* jazzyhands *

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::29.10.04:: Exams and Things

Every year the current affairs programs and the newspapers pull out the stories about VCE students and exam stress. Usually it is the same old story with just a different potential Med School prat thrown in.

Around here, the stress levels have been mighty high but it isn't exam induced. Despite what the media say about the VCE being so damn important and make-or-breaking, Andrew's main concern is that his imported copy of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas won't turn up today.

Maybe I should be playing the strict mother, setting him study timetables and the like, but I figure he is old enough and smart enough to get his own shit together. I threatened to take his Playstation away but he would just play games on the PC if he wanted to slack off.

I don't understand all this fuss anyway. I don't think that your life is over because you don't do well on an exam. You go in and you do your best. A whole bunch of stress doesn't effect that, neither does eating Weetbix for breakfast. If the worst happens and you don't get into the course you want then there are other ways if you are truly motivated. If I had my way, Andrew would take some time off before going to uni anyway -- to get out and see what the real world is about. How are kids that have only ever been at school supposed to know what they want to do with their lives?

I took two years off between Year 12 and uni - not because I didn't get in but because I couldn't afford to study any other way. I worked in a factory, drank a lot, had adventures then headed off to study fine arts. If I had my time again, I think I'd have taken more time off, worked more, saved up and travelled.

Life is full of options and going to uni is just one of them.


ps. Whilst on the topic of learning type things, I was reading the education supplement to The Age the other day. Apparently they have been running a series of articles that are like diaries of kids in their first year of uni. They had the bios of all the participants and every single one of them had been to a private school. Maybe kids from public schools just can't afford to go to uni any more?

Comments:

 

Apparently they have been running a series of articles that are like diaries of kids in their first year of uni. They had the bios of all the participants and every single one of them had been to a private school. Maybe kids from public schools just can't afford to go to uni any more?Nah... it's just that, from my uni memories, it was the private school students who tended to run the student media, have the most connections in the clubs, etc. All they ever seemed to write about was people from 'privileged white backgrounds' (ie, private school students). I think they were working out a guilt complex or something.

 

 

University ISN'T everything. He might to travel. He might want to make lots of money and get an apprenticeship with a plumber.

 

 

yeah, I did just that because nobody in the family could afford to send me to university. Had the best 5 years of my life after high school working and gallavanting around the world. The world knowledge I gained was much more valuable than those I learnt at the university right now.

And yes, the uni have a lots of snobbish rich little spoilt brats.

 

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