University of Copenhagen
Independent of management
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Education
With hindsight — Go to re-examination, forget about your grades, and make demands. At the university, there are many new things to deal with, and one is easily overwhelmed. Here, an experienced student tells what she wishes she had known, when she was on the threshold of student life.
It costs money to begin at university. Between all the trips to IKEA, the books, and the travel cards for commuting, starting to study can end up being expensive, so it’s smart to save up a bit before you take off. There are also expenses for social activities such as introduction week, which you can easily forget on the go – and all the beers you are going to drink at the Friday bar don’t pay for themselves.
On campus you will hear many new and strange expressions – they are a part of the particular language code that is used on campus. The UCPH language is a distinctive
Even though there are many things you have to keep track of, make a point of showing up at social events and Friday bars on your new study programme – even if you don’t feel in a festive mood. You can just drink a tonic without the gin, the important thing is that you spend time with your new classmates and make an effort to get to know them. This community may carry you through the really tough, troubled times of your programme of study – like having to study for a new exam in methodology.
Extra-curricular activities can give you back the energy for your daily life. It can be anything from embroidery, to a trip to the practice room, the gym or football pitch, and this will give you significantly less of a bad conscience than a Netflix marathon, and it will make your studies easier. Not everything in your life needs to be about your new study programme, and it’s both healthy and nice to take a break and clear your head.
Remember to ‘check out’ every now and again, and take a break. Thousands of things happen at the start of your studies, and it’s not easy to be both social with your new reading group, and keep up old friendships, while at the same time being a good student and reading up on your entire syllabus. Give yourself breaks and breathers along the way – it’s okay. Nobody can do everything all the time – even if it looks that way on Instagram. It is, seriously, not good to end up as a stress statistic.
It might be a good idea to sign up for the Friday bar committee, the book club or any other campus associations. You learn to know the university in a completely different way when you commit to more than just reading the curriculum. It’s also a great opportunity to get to know people from other student cohorts and study programmes – something that might otherwise be difficult.
Now there is no right or wrong way to study. But you could easily be led to imagine that other students sit in the reading room until late into the night while they are at the same time engaged in all the different clubs and associations of their programme, and that this must be the right way to be a university student. It is not. There are as many ways of being a student as there are students. We all tackle uni-life differently and have different priorities and preferences – and this is perfectly normal!
Grades in high school and at university are not the same. Your grades at university do not have the same implications, and you are also assessed on a completely different skills set. So you don’t have to worry about falling down the scale – most of us do. As long as you try to understand the material, things usually go well. In 2 years’ time (or in 2 months’ time) no one, including yourself, will remember, or care, about whether you got a ‘12’ or a ‘4’ in the first year’s exam in science theory.
At university you usually have three attempts to pass an exam, and there is absolutely no shame in doing a re-examination. You can use the opportunity to redo an exam if you don’t have the opportunity to prepare yourself properly or if you have many exams on top of each other. Re-examination can be a planning tool that reduces the pressure during the exam period. It can give you more peace of mind and can be an opportunity for you to prepare better.
You study at university for your own sake, and so it is legitimate for you to make demands on your fellow students and instructors. You have the right to question – or complain about – the decisions of the university, faculty or the decisions of your instructor. Every fifth exam complaint ends up being ruled in favour of the student, so even though it may seem time consuming or bureaucratic, it is not useless. Many of the guidance staff are students themselves and they are there for your sake, so do not hesitate to go to them if you need some advice.
