Student Talk

I’ve recently starting working, so I didn’t have a salary before. I had been getting pocket money for a long time, and even then my expenses were taken care of by my parents and family. Now that I’m working, I don’t have that much of a privilege. I’ve learnt to accepted it - It’s part of growing up. Living on my own has forced me to take care of my own living expenses- especially now that I am working. I have to make sure that my salary will be enough for my living expenses, rent being one of the most important expenses. This is where budgeting comes in, why it’s so important. Budgeting is one topic that is seldom taught at school or varsity. In this blogpost, I want to talk about it from a personal point of view – from personal experience, so that it’s easier for anyone to relate. After I got the job I have now, having already known the amount of my salary, the next step for me was to find myself my own place. I was fortunate to find a place for rental costs that are les...

It’s been about 2 months that I’ve been in the working world. I didn’t have an expectation of how it would be, but one thing I’ve learnt to appreciate about working, which is also humbling, is how it made me realise that the knowledge gained in high school and university is not enough. I’ve realized that there are things I don’t know and understand, that there is more to learn through work experience. Work experience helps me to apply my mind and to make sense of things practically and logically, unlike when I used to study certain sections for the sake of passing instead of having an in-depth understanding of the concepts. It is understandable why we study like that, though. I for one can testify to that: when there’s not much time to understand concepts and there is just too much to put up with, even worse – when one is not eventually getting the concept, the next best solution is most probably cramming and moving on. I’m on a 3-month probation period right now as a creditors’ co...

My interview experience First interview            My first interview was horrible! I had applied to a firm in which I was hoping to complete my training contract after post-graduate studies. The first question the interviewer asked me as I was entering the room was something like "How are the academics going?". I said they were not good. One may say that I shouldn't have said that, but I was trying to be as honest and as authentic as I could be. I can’t imagine being caught in a lie during the interview, or even worse – after the interview, while completing my training! I was then asked a set of questions, including questions centered around my personality and my character. I was given a number of scenarios and had to respond by saying what it is I would do in the given scenario. I remember the one question I was asked: "If your friends/ colleagues wanted to go out with you to have so...

Taking down notes during lectures is something I did at university from first year. I'm not sure if I can say the same about my high school years - I cannot recall, but even if I did take down notes during classes then, I most probably did not even go back to those notes, and I know for a fact that I did not make notes outside classes- whether just to wrap up on the topics/ chapters I learnt or for exam preparation. I've spent about 5 years at university for undergraduate studies and realized the importance of taking down notes and making notes. The question is : how can we make note-taking and note-making effective? Note-taking As much as I used to take down notes during lectures at university, I did not find it effective until I started pre-reading and saw the benefits in my fifth year when I was repeating final year. Pre-reading helped me to at least have an idea and some understanding of the chapter/(s) that were to be covered in lectures, which helped me to be aler...

Consultation is probably the one thing that we students rarely feel motivated to do. I've observed it, I’ve experienced it. I could think of a couple of reasons why this is the case. These were my reasons for not consulting during my first attempt of final year: 1.          "I'll understand everything when I study, I'll be fine." 2.          "I have too many questions - there's so much that I don't understand. Where do I start?" 3.          "Most of the consultation times are during lecture times anyway; and the free periods are very short - I don't want to 'fry' my brain before the next class". 1. "I'll understand everything when I study, I'll be fine" This attitude, without a doubt, is one of the things that contributed to me repeating final year. It made me realise how much I undermined the complexity and length of chapters; how I had undermined t...

Dear Student-Talk blog followers I had decided to write this letter to address the misconceptions about me in relation to the blog; and misunderstanding about the purpose of Student-Talk blog. I have had a few students coming up to me, asking questions like “how do you study Auditing?”; and receiving remarks like “you bunked a tutorial? You should write that on your blog, hey?” One thing I need to make clear is that I do not fit the typical definition of a “perfect” student. It was never my intention to portray myself as such through the blog. The fact that I share the lessons I learn from my failures and mistakes does not make me a “perfect” student. The fact that I share information I receive from student workshops, programs and other intellectuals does not make me a “perfect” student. The fact that I know all this information that I share does not make me a “perfect” student. I do not feel that I need to be an expert in the things I share on the blog before I share them with oth...

Pre-reading In my second attempt of completing final year, I have seen how pre-reading had helped me make use of lectures more efficiently: it enabled me to follow in lectures, to be more attentive, increased my chances of understanding the insight shared and knowledge lecturers shared on the chapters lectured. All of this contributed to better understanding complex concepts, getting through long chapters and eventually passing enough to graduate and getting into the next level of my studies. Pre-reading is something I did for an hour to an hour and a half - when I finally understood the purpose of pre-reading and how I was supposed to go about it. Initially I had the mentality that pre-reading meant studying each page of the chapter/(s) - word for word - with understanding. It did not quite work, especially because the chapters seemed long, and concepts complex. It took too long for me to understand and thus demotivating. When I asked him about pre-reading, my former ...