{"id":38719,"date":"2019-08-12T07:27:03","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T11:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=38719"},"modified":"2019-08-09T07:34:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T11:34:14","slug":"how-hard-is-first-year-actually-transitioning-from-high-school-to-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/08\/12\/how-hard-is-first-year-actually-transitioning-from-high-school-to-university\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hard is First Year, Actually? Transitioning from High School to University"},"content":{"rendered":"When I first started at U of T, I worried a lot about how hard university would actually <\/i>be.\r\n\r\nFor high school, I went to a public school with a strong academic reputation. Now that I\u2019m in university, I study Political Science. *Note that if you had a different high school experience, or are in a different university program, you might see things very differently. But, here are some things I\u2019ve personally noticed that differentiate high school academics from university academics.\r\n\r\n\"A<\/a>\r\n\r\nAnalysis > Memory.\r\n<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn high school, I remember actually studying a lot <\/i>for tests. Especially for my History 12 class, I was expected to remember every single detail about every major historical event in the 20th century (ughh). So, when I came to university, I assumed that studying for tests and preparing for essays would require me to do the same thing.\r\n\r\n\"A<\/a>\r\n\r\nBut, I found out pretty quickly that tests in the humanities and social sciences required me to know the big ideas. In terms of readings, I had to understand the main arguments theorists were making and be able to compare and contrast these ideas. But knowing exactly what was said on a specific page of my reading was definitely not necessary.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nSo, when I'm studying in university, I make sure I'm focusing on the big picture and learning how to analyze<\/em>, rather than memorize<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nFrom small to big.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn high school, I also had multiple smaller assignments per term. These were more low-stakes, as I could screw up a couple and not ruin my entire grade. But, in university, most social sciences or humanities classes only have a few major assignments per term, which can make or break my mark. Because they\u2019re so high pressure, I start early and remain calm!\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n
\"A<\/a>
A 35-page report I wrote in first year!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nBut as long as I understand the assignment properly, give myself adequate time, and reach out to the professor or TA with questions, I get a good grade.\r\n\r\nFreedom\u2026 use it wisely!\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe biggest difference between high school and university is probably how the classes are set up. In high school, I spent A LOT of time in-class. My teacher taught basically everything I needed to know about the subject I was studying.\r\n\r\nBut, in university, I spend way less time in-class. That doesn\u2019t mean that I'll be relaxing outside of class though\u2014 in that free time, I'm expected to learn a lot of material on my own, and spend hours doing my readings. Not everything I need to know for my tests is taught by the teacher\u2014 a lot of it I have to learn independently, outside of class.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nSo, I make sure I'm scheduling my free time properly in order to learn that extra material.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"A<\/a>\r\n\r\nOverall, university is different from high school, but not significantly harder once you get the hang of it. For more information on transitioning to university, U of T Student Life holds great university prep courses<\/a> to connect you with resources. Good luck, and have fun!\u00a0<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nWhen I first started at U of T, I worried a lot about how hard university would actually be. For high school, I went to a public school with a strong academic reputation. Now that I\u2019m in university, I study…\n<\/div>
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Continue reading “How Hard is First Year, Actually? Transitioning from High School to University”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":38720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6669,1,67,68,77],"tags":[542,27578,27577,27576,27579,6532,27580],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38719"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38734,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38719\/revisions\/38734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}