worked out.

Another problem for older and younger students is handling the tutorial. This is usually a small weekly gathering held to discuss the latest week's study and it is a venue for giving class papers and stating your views on the subject at hand. The intimacy of this gathering can make it a forum for personality clashes. One of my experiences at these venues could highlight the possible problems that a student might face. Being an older student, I felt a little awkward sitting amongst younger students and I often over-reacted to this situation by being correspondingly more effusive and noisy than I usually was. On one occasion the tutor, who was also younger than me, felt I was undermining her tutorial teaching. Later when I became aware of this, I became very quiet for the rest of the semester. You can see that tutorials should be treated very carefully, especially as the tutors are the people who usually mark your essays.

Computers are often a problem for students, I have noticed, especially for older students who have missed out on the familiarization accorded to most secondary students these days. I was one of those who missed out, but a six weeks computer course, taken two years before entering university, fixed that problem. Thanks to that course I have embraced modern technology with both arms and find myself impatient for the benefits it could bring in the future. I particularly long for the day when all books, past and present are digitally available on the net. This will consign that dreaded phrase: "It's out of print" to the graveyard of depressing epithets. I know some students who hand in all their assignments hand-written because of their anti-computer mental blocks. I think it is sad; they do themselves a disservice not to become familiar with new technology and are ill equipped for the modern world.

I have outlined some of the concerns with transition to university that have struck me in my two years at Monash and hope they will be useful. It's exciting sharing views and opinions with the lively minds at the university and I enjoy the academic environment. I hope all prospective students, young and old, will also find Monash a delight.