The view from in here: Lectures

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How I do it (Part One)

Midyear enrollments are fast approaching and Murdoch have asked me to do a post on one of the most common concerns people have when considering enrolling, namely that they won't have enough time to study. This post is more going to deal with balancing studying and having a social life and I will do another tomorrow dealing with work and University and how the two sometimes negatively interact.

When you're doing a full-time degree there is no getting away from the fact that it does take up a significant portion of your average week. On the surface it may seem like you only have to be on campus for your contact hours, whatever those may be, but you also need to account for the time you will spend doing important activities such as tutorial readings, assignment preparation and the extra time actually writing an assignment can take. When you factor in any time you might have to spend working a part or full-time job and a few hours to spend with friends or family it starts to seem incredibly daunting.

For my first few months at University I found creating a balance between the social life of living in the Village and the demands of my degree very difficult. I would either spend entire nights locked away in the library, researching for assignments or I would go to the other extreme and put all thoughts of studying out my head while I went out drinking with friends. Neither extreme was particularly healthy but I did find my balance and from that I came up with a few little rules to govern my behaviour and help me better manage my time.

1. Have a set starting and stopping point

I struggled at first because I would over-study and then be exhausted the next day for class. I would go up to the library around nine at night and not leave until two in the morning. Being tired meant that I was never really studying as much or as effectively as I could and so I never took in as much information as I should have. I did find that if I set myself a set time to start and stop studying that I would be much more productive in that burst, rather than being unfocused for a longer period of time.

2. Keep a calendar

Buy a calendar. Write down the due dates for every single assignment and exam you are going to have for the semester. If someone invites you out, simply check the calendar. If there's a big assignment or exam due soon then you should probably be writing it or studying for it instead of drinking heavily. Combining the two is not recommended.

3. Have a study space

If you share a house with friends, or live in the village, the chances are you are probably limited in your study space. While studying in a common space, such as your kitchen or living room, may work for a little while sooner or later someone will disturb your study flow. I personally like to use the library to study as you are surrounded by like-minded people and during the day there is a whole section devoted to quiet study.

4. Put the books down and go outside

Locking yourself away and studying for long periods of time is fine, provided you also get out of the house and do something completely unrelated to studying. I would often stop studying for an exam and simply go for a fifteen or twenty minute walk. It's amazing how much easier it is to study if you take such breaks. Likewise, after a big assignment is finished, take a day off and go to the cinema with friends, or go clubbing (I'm told that's what kids these days do). Dwelling on what you might have done differently in an exam or assignment is the most wasteful avenue of thought and time.

5. Relax

University is not life and death, though it can sometimes seem like it is. If you don't think, for any myriad of reasons, that you'll make the deadline for an assignment then talk to your tutor. Nine times out of ten they will give you an extension. Though, you should never get into the habit of asking for them. Failing a unit or an assignment is also not the end of it all. There are always allowances to be made and ways of making the failed units up.

I will be putting up the second post on this topic sometime tomorrow. Until then why not tell me what your suggestions for balancing University and your social life are?

posted under International Students, Jonathan Gurney, Lectures, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Public Relations, Semester 1 2011, Stress, Student Village | 5 Comments

The Stress Less Guide to Studying in Australia - Part Three

Orientation Week

This one is coming a little later than I would have liked but I promise there will be a full explanation. Later. As always please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions or feel that I've missed something.

So now that you’re in Australia, you’ve moved into what will probably be your home for the next three years and have met other people who are about to start University. O-Week starts tomorrow (or maybe today at the rate I’m writing) and soon you’ll be so busy attending introductory lectures and orientation events that stressing about the semester to come will be the last thing on your mind. This will be the conclusive post of this trilogy so pay close attention.

Put your address on MyInfo

One of the conditions for holding a student visa in Australia is that you let your education provider, a fancy name for the University you attend, know where you live. This is also kind of useful for you as it means the University can send you important notices and the like. It’s really easy to simply go to MyInfo on the Murdoch portal and pop your address in. All you need to login in is your student number and password that you should already have.

Get your student I.D

It’s a handy little card that entitles you to the various discounts that students are offered. It also allows you to gain access to certain buildings in the University grounds after hours depending on your unit choices. All you need is your student number and the library will sort you out with a picture and a card. It does not, however, allow you to get concession on public transport, that requires a separate smart-rider card and to have registered for the concession on MyInfo.

Enroll in Units and Activities

Part of being at University is attending lectures and classes. To that end it’s a really good idea to enroll in the units that your major requires. The sooner you enroll in units the sooner you can enroll in activities (the classes that go with every unit) and the sooner you do that the better the timetable you end up with. It’s only logical.

Buy your books

This can be the most painful part of your University career, having to shell hundreds of dollars for University textbooks and readers. There really is very little I can say that will soften this blow. (Again email me or leave a comment if you have something to add) Check the Guild shop for second hand books and sites like the Book Depository and Amazon will sometimes have cheaper books. Good luck either way.

