“Woah! We’re half way there, wooooahhh…” Almost Mid Semester (kinda works). Yes, I can take comfort in the classic Living on a Prayer as I watch my calender quickly near Mid Semester break. Bit sad that I am already counting down the days but I am keen for a holiday. Just recently we had our one month anniversary since moving in to the halls so happy anniversary Hall Residents! Living in the hall is the best experience. I also have found myself with the pleasure of landing the Vice President role of the Uni Hall Residents Association which was sweet. Part of the role means that I get dress up as a carrot to cool events like the Inter-Residential Volleyball Tournament (which Uni Hall won by the way) and I have never felt more myself. First step carrot, next step is to be in the Hound mascot costume. Goals people, gotta dream big.

Serious subject for all future Law/Arts Conjoint students. Let me tell you one thing I’ve realised in my short period of time. You read a heck of a lot. It feels like hundreds of pages a week. Now I enjoy reading a lot don’t get me wrong but it just feels like there’s always some article I forgot or a page I skimmed over. Not only text readings either, a number of articles that just really take up your time. BUT there is the odd documentary which is the best thing ever. I personally find hearing things easier to take in than reading it myself. I do sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed and especially this last week I have felt a bit behind in my readings. Doing things just before lectures or tutorials because I was too tired/unmotivated (smart way of saying lazy) to get things done earlier. I feel worse because it’s not like I don’t enjoy what I’m reading, it’s more that I fear that I am not taking everything in that I need to so I feel like I don’t know as much as everyone else.

Those Law readings turn my book into a piece of art.

On average I have around 11 hours a week worth of lectures and tutorials. My Engineering or Biomed friends have around 20 hours of class a week and then homework on top of that. Your timetable may end up being as chilled out as mine but that doesn’t mean that the workload is any less. Being a Law student working towards getting into Part 2/Second year Law is stressful. It is intimidating being in a room with a couple hundred other people (that is in just one of three streams) and knowing that only a select few of you will make it through to second year. I found myself heading into this year really confident to now sometimes feeling a bit dumb in my lectures. I think I’m getting the hang of things and am priding myself on finding news ways of studying that work for me. Finding the best way to retain as much of the important information as I can and just even what to note in lectures and what to not (really important skill because there’s so much content in lectures).

Key things to probably note if you are considering entering into a Law (Conjoint) degree:

Join a study group – I was a pessimist about study groups at first I have to admit. Never saw them as working out as being productive. It wasn’t until I went to my small study group of people who are taking similar papers to me and realised it was helpful coming together with questions that we all had about what we’d learnt in class. It felt good to know that I wasn’t the only one struggling with some of the content and that we could work together to better understand what we were learning.

Focus on all your papers equally – With Law you are required to enter first year doing a Conjoint Degree (I am doing Law and Arts Conjoint). Your other papers are just as important as your Law papers. When it comes to entry into second year it is based on your overall Grade Point Average (GPA). So every mark you get is work a certain amount of point, almost like your rank scores in College. So the higher marks in your other papers can really make a difference to your GPA if you are struggling a bit in Law.

Focus on your study and your study alone – Most important tip in my opinion. There is no use you comparing yourself to other people in your lectures or your friends doing the same degrees. If you focus on what they are doing you will quickly trick yourself into thinking that your work isn’t good enough, or that the way you take notes isn’t the right way. I personally have had to just remind myself of my own abilities and just keep my head down. I know how I learn is different and my way of thinking differs from the people sitting next to me. Does this mean that I’m definitely going to get into Law? No, but then at least my study is the only one that is on my mind and I can strive to my own goals. Not to be like those around me.

The hound life chose me

Away from serious stuff, this week we in the hall we are in Assassins Week. Pretty much how it works is that almost everyone in the hall participates and you get a name of someone in the hall who you need to either throw a sock at or peg them with a washing peg to ‘kill them’. If you successfully kill your target you then take their name from them and hunt down their target. You may be good at killing people but then there is always someone with your name coming after you which is a bit daunting. I surprisingly am still alive so in my next blog I will update you on how I ended up. There are ways in which we can stay immune for a day and one of them was to dress up as a hound. As the committed person I am, I purchased a beautiful dog mask and protected myself until I could kill my target. So keep me in your prayers as I elude my assassin. May the odds ever be in my favour.

Thank you guys once again for reading my blog. I hope this one has been a bit more informative in relation to what to kind of expect entering into courses. Bless you guys heaps. Hakuna Matata.