College Life ;)

To many students, university life is fun. There isn’t a need to call those who teach them “teachers” anymore. They could wear their favourite clothes to school. Out with the days where mornings were filled with breakfast in school uniforms. In school there isn’t a need to seek permission to go for breaks. They could walk in and out of the lecture theaters (Yes. Places of learning are no longer called classrooms) and tutorial rooms at will. Indeed, the students have earned it, for they have grown up. But these freedoms are not here without prizes/prices. Prizes take the form of acquiring new knowledge; prices, in the form of examination failures.

Lecturers tend to be relaxed in lecturing the students. They do not spoon-feed anymore, i.e. the lecture notes are getting shorter and shorter. Lecturers tend to joke more in class, giving anecdotes and analogies from real life, mainly from their own experiences in the industries they operate in. Their wealth of experience is filled with funny and interesting stories. Students who take notes and analyse what the lecturers say will acquire new knowledge, not just because they have gotten everything the lecturer has said in the lecture, or having taken all the notes he/she has given, both orally or otherwise. They have understood the context and the framing of the lecture, the key words, the themes, the points the lecturer is driving at, not to mention to have thoroughly analyse what he/she has said in the lecture. It likens to the process of taking in and remembering the story, plot, and the situations characters in the film are in while enjoying them on the big screen.

But as we all know, life is not a bed of roses. Too much play comes with a price. What’s “too much play” in university life? The biggest culprit is complacency and procrastination. Examination is always seen as something far, far away in a semester. “We have just started, we can take our time”, a usual line heard in the university cafeteria. In addition, with really funny and entertaining lecturers, lectures seem fun. Enjoying it like a TV sitcom and movie, ready to be forgotten the very next day, will result in students not knowing what the lecturer is driving at. Students will not be able to grab the essence within lecturers’ stories. When examination comes, students will feel that they have been left behind in the wilderness, not knowing what to study for. At that moment, they would realise that preparing personal examination notes is part and parcel of university life. Looking at other people mugging examinations with something in front of them, comparing to his/her own lack of direction in examination preparation, a student will tend to resign to fate and let their maker decide the outcome of their examination.

Freedom is seductive in nature. But too much of it will result in one losing his/her way, especially when one’s body becomes idle, not knowing that freedom is in fact creativity. Students should exercise the creative freedom given by the university and its lecturers to formulate their own unique ways of studying and learning, not to mention preparing for examination at the end of the semester. In addition, students should also exercise creativity in sharing notes with fellow students, not blindly copying notes from each other. Students should engage in meaningful discussions with their fellow friends, taking the lecturer’s notes in many different directions, making the lecture more alive than ever. In this way, essays and examination answers will be rich, laced with different interesting perspectives.

Lastly, students should also keep their lecturers close to their hearts, for they are ones who will captain the ship they are on. They should often engage their lecturers in active discussion and challenge them to new ideas and perspectives. Most importantly, it allows lecturers to understand and chart the learning paths of his/her students.

Chua .R., (2011) In Facebook [Group page]
Retrieved May 9,2011 from http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_212228588805345&view=doc&id=213439595350911