Conclusion

If you’ve read this far and feel that there is still something that is worrying you then I encourage you to send me an email about it. Otherwise, follow your timetable, always read your Unit Guide, always take notes in lectures and always start your assignments on time. Also, stress less.

Good luck!

posted under BA in Security Terrorism and Counterterrorism studies, Books, International Students, Jonathan Gurney, Lectures, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni | 1 Comments

The Proper Care and Maintenance of a Mouse Trap

Sometimes, I like to take a break from saving the world to actually attend some lectures. However I've noticed that a lot of people tend to be breaking the unwritten guidelines of behaviour during these sacred times. So what follows are some of what I consider to be the more important ones.

Snoring

Falling asleep in a lecture is pretty common. Sometimes it's because you've been up studying all night and other times it's because a darkened room is very conducive to sleep. I have nothing but respect for the noble state of the sleeping scholar. Their gentle nods of the head, the hunched way they sit over their notebook and the startled look on their face when the lights come back on at the conclusion. However the snoring scholar is something I believe every lecture can do without.

Eating

It's five p.m. You've spent the whole day in the library desperately scribbling away to get your paper on 19^th Regency era Romance Literature finished before your next class. You haven't had time to eat because you've barely had time to sleep. Finally you drop the assignment into the box and head to the final lecture of the day. You sit down, barely able to keep your eyelids open, and someone sits next to you. They pull out a sandwich they have obviously just purchased from the food court. Its smell is intoxicating. You believe that you could subsist entirely on the mere idea of this sandwich. You lean over and gently bash the owner of the sandwich unconscious and claim your reward. This is why I advise against eating delicious food during lectures.

Keyboards

I am actually guilty of this one myself. I like to take my laptop into lectures so my notes don't devolve into doodles of penguins and spaceships. I respect that some lecturers dislike seeing laptops open during lectures as they believe, sometimes quite rightly, that students will fritter their lecture time away by idly clicking 'refresh' on Facebook. I have no problem with this. My problem rests with the personality type known as the “aggressive” note-taker. This person will tap away at their keyboard as if every single key has committed a grave sin against them and must be punished. It would be an exaggeration to say that it can be hard to hear the lecturer but honestly it's still pretty intrusive.

Talker

Finally we come to the talker. This person hasn't seen their friend in forever and will engage in an energetic conversation with them about topics as diverse as politics, literature and whether or not one of them saw what was on the telly the previous night. Catching up with friends is an activity I wholeheartedly endorse. Catching up with friends when the lecturer is attempting to explain the finer points of a topic is a crime I would welcome the death penalty for.

So there you have just a few simple rules that really do make me sound like an old man complaining about the kids on his lawn. I only have this to say in my defence; in at least one lecture in all my time at Murdoch I've been in breach of all four of these guidelines. And yes, the title is completely misleading and unrelated to the topic.

posted under Jonathan Gurney, Lectures, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Public Relations, Semester 2 2010 | 2 Comments

Help is on the way

However you look at it Murdoch has some very unattractive courtyards. There are some beautiful areas, such as the Peace garden, but overall there is definitely something missing in the bigger places. With that in mind Murdoch contacted me and asked me to do a series of installations that would hopefully raise the profile of the institution. Given my fantastic work with the chalk drawings and the very inspirational believe banner it would seem like I was a logical choice for such a big endeavour, but I was quite busy so they decided to go in a different direction.

Murdoch have asked the artist Kyle Hughes-Odgers, also known as Creepy, to do a series of seven installations for around campus that will be going up this week. Creepy is an internationally renowned street artist who is based locally here in Perth and does some fantastic work. I really don't know much about art but I do know what I like and Creepy's work falls neatly into the latter category. They are a blend of vibrant colours and contemporary themes that I think will click nicely with the student population. Below is a time-lapse video of the largest piece being done and it is really fascinating to watch.

help is on the way from Chad Peacock on Vimeo.

I think this is such a great idea, not only because Creepy has created some amazing pieces but because these will now become a part of the Murdoch University art collection and will inspire so many of our future artists that study there. It's also part of a much larger effort to refurbish one of our biggest courtyards, something that is long over-due, as well as a great opportunity to show-case how fantastic the Perth artists are. You can find out more about Creepy at his site here, or by heading to the Turner Gallery where his exhibition “You just have your eyes closed” will be running until the 13^th of September. If you don't need to go to campus this week but live close enough I think it would be worth it to pop down and see them go up.

posted under Creativity, Creepy, Lectures, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Public Relations | 2 Comments

University Myth busters part 2

It’s come to the stage of the year when Murdoch starts accepting the mid-year enrolments. A lot of students who take a break after high school find this to be the best time to get into student life. However it can still be a pretty intimidating time and you probably have a lot of worries and doubts. With that in mind Murdoch asked me to write three articles tackling the most common worries you guys face. If you have any questions about enrollment I advise you to check out Ask Murdoch.

