Studying in Australia: The Study Abroad Student's Guide to Success

In America, we have much longercontact hours. There’s morelecture format and more tutorialcontact hours. And I think theprofessors don’t anticipate thatyou’re gonna spend as muchtime in the library as you wouldhere.Scott, USA• Consider your personal preferences forstudying. Allocate study into times when youare most productive. e.g. schedule difficultthinking tasks at your strongest time – whethermorning, afternoon, or evening – and do lessdifficult tasks, such as photocopying, whenyou feel less alert.• Use active learning strategies to keep yourstudies interesting; ‘do’ something with thematerial you are studying, e.g. summariseit, explain it to someone. Include somecollaborative study tasks so you are notlocked away alone all day.Now you’ve completed your timetable – put itsomewhere prominent where you (and others ifyou are sharing accommodation) can see it as avisual reminder of your weekly commitments.You also need to think about managing your timeover the semester. This means getting organisedthroughout the early part of semester in order tocope with the busy weeks at the end of semesterwhen everything is due. A semester / year plannercan help with this. (Year planners are available atnewsagents.)Australian classes: howmuch study should I do?The amount of work required will vary dependingon your subjects. In Australia, most subjects willhave a major assessment (exam or assignment)towards the end of semester, with one or two otherminor assessments during the semester.Generally, for most of the semester, your studytime will consist mostly of reading and reviewingof lecture and tutorial material. As a general rule,approximately two hours study for each hour ofclasses is the minimum required.When assignments are due, expect to spendadditional time completing them. With fewercontact hours it may feel like there is plenty oftime to get the work done, but if you haven’t putin the regular study time earlier in the semester,then at the end you may be overwhelmed by studydemands.Consider your studyenvironmentPart of creating good study habits is making sureyou have a place to study where you can geta reasonable amount of work done. If you arefinding it hard to settle down to study, you mightneed to think about your study environment.There’s not as much pressure onyou to do work, it’s more up toyou whether you want to do it ornot. I suppose at home there’smore pressure, more deadlinesto meet. There’s not so muchemphasis on exams either, a lotof it’s essay work which leaves alot up to yourself. So, in that way,it makes you think more, whichis probably more of a challengethan at home.Richard, IrelandStudying in Australia: The Study Abroad Student’s Guide to Success15