But seriously, what's up with Melbourne's weather? (Yan)

I have a friend who’s working towards a 95% average.
It’s pretty much the most admirable thing I’ve ever seen and I kind of wish I had her resolve because seriously, that would pretty much guarantee my spot at any university I want to go on exchange to. And my parents might finally stop being disappointed in me for choosing arts.
But the thing is, the last time we met up was before semester started. My other friends agree that it’s basically impossible to get her to come out because all she does I study. And I can’t even imagine how stressful it would be – getting a low score on one single assignment/exam would ruin your entire average.

So what I’m saying is: it might be worth it, it might not be.

Last semester, I managed to maintain a H1 average. I actually attended all my lectures, mostly started my essays a week before they were due, did most of my readings and didn’t passionately hate any of my lecturers/tutors or have fundamental ideological disagreements with course content.
This semester, I skipped pretty much all my classes during student election week and never really picked them up after. I liked only one of my subjects (although that was also the one I had my fundamental ideological disagreement with, so go figure), detested one of my tutors for being covertly racist (oh, but maybe you’re just being too sensitive!!1!)and had like, a 20% attendance rate for one of my subjects. Basically, I was not your model student 2.0.
I also enjoyed this semester a helluva lot more. I got involved in the student union, went out with friends to brunch way too much, went to all the uni events, spent like two days straight, without sleeping, helping put together the annual magazine for the wom*n’s department, wrote an article for Farrago, etc.
None of which negates the fact that last semester I managed to maintain a H1 average and I’m hellbent on keeping that.

So now it’s come to the moment of truth. This week, I’m going to be spending approximately 12 hours a day at the library, getting way too little sleep and still trying to juggle extracurricular commitments. Right now it feels like my whole world has basically narrowed down to the next seven days.
It’s not going to be the end of the world if I don’t do spectacularly, but I come from a culture that’s very used to overachievement. Right now, it’s just a matter of working out how many hours of sleep a night I’m willing to sacrifice to maintain that average.

I’ll end this on some study tips:

1. If you live near uni, go to the uni libraries. Seriously. During weekdays in SWOTVAC, Bailieu, Giblin, ERC and Brownless are all open until 1am. And not just that ‘ground floor study hall’ nonsense or whatever, but as in, the whole library is open until 1am. So you can still borrow books and actually have space to study and all that. It’s great.
2. If you go to Giblin, they have a boiling water dispenser so if you bring a mug and a teabag you can make your own tea. I’m currently sitting in Baillieu and being sad over the fact that it doesn’t have anything similar.
3. Drink tea.
4. Use highlighters.
5. That’s it. That’s all you need to know.

May the exam questions ever be in your favour. And once again, I’ll see you guys on the other side of the battlefield.