“I don’t know if I can balance work and study”

Earning money is fun isn’t it? Sure you maybe have to give up a couple of days in the week to get that money but once it’s sitting in your bank account the possibilities seem infinite. Working can also be quite fun because of the simplicity of the equation. More work = More money. I know a few people that used to go out to the mines, work solidly for two weeks and come home utterly exhausted but $2000 richer. Money also makes life easier to live because you don’t need to worry so much about how you are going to afford your next meal and an impulse buy won’t bring angry debt-collectors to the door. So when you’ve accrued enough money and have decided to give tertiary education a shot it can come as a nasty surprise when study time is replacing all the free time you used to have for work. You find yourself cutting your shifts because you need time to write the lengthy assignments and re-write the hastily scribbled lecture notes. So what’s the solution?

Balance

In the ideal world you’d work enough to pay your bills with a bit extra, have time to finish your assignments and still be able to go the pub every night with your friends. Realistically though you need to work hard to achieve this sort of life-style. Balance doesn’t mean getting everything done at the last minute but actually being able to create, and work in, specific blocks of time for each activity. So how can you do this?

Prioritise

I know it sounds like I’m channelling the inner Dr Phil but you need to sit down and work out what is important in your life. Your part-time job may seem really important and fulfilling but working 35 hours a week while your books gather dust is a dumb idea. The purpose of going to University, for me certainly is to get a strong qualification that will open doors for employment. This means that getting my degree is right at the top of my list of priorities. That being said I still find the time to work; I just need to be smart about which shifts I can and cannot do. Prioritising can be the toughest part of this process. Sometimes you need to cut certain things out of your life, maybe you won’t have time to play cricket with your club every night and that can be sad. But University isn’t forever so don’t look at some short-term sacrifices as the end of the world.

Plan

Proper Preparation and Planning Prevent Piss-Poor Performance. From week one you will have a detailed list of what assignments are expected from you and when they are due. If you know that there is a 2500 word assignment due in week 14 maybe you should approach your boss in week one to secure time off so that you have that buffer to work in. If your boss isn’t sympathetic then at least you know that you’ll need to start work on the assignment earlier than you may otherwise have thought. Likewise if you know that you have no assignments for a couple of weeks then you can temporarily take on some more shifts or use that time in some other manner. The worst thing in the world can be getting some free time and having absolutely nothing constructive to do in it.

Rest & Relaxation

Balance is a two way street. If you spend the whole semester buried in books your health will suffer and that is not fun. If you have a good timetable for your assignments worked out and you are confident that you don’t need to work on anything then you should go out and enjoy the company of friends. This can be the best part of University, kicking back between assignments, because it allows for some much needed breathing room.

Overall

All the fancy words will come as little comfort when you’re up at 4 a.m desperately writing an essay before your class at 8. Sometimes you can’t balance work with study or sometimes things go wrong. A seemingly simple assignment suddenly morphs into a 5000 word catastrophe and you feel very alone and a little bit frightened by the deadline. That’s why it can be a great comfort to know that there are safety nets in place for you. Tutors will grant extensions if you show them that you have worked all semester and you should never be afraid to ask for help. In fact Murdoch has an entire section of the library specifically aimed at helping people complete their assignments and do the best they can. But learning balance rests on your shoulders and it is certainly a skill I have learnt while studying at Murdoch.

posted under BA in Security Terrorism and Counterterrorism studies, Health and Counselling, Lectures, Minor in Journalism, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Student Health, University Myth Busters | 1 Comments

Coffee

I woke up about half an hour before my alarm this morning. This doesn’t happen very often but I was completely awake and half of my brain was desperately trying to find a way to justify getting up earlier than usual while the other half was quite content to simply slump back asleep. I was literally falling asleep when the wakeful half of my brain shouted (mentally) “If you get up early you’ll have time to get coffee before class starts!” This was a dirty trick and resentfully I got up and went through the motions of getting ready for class.

Last year I had a stomach problem that essentially meant I had to avoid coffee which made early morning lectures hell on me. I tried all the alternatives, eating an apple, drinking a glass of that fizzy vitamin stuff that’s meant to be good for you and even drinking 3 cups of tea but none of them worked. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I found myself coping better and better without my coffee fix. I was able to focus in class without constantly sipping at my caffeine drip and slowly but surely I stopped falling asleep in lectures. I’d broken the back of my addiction and would never again need to be dependent on a stimulant to keep me going through the day. I had won.

Sadly for me I started work at a cafe that provides free coffee for its staff and after only one day there I caught myself with a coffee in my hand. I hadn’t even been fully aware I was drinking it until it was far too late. Like a recovering alcoholic I fell off the wagon and I fell hard. Sure I rationalised that it was only one latte to help me get started in the day but soon I was getting coffee between lectures and then after lectures. Now all it takes is the promise of coffee to get me to wake up half an hour before I even need to. I am even sipping at a mug of coffee while I type this.

I guess what I’m saying is that it may seem like a problem but really there’s no problem here at all. If you’ll excuse me I need to go and peruse the bean selection at the grocery store now.

posted under Coffee, Lectures, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Semester 1 2010 | 1 Comments