I am super stressed. My biggest concerns are talking to a lot of people who make it seem like an impossible task. I wouldn't consider myself as "bright" or "smart," possibly slightly below average, so the objective seems pretty daunting. I am currently majoring in Literary studies and its hard, for me, because I neglected English throughout high school in favour of my maths and science subjects. It feels like its a totally new subject to me and everyone else in the class speaks as if they've done it since the day they were born. They've got ideas, input and opinions, im just sitting there like "ok...."
Hey Cacti,
I'm doing some Arts units at Monash so maybe I can help you out! I did ATS1903 Introduction to Reading last year, and I got a 77 without tooooo much work, however I am one of those people who loved Literature from day dot and focused on it in school. I had HD assessments and one memorable 13% Fail assessment (she later bumped it to 60). My in class average was about a 68 I think so I'm not sure if marks were scaled at the end, or if I did reallyyy well on the exam ( I didn't feel like I did). In the end I decided I didn't like how wishy-washy and uncertain it all was so I discontinued that as a Major.
If you're really used to science based study, and you're using Arts as a stepping stone to another degree, why don't you consider units more scientifically based? Psychology can be studied in both Arts and Science, and a lot of it is very much science. Philosophy is another good one, especially ATS1371 - It is of course very much an Arts subject, but its also quite easy to do well in because they really want you to do well so they work really hard to make everything understandable: I think 70% of students get a Distinction or above. Its all about understanding a principle, considering the premises and conclusion it leads to: quite formulaic if you want it to be, but lots of room to think. Its also a really popular elective so lots of Engineering, Science, Law, etc students do it which de-Artsifies it a bit. If you want to try the language based areas of study, going off you choosing Literary Studies, why not look into Linguistics? A lot of my science-minded friends really enjoyed it.
You can definitely achieve the marks you want with some good study habits, and with the right units that you are genuinely interested in. Good luck with it, all the best