Is most of Uni self-teaching?

[Snow Leopard]

Hey,

To do well in uni, is it mostly just relying on yourself, finding useful resources online and self-teaching? To what extent can you rely on lecturers and tutors?

Thank you

[fun_jirachi]

Not necessarily.

There's a lot more initiative required of you because of larger cohorts (and thus a more distinct lack of hand-holding). You can rely on lecturers and tutors, but don't expect them to go out of their way to motivate you; it's technically above their pay grade though it's not uncommon that they will still do so (make sure you show your appreciation and respect regardless  -- take note of the ones that do go the extra mile too!). They are there to educate you and help you out, anything else is a bonus. A decent rule of thumb is to let teaching staff point you towards extra resources but to take it upon yourself to actually use said resources and motivate yourself.  Some self-teaching may be required if a particular course is too long for the teaching period, or if the staff think it's better for you to figure things out in a particular instance, etc. but outside of this, you can get along just fine without doing any of this.

By and large, you will figure out what to do on your own based on the situations that you come across; if you have further questions when the time rolls around, just shoot

[spectroscopy]

For most people:
- The lecturers talk through (and present slides) for the relevant information in the course. Throughout my commerce course, all the exam content was stuff covered in lectures (this may be different for differnet uni's and courses)
- If you have any questions, that dig deeper into what the lecturer taught (or you didnt understand). You can:
- Raise your hand and ask
- Find them in their office hours
- Send an email

You also generally have tutorials, where you often explore key concepts deeper, often try to answer questions to problems OR go through homework in more depth. Oftentimes lecturers can be hard to get a hold of, so you can also ask your tutor questions by:
- raising your hand
- stopping them before/after/during class
- emailing

Often there are also prescribed textbooks, which I never bought after Semester 1 Year 1 which theoretically should:
- re-explain relevant ideas
- provide deeper information, and knowledge about related but different things

Of course you also have your peers and google, but these are the main resources.

If your grades are bad: no one will care. You will get bad marks/fail subject. A nice lecturer or tutor might try to email you to warn you ahead of time if you are on track to fail. Fail too many subjects and you can get called in for hearings to plan what to do with you

If you get good grades: you might get a nice email from lecturer/tutor, could even get a letter of recognition, scholarship, more opportunities, etc. but these are generally things that happen after the hard work. You are less likely to get the ongoing encouragement.

Essentially, you don't have to "self-teach". The lecturer, tutor, and textbooks will give you all the information you need, and teach you essentially.
It is up to you if you listen, participate, and read what is available.

Bonus: one thing a lot of people don't realise when they are in their undergrad degree (or go straight from UG to postgrad) is how much effort and time lecturers and tutors are generally willing to put in IF you seek it. I used to think they didn't care at all, and were too busy to give a crap about their students. But looking back now, advising my friends in uni, and reflecting on some experiences me and my mates had, a lot of tutors and lecturers really went out of their way to help students. Do not this is only, at certain times, when asked, if you were a good student, etc.

EG: Had a friend who had studied super hard in all their subjects, as a marketing major in Bachelor of Commerce.
Despite going through the effort of over 50 graduate job applications, they had no job offers yet in their last year of uni.
In one marketing subject I think semester 1 in their 3rd and final year, this dude kept doing his usual thing.
Going to all lectures in person, studying super hard, emailing the lecturer and tutor feedback on lectures, their thoughts, etc. and going to them to ask any questions, and just discuss content in general.

End of semester, dude had just got rejected in the final round of interviews for a graduate job earlier, and was super upset. Had good grades and everything but things just weren't working out.

He went to the lecture that day, super bummed out, and after class he was talking to the lecturer like usual. Topic of grad jobs comes up and my mate nearly has a breakdown, and just starts ranting about the process, how hard he's been trying, and how he's still having no luck. Lecturer straight up says to him: "dont worry mate, I know a few people who are hiring, send me your resume and I'll pass it along. Maybe we can find something".

Lecturer sent it to some people in his network I guess, and obviously spoke highly of my mate because hes a good dude, had great grades, and was super friendly.  One of the lecturers friends responds the next day saying he'll give him an interview, so my mate has an interview with this person the next week, and 2 days later had a job offer that was WAY better than half of the graduate programs he applied for.

Moral of the story: university is more about self motivation than self-teaching, and if you really put in the effort, you'll get a lot more than an education 

[Izzy.Hobbs]

To a certain extent yes,

Uni is mostly about the initiative you take to complete your course, but if you have a smaller course, or smaller classes within your units, it can help because the lecturers know you and just having that relationship holds you to some kind of accountability, such as they might notice when you skip/miss classes or practicals. But they also don't care off you're struggling, its up to you to ask for help they won't notice that someone is struggling like in school.