How to make the most of student life

Student life is hard to define. Is it lazing around on campus lawns with friends? Is it reading the student newspaper in the campus coffee shop? Or is it mainly late nights in the library finishing your assignments? The truth is that student life is different for everyone. You will only get a sense of what it truly means to you once you're amongst it. In this section we expose some of the myths about student life to ensure you don't enter your studies with too many grand illusions. We also give you some tips on making the most of your precious time as a student.

True or false?

It's likely that you've heard some of the student myths floating around, so how much attention should you pay to them — if at all? To give you a bit of a head start on what being a student might be like, or might not be, we've listed and debunked some of the most common uni student myths below.

Ps get degrees

While "just passing" every class will earn you a qualification, many students use this as an excuse to do the bare minimum. Without a doubt, the satisfaction of earning a top mark is well worth the hard work. Keeping a high average certainly comes in handy if you intend to do further study, and high-achieving students may even be eligible to access scholarships and additional study opportunities such as exchange programs. While individual subject marks don't count for a lot once you graduate, think about how much better you will look in a job interview if you can demonstrate that you put in the hard work, rather than just scraping by.

Students are all poor

Just because you're a student doesn't mean you have to live in a run-down share house with seven hippies eating mi goreng packet noodles for every meal. Although money can be tight when you're studying full time, many students actually manage to live quite comfortably (keeping their dignity well intact) through a mix of part-time work, careful budgeting and (if they're lucky) government assistance. See Student income for some budget-friendly tips. You might even be surprised at how fun it can be living on a budget. Just embrace the time that you're at uni and think about your potential earnings once you come out the other end with your degree.

It's okay to start an assignment the night before it's due

While many students claim to do this (some even managing to miraculously end up with a decent mark), starting an assignment the night before it's due is never a good idea. You should aim to start a standard (say, 2500-word) assignment at least two to three weeks before it's due. Allocating one week for research, one week to write it and a couple of spare days to review and edit is a good formula to stick by. At times where you know there will be a pile-up of assignments (like the end of semester), try to get an earlier start. Leaving an assignment until the last minute is a recipe for disaster because more often than not you won't realise how much work there is to do until you begin. If you don't get it done in time, you will lose marks for late submission; if you do get it finished, there will always be the niggling feeling of how much better you could have done.

Tertiary study is all theory and no practice

Many denounce study as a waste of time that leaves students with little to no experience of real life. But the reality is that most institutions these days strive to give their students an experience that will prepare them for the real world. Many courses incorporate internships, study tours, visits from guest lecturers working in the field and industry projects for real organisations. These opportunities will give you a real advantage when it comes time to find a job.

First classes are always useless

Many students skip the first couple of classes because they assume that no assessable content will be covered or that there are better things they could be doing (like catching up on sleep). Missing the first class often means missing out on vital background information, details about your assignments and valuable opportunities to make friends with fellow classmates. There are a number of reasons why you should be in the habit of going to every class — not least of all because you are paying big bucks for the course, so you may as well enjoy it. In some cases, attendance may actually form part of your mark, so you might want to save skipping classes for when a real emergency occurs (no-one wants to be the boy who cried wolf).