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Something common we see every year is students finishing their high school studies, starting university, and struggling to adapt to the different learning environment. Whilst high school and uni do have similarities, there are skills required at university level that you can probably get by without at high school.
To make things easier for yourself - and also to get more out of Year 12 - why not work to develop some of these skills early? If uni is then something you would like to pursue, you’ll be in a much better position to make an easy transition. Here are some of our tips!
Use a wide range of resources
Through high school, you’re most likely basing a lot of your content knowledge on two things: your classes, and your textbook. That’s fine, but it’s important to recognise that other resources exist - and can actually be really helpful.
When you source your knowledge from a wider range of reputable resources, you get the benefit of learning things in slightly different ways, allowing you to make connections and consolidate what you’re learning.
At uni, you may be expected to learn not only through class content, but also through readings (assigned to you and otherwise), additional lectures, and other materials. Sourcing knowledge widely will make you a much more rounded learner, and also helps to avoid any biases present in any given source.
At high school level, the textbook is a great start, but there are lots of other resources out there. If you’re looking for something different, for example, check out some online lectures or revision videos. Use these as a launching pad to enhance your understanding and more deeply engage with the content you’re learning.
Take responsibility for your own learning
If you think back to your time at primary school, you might remember how supportive it was in terms of assessment. If you had a project you were working on, you might have been given a certain number of periods in class time to work on it, with heaps of help from your teacher. It was probably quite rare to get much homework - if any at all.
In high school, you have to take more responsibility for your learning. If you have a test or exam, you’re expected to study for that assessment outside of class hours. It’s up to you to make it happen, and if you don’t, you have to deal with the consequences.
A similar transition is true from high school to university. You’re already used to taking responsibility for your own learning, but it ramps up a notch at uni. You’ll have assessments and exams, but you won’t necessarily be reminded of them in class. It’s up to you to check online what you need to get done before any given class, and the expectation is that you’ll do it.
Nobody will be there to hold your hand every single step of the way, so it’s a good idea to start developing responsibility sooner rather than later. An example of this might be printing out the syllabus or study design for your subject, and highlighting each dot point when you feel like you’re confident in that area. Come end-of-year exams, take it upon yourself to make sure you’re ready for anything that could be thrown at you in the exam - don’t rely on your teacher to do this for you.
Set up time management strategies
This is a big one. The sooner you land on a system that works for you, the better.
The reality is that high school is very structured. You (give or take) start at the same time every day, you finish at the same time every day, and the periods in the middle are at the same time every day.
That probably won’t be the case at uni; you might have two hours here, one hour there, a big break here, a full day there. Like in high school, you may also be juggling things like part time work. What that means is that you need to be really clear within yourself about where you’re meant to be and when, and the times you can allocate to study.
A lot of uni students find strategies like to-do lists and study timetables useful for this, particularly in first year where the lack of school structure can be a little jarring. And these strategies can be adopted through high school, too!
Take the initiative, and ask questions
Asking questions in class when you don’t understand something can actually be really hard, particularly if it’s something you’ve avoided in the past. It’s so easy to just try to cruise along without having your lack of understanding exposed, or saying “yes” when your teacher asks if you understand something when you actually have no idea.
But if you think about it, that’s so counter-productive to the reason you’re at school in the first place: to learn stuff.
Asking questions in class can really help clarify concepts right at the start, meaning you can focus more time on things like applying your knowledge, and refining question-answering. And the sooner you start asking questions, the easier it becomes.
If you don’t want to put yourself out there in front of the whole class straight away, take small steps. For example, stay behind class for a few minutes to ask your teacher a clarifying question, or find them after school. If they’re available (and assuming you’ve been paying attention in class!), it’s very likely they’ll be stoked with the question - it shows that you’re engaged with the content, and are trying to learn to the best of your ability.
The skill of asking questions - and it is a skill - is very important in university. Because you won’t have the same teacher-student relationship as in high school, it’s really difficult for your tutors and lecturers to know if you’re following something or not - so it’s up to you to take the initiative if something is unclear.
Think deeply to make connections
Our last tip in this article is to try to push your understanding to greater depths, which is a big focus at university. Learning definitions or surface-level content is a great start, but the really interesting stuff usually comes from asking questions like “why?” or “how?” - and understanding the answers.
By actively thinking about information and not just passively absorbing it, you’re giving yourself the chance to forge deeper connections between different areas of content you’re learning. And by doing that, you’re giving yourself the best chance of actually understanding the content. And by doing that, you’re putting yourself in a great position to excel in exams - particularly if the exam questions are a little bit curly.
The strategies outlined in this article are important to develop for university level, but they can also really help through high school. Best of luck!
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