How to Cope With the Diverse Learning Culture at University?

Many students face difficulties during the first few weeks of their university education and most of the times they conclude that they are not capable for higher studies anymore. They leave studies in the beginning or at the mid-stage without analyzing why they are facing difficulties and how to solve them. In reality, every student faces difficulties. But they gather strength (mentally and physically) to deal with the problems to reduce its harmful effect on their academics.

Education after 10+2 is not for grasping knowledge. It is for acquiring particular skill-sets to enter into the professional world. I remember my first week at college. Our engineering mathematics teacher used to tell us that every bachelor’s course or master’s course is a professional course. So we should treat them with the utmost precision. I can surely say at that time most of us didn’t understand what she was actually talking about. As time progressed and we went up the ladder, we started realizing what she meant that day. She meant that we should not only study like good students, but we should dive in to solve problems like real professionals.

In university or college, you will find many problems related to academics and extracurricular events and you will be able to think more than countable solutions to solve them. The trick is to come up with the best solution for every problem. That is how you will grow and mature to become an industry perfect individual. I remember a film of George Clooney, where was playing the part of an HR Termination Assistor for a human resource consultancy firm. As an HR Termination Assistor, his work involved informing employees about their termination from their respective companies directly. Though it’s a movie we can learn a lot from it. He used to tackle the emotional breakdowns and outbursts of employees but dealt with them in a very empathetic yet professional manner. Like that character, you will face ups and downs during the first few months at college or university. Your attitude on dealing with the problems will be the differentiating factor.

Why not to rush without understanding?

Every bachelor’s course and master’s course has two parts – theory and practicals and you should look for ways to balance these two. There are some students that are good in theory but not good in practicals and there are students that exhibit excellent practical skills. The imbalance of theoretical learning and practical learning among the students is due to the lack of interest in the students. Many students get bored at the classroom due to the long lecture hours and many students find practical skills less important. They do not judge the consequence of this ignorance which will haunt them throughout their life. So, if you feel bored due to long lectures just listen and understand what your professors are teaching you. You do not need to apply the learning immediately into real-life scenarios. If you listen carefully, you will remember everything taught in the classroom at the time of studying at home. But if you rush to implement your learning with industry without understanding the theoretical lectures, you will fall back in the race to become a perfect student. The key is to read that you learn at college or university every day. Make reading a habit and you will find scoring marks is easy.

The other way to cope with the fast learning situation at college or university is to acquire the practical skills and knowledge of the subjects. If you’re good in practical learn each and every possible way to solve practical problems. Usually, every subject’s theoretical part and practical part are correlated. At the time when you will be studying the theoretical parts of the subjects, you will surely find it easy. Although, it is advisable not to make it an ‘either-or’ choice of theory and practical.

If you think of quitting college/university due to difficulties in learning, think again. Learning is actually easy if you connect the practical part and the theoretical. If you have time, do watch the George Clooney movie (Up in the Air).