Sydney Life

As exams finish, first semester comes to a close and the holidays begin, I wonder why, with my parents still in Europe, I am still sitting here. Is it because I have nothing better to do? Am I in shock that my first semester of university is over? Are my legs broken?

No.

No dear readers. My legs are fine, if not a little hairy. I sit here still because of my undying desire to tell all of you about my first semester at the University of Sydney, so that you might know a little of what to expect before you get here yourself. I say “might” because to be honest, I haven’t exactly been here that long.

So here are five things you should know about Sydney before your first semester.

1. Sydney University is big. Very big. You can feel like a speck of plankton inside the university whale, but don’t worry because every first year is in the same boat for the first few weeks ( the analogy is less confusing if you imagine that the plankton are inside a boat which happens also to be inside a large whale… never mind… the point is that it’s a big place). Walking a long way to class takes a little getting used to, but it will help you to lose some of those post-HSC party pounds, so that’s a good thing, right Tubby? And realistically, you’ll only need to know where about five buildings are, so although it’s big, it’s by no means mission impossible to find your way around after about two weeks. Although on second thought, Usyd is a bit like Mission Impossible in that no one could claim to have seen the whole thing, and it takes about two weeks to understand what’s going on.

2. There are a lot of people. In some of the popular Arts lectures like philosophy and psychology, there can be up to 600 people in the one place. And it’s by no means only recent school leavers. In one of my first psychology lectures I sat next to an old lady who showed me her grandsons. Twin boys. God they were ugly. Again I stray from the point, which is really that the number of people has implications for the way things are taught. Because there are so many people who are all so different, the most effective way for a uni to teach them is to have them pretty much teach themselves. Unlike in school, where everything was sort of handed to you, lectures and tutorials are there more to give you some direction. They give you a basic outline for you to expand on in your own time. Of course, the basic outline is usually enough to pass, so if you go to the lectures and take some notes and hand things in on time, you’ll pass.

3. Well, it’s not really that simple. Another thing you have to be on top of at uni is the internet. It’s the easiest way to get information quickly to everyone at uni. You don’t have to be a Bill Gates to work it out, but it’s one of the most essential differences between school and uni that at uni everything you need, including lectures, tutorial materials, student discussion boards, your emails and even things like your exam seat numbers or casual employment ads are all on the net. It’s called WebCT, or Usyd e-Learning, and it’s really important that you know how to use it. I’m sure if you’re reading this right now you’re more than ok, because finding the link to this page on the USyd site is like trying to find an engineering student with a sense of humour. But in the first few weeks, you really have to check your account regularly, because assignments can be due within the first few weeks in some courses, and if you don’t check WebCT you might not even know about them. Unfortunately, WebCT is often really slow because everyone has to use it, and I sometimes wonder if the CT stands for Cumbersome and Tedious.

4. One of the more positive byproducts of the number of people at Sydney is that it is a really social environment. There are a few places to get drinks at any time, the two most popular being Manning ( frequented by Arts students having a beer at 11am) and Hermann’s ( frequented by engineers, trying to come up with one good joke between them with the help of alcohol). If you’re not a drinker, join a few clubs! I joined about ten during O-week (“O” for Orientation), and really enjoyed a few. Look out for a blog in the future about SURG FM, Sydney Uni’s radio station, which a friend and I take over for an hour each week. It’s only for the first three weeks of each semester due to licensing issues, but we get to say whatever it is that is on our minds ( mostly unprofessional pauses and loud coughing). It’s great fun. I might also recommend The Captain Planet Appreciation Society, which is basically a pub crawl club with cool t-shirts. If that’s not your thing, there’s the Games and Puzzles Club, the Chocolate Society and Film Club to name just a few.

5. If you’re at uni more to do well than to have a good time ( although I suggest a balance is a good thing) then you might want to know about exams. In my experience, which is of course minimal having not even received my marks back from my first lot, exams are not too tough as long as you plod along at a steady pace, keep up with the assignments, go to your lectures and tutorials and if you want to do really well, don’t just do the readings but make sure you can understand them, which can sometimes be a little tough! If you do that, you can get a good chunk of your marks for the course before you even sit the exam, which is usually only worth between 30% and 60% of the course. I, along with a lot the course, went into the linguistics exam having already gained around 40% of the course mark. So exams are really just another assignment rather than a huge ordeal like the HSC. If you’re worried, those rumours about first year uni being harder than the whole HSC year aren’t true, at least for an Arts degree.

Any way, sorry for taking so long to write another blog, but to make up for it I’ll follow up with another about things to do in uni holidays in the next few days. If you have any questions about this one I’d be happy to answer them.