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HSC vs university - which is more stressful? (1 Viewer)

Ares

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Okay I'm just wondering, which do you think is more stressful - the HSC or uni? I'm doing my HSC trials right now and long story short, I'm smart but I have severe stress and sleep problems. I partially blame this on the way in which the HSC is made out to be this colossal, life-changing task (which it sort of is), and if you fail it you don't get into the career you want and your life is over. And I also partially blame it on myself just for being weak-willed and letting stress get to me. But it's gotten to the point where I've burnt out and lost so much motivation, and I think "If I can't even cope with HSC trial exams, how the hell am I going to get through 5 years of uni?". Just so you know, I want to do a double degree in Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. Lots of people have told me that the HSC is stressful because of all the pressure/expectation to go well, but uni is way more laid back and once you're in degree you just have to pass and it isn't as stressful. Is this true? Or is uni more stressful than the HSC? Or does it depend entirely on the degree and the person?

Any and all thoughts will help. Thanks :)
 

OzKo

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First of all, I don't think passing should be anyone's goal when in university. The job market is extremely competitive in all fields and you would want to aim for at least a credit average.

You've kind of answered your own question though. A lot of the stress from the HSC is sourced from social pressure more than anything. If you can managing your time properly, there's no reason why studying at university would be more stressful compared to the HSC.

What I would recommend though is try and find a way in which you can manage your stress so you can set yourself up for a healthier approach to your studies.
 

Drifting95

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All my teachers say uni is easier for those reasons you stated, but i'm not quite sure if they are just saying that to make us feel better...

I find that it is more stressful due to competition rather than the actual hsc work, so it might be true that uni is easier for that reason. Not sure though...
 

Crobat

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I understand entirely where you are coming from!

The main thing, as OzKo stated, is that there is a lot of social pressure surrounding the HSC, even though in all reality, none of the courses' workloads are terribly difficult or unmanageable. What makes it difficult is all the family and friends dropping by with very exaggerated "oh how is it going?" and "just get through it all" and "it's nearly over finally" and all the media reports playing it up to be some hyper-stressful inconceivable year/moment in our lives, which makes it seem like it's been a draggy year full of impossible work and ridiculously poor time management which naturally stresses you out. If you are smart you really have nothing to worry about and just do the HSC at your own pace - it's probably faster than how school is going anyway. Try to separate yourself from everyone else who stresses unnecessarily much because they never help, and just embrace a little bit of independence now. I found that it helped me to deal with stress when I learnt on my own, or at least distanced myself from everyone else's stresses about not getting into med and then having to become a hobo because they didn't get 99.95.

And to answer your question, it'll depend entirely on you. If you are a naturally independent person then university won't be too stressful at all as you are given academic independence. It is laid back in the sense that lecturers and tutors don't chase you up on your progress with homework and assignments - it is entirely your own responsibility. I hear with a lot of Arts degrees (my girlfriend is currently doing a Communications (Writing and Cultural Studies) course at UTS and just generally friends doing Arts at other unis) that there is a lot of essay writing and reading, which I guess can be stressful, particularly if you're not passionate about learning linguistic theory, cultural theory, etc. I'm currently doing a B Business/Laws degree at UTS, and it's only early into my Law degree so I cannot really make a comment on it and everyone just says it's hard because it's Law without giving any other reason than "there's a lot of reading and memorising". But what I've learnt regarding people who harp on about how hard courses are, it's generally mostly because they have poor time management skills themselves and didn't apply themselves properly based purely on the reputation of the subject being hard.

I think in general a lot of stress comes from the self-fulfilling prophecy of things having a reputation of being hard/stressful. If you separate your mind from the reputation and just apply yourself, you'll feel more comfortable and relax a bit. It's something I've tried to do, and I can tell you now that even though I can recognise that uni is faster and harder than HSC, I'm enjoying it more, getting better results, and hardly stressing at all about coursework and exams.
 
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enoilgam

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I found the HSC to be way more stressful, you mature more in uni and have more of a life, so this kind of reduces the stress a lot.
 

SpiralFlex

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This question is very very hard to answer. It varies from degree, subjects and work/study-life balance management, goals - list goes on and on.
 
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brent012

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If you fail a subject in the HSC, you have another 4 or more backing you up. Absolute worst case scenario you will be at tafe for a couple of years before starting uni. That's if EVERYTHING works against you.

If you fail a subject at uni, you are ~$1000 out of pocket, you will have fun doing the same subject again, your course progression might be affected and it will tarnish your transcript. If you are "just getting passes" at uni, it will mean you are just scraping through (especially with hurdle final requirements) which is not a good thing.

Despite all of that I prefer uni over all. I've read on here before that uni is like sitting the HSC every 6 months, and it's pretty much true. You adjust to that though.
 

Absolutezero

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If you're stress in either you're trying too hard... or not enough.
 

brent012

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Would you call 36 hours of study a week too hard, or not hard enough? lol
If that is not including contact hours at uni that is WAY too much imo. Even including i'd be inclined to say it's a bit much. But study habits differ from person to person.
 

nerdasdasd

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If that is not including contact hours at uni that is WAY too much imo. Even including i'd be inclined to say it's a bit much. But study habits differ from person to person.
That is what they suggest for a full time student. 9 to 12 hours per subject per week.
 

Crobat

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That is what they suggest for a full time student. 9 to 12 hours per subject per week.
Do you honestly need that many hours for any subjects? Genuinely curious since I can't imagine it...
 

SpiralFlex

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No, even with my full timetable I have about 24 hours. 36 is overkill.
 

brent012

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Universities and lecturers love doing this.
I had a lecture on monday where the lecturer warned us not to freak out at the amount of maths we would encounter in the lecture slides =S
 

someth1ng

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I didn't find HSC too stressful but it was also because I knew I was well on track to get to what I wanted to do. Most people that stress over it is from expectations and self-induced dramatisation of the HSC.

The most difficult thing you'll find at university, at first, is how difficult it is to estimate where you stand in the cohort. Even though I did quite well (75 average), I felt quite worried about where I stood. And because of this, you'll always feel like you're struggling and/or behind - I felt this way for CHEM1901 and I got 85 for that.

In terms of stressfulness, it will depend on the person. For me, university seems more stressful because it is more of an unknown environment but I'm getting the hang of it.
 

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