Band 5+: Many students find it harder to study when they are at university or college than when they were at school. Why is this? What can be done to solve the problem?

The transition stage between tertiary education and higher education is universally challenging and demands freshmen numerous changes and efforts to adapt with the new environment. It is undoubted that a segment of students anticipate that attending the university is exhausting, prompting various subsequent learning drawbacks. From my perspective, this phenomenon is possibly caused by students’ unpreparation and misorientation, which can be solved by subtly modifying the attitudes toward this academic field.

The aforementioned unwanted situation that many freshmen encounter is the result of lack of preparation and reluctance of understanding about the new environment. First and foremost, many highschool graduates heavily rely on the adults who complete most of their paperworks, debasing students’ enthusiasm toward the new life. Vietnam can exemplify this situation. A significant number of graduates get their paperworks and rental contracts done by their parents or teachers, consequently, they initially think of university and college life as problem-free. Another driving factor is the presence of unthoughtful major choices, which possibly put pressure on the students, causing anxiety and fury.

Thankfully, this issue can be resolved partially by making a number of changes to the current lifestyle and willingly adopting positive habits. To begin with, the necessity of keeping pace with the shifts of educational fields should never be underestimated, fostering the responsibility and ability to deal with school’s forthcoming problems. As a high school student, it is essential to be well-informed about enrolment and registration for higher education, which could be later useful to independently tackle spontaneous problems, preparing for the dynamic and solitary school environment. Notwithstanding having enrolled, an already freshman should also persist in keeping up with changes and announcements as well as readily learning from peers to remain unaffected by abrupt decisions of the school.

In summary, getting overwhelmed as a freshman is undeniably a common problem to many highschool graduates, unbalancing their work-life relationship and demotivating them. The possibile culprit of this problem is lack of preparation and achievable goals, which is unfortunately suffered by several students. However, the problem is still under controlled, appropriate and optimal approaches such as self-inform and peer-learning can helpfully solve the status quo to some extent.