How to be a good FIRST YEAR!
Starting Biomed in 2023? We have a Facebook group specifically created for first-year students to interact, ask questions and be in the loop with everything happening in your new degree. To join the group, click here.
1. Say ‘yes’ to everything that makes sense: cAMP (especially cAMP, more than anything else!), parties, balls, boat cruises and unusually rowdy bus rides. Our activities officers put their heart and soul into organising these spectacular events and they are the best way of getting to know your peers in first year. If you go but don’t really like it, all you’ve lost is a bit of money. If you don’t go, you’ll never know how many new mates you could have almost made.
2. The drinking culture at uni can be quite a different experience fresh out of high school. Don’t feel pressured to drink, no matter how much other people are drinking. Some of your Biomed committee will enjoy a cheeky bev or two, but not all. Never worry about being excluded if you opt not to drink, everyone is just out for a good time!
3. There are many drinking chants at Monash. You wIll have plenty of time to learn them all. Don’t be overwhelmed. #trueblue
4.. Being ‘too cool’ for dress-up themes is uncool. The more elaborate your costume at any event, the more you will fit-in. Rumour has it, Issy spent 5 hours making her costume for Mystery Bus last year.
5. Apply to join the Biomed committee as one of our four first year reps so you can assist us in organising many social and academic events. Being selected is through a democratic voting process, so make a name for yourself at our events. 95% of the time, attendees of Biomed cAMP are selected, but if you can’t make it there, don’t be dissuaded!
6. Sign up for Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) and attend the sessions. PASS becomes available on Allocate+ around week 2, and you’d be silly to say no. These sessions are organised for certain first-year subjects that are considered a little more difficult and are run weekly. They aren’t compulsory but are highly recommended as they’re extremely helpful and well run.
7. If you haven’t already met your peer mentor, then we think you should go log on to Chronus and get in touch with them - like seriously go do it right now (if you don’t know how, keep an eye out for the Chronus 101 webinar in your inbox)! The peer mentor
program is run by the Monash BDI Student Experience Team and is a great way to ease the transition into uni, which is usually a big and sometimes overwhelming experience - especially with all the changes that have occured this year. As a first-year, you’ll be paired with a volunteer second or third year student who has been selected by the program organisers. They’ve completed online modules in mentoring, diversity & inclusion and understanding mental health. We hope that having a Biomed mentor will mean that you are able to seek advice and support about settling into uni and your course. We’ve all been a first-year at some point in our university experience and we know how it feels. Make sure to keep in touch with your mentor and attend those online zoom meetings to work through the immense amount of ‘newness’ that accompanies starting uni for the first time.
8. You don’t have to attend all your lectures in person, there is an option to live-stream them from your laptop and they are recorded so you will always be able to watch a past lecture. Unwatched lectures can easily snowball into hours of eye-strain in the weeks leading up to exams so try to stay on top of them, as most need to be watched in consequential order (meaning if you miss one, it can sometimes be hard to keep up in the next lecture without watching the one you miss). Keep track of when your lectures are, how many you have a week and set aside twice the amount of time the lecture runs for to ensure you’re able to get through it all.