Lifestyle
changes are all about making a change for a more positive you. The aim of them
is to become more efficient, productive or attractive in some way. Generally we
know that by doing something ie. Running more, we will become more efficient at
it. However, there are some categories of self improvement that are not as
clear cut. The most obvious of which is academic achievement. There’s been a
lot of focus on smarter study – but whatever that is, is generally elusive to
the press and the scientists themselves. What had been a common feature of
universities is that they will provide three avenues of learning one subject
·
Lectures
·
Tutorials/seminars
·
Readings
Their
claim is that all three must be completed in order to have learned a subject to
a sufficient level. This is obvious in error as few students ever bother to
complete the one, let alone the three, areas.
The
second claim is that by attending in-person one will gain greater benefit from
tutotirals and lectures than listening online. There is little evidence to this
effect – especially little on how students between 16-25 find learning in real
life as compared to online.
The
third claim is that written notes not typed notes create more pathways in the brain
that facilitate the learning of the subject.
 |
I’m
curious to see if I make a lifestyle change in regards to my study patterns –
will I see a grade improvement?
At
university there are multiple ways you can study; I like to catagorize them
into three broad categories.
The Ghost
The
ghost is the student that does the work, does the readings but never goes to
lectures. Those things are recorded – why bother turning up if you’re not going
to be graded!? The ghost’s logic is if they’re only there to get a degree the real
experience of a university has no meaning. They’re just there to do the work,
get out and get paid.
These
students are very self-driven and enjoy being able to cruise through the course
on their own – without any interference from the lecturer. Unless there’s a
graded tutorial required you’ll never see this student. They either hide out in
their room or tuck themselves into a cosy corner of the library.
If
you end up in a group assignment with this person you better make it clear you’re
not there to do all the work – because they’re not doing more than what they
have to. If you keep doing the work for them they’ll cruise on through.
Should have but didn’t
Much
like the ghost student this kind of student never turns up to lectures. But
they also don’t do the readings, they rarely make it to tutorials and they’re
pretty blasé about the final exam. In reality Ps get degrees and working harder
than 50% is a waste of time.
Their
work ethic affords them a lot of free time and they’re often richly involved in
university life. Things like sports, languages, pub crawls – this kind of student
is all over it. But…their grades suffer for it. To see this student getting any
higher than a C is a rare sight.
Lecturers
warn you that you can’t do a class without the readings, the classes and the
lecturers – but these guys know from personal experience – a bit of common sense
can get you places. – That and a few late nights of cramming before the exam.
The Over Caffeinated
The
lectures, the readings, the additional readings, the supplementary notes – most
common in freshers, this kind of student has done it all. There’s nothing you
can surprise them with – in fact if there is anything that’s potentially unusual
about the course they’ve probably already emailed the convenor to confirm that
was the intention, worked out a draft answer and they’re double checking it
now.
This
kind of student spends hours studying each day. Sometimes at the expense of
their own free time – and as much as we like to claim that we don’t – we’re all
a little jealous of the fact that they have such amazing self-discipline.
I
personally fall somewhere between a ghost student and the over caffeinated – as
most students probably wouldn’t fall directly into one category or another. The
difficutly of the course, the amount of interest you have in it, whether it’s semester
one year one or semester two year five – all play a huge role in determining
how much time you’re going to invest in this academic endeavour.
I’ve
always been curious – as a chronic non lecture, tutorial avoiding, and
generally work minimising student – if I did all the readings, attended all the
lectures, tutorials and did every piece of additional work – would I obtain the
elusive HD?
This
semester is the beginning of my third year – the very point of the up hill
marathon to finally getting my law degree. One should never start a marathon
aggressively – but in law school the harder you work – the more you can hope
for a job at the end of it.
So
this semester I am going to take three courses – a full
time load – and for each these I will complete all recommended and supplementary readings, attend all lecturers, all tutorials and all seminars.
 |
| Wish me luck! |
In
total it adds up to 46 hours of work (approximately) per week. This is
calculated following the course guides but in all honestly it’ll probably add
up to more, so I’m preparing for this. Over the course of the semester I will
be tracking my grades and then combining them at the end of the semester into
one average grade. This will then be compared to the average grade of the prior
semester in which I would listen to lecture recordings, attended the minimum
number of tutorials and never did readings.
So
in six months time we should have an allegorical response to the question ‘if I
tried harder- would I do better?’
If you’d like to join me on my lifestyle journey then
you can connect with me on Instagram, tumblr, twitter or facebook!
Instagram: the_underage_lawyer
Tumblr: theunderagelawyer.tumblr.com
Twitter: @underagelawyer
Facebook: @theunderagelawyer
