Mistakes Freshers Make

Dear Student,

Being new in a place can sometimes lead to a lot of unacceptable and outrageous experiences that may leave you wondering how you will survive in such an environment. The case is not very different in the university environment.

As a matter of fact, whenever a new session begins, older students begin to look out for the new students (commonly called "freshers") so that they can exploit their ignorance. In this post, I have highlighted some things freshers do that make them vulnerable to every schemer. Also, there are attitudes and behaviors many freshers exhibit that end up being detrimental to their academic prowess in the university.

Mistakes Freshers Make

 1. Exploration: Many students are prone to make the mistake of refusing to take a tour of the university. It is advised that before you fully resume into the university, you should take a proper tour of the university environment. This tour should be done alone, so you would have to go with someone you know and trust. However, if you do not know anybody in the school, you can set out on your own and ask questions as you move along the way. Exploration is very important because it helps the student to be aware of the dangerous places in school and also the easiest ways to move between lecture halls.

2. Looking Lost: This is a somewhat inevitable mistake most freshers make without even being aware. Your facial expression matters a lot, and there is no better way to convey how new you are to a place than to be looking around, obviously lost. The reason this mistake can be very detrimental is that most times, this is how the exploiters and schemers catch their "prey". Once someone sees you looking lost, he would never hesitate to offer to help and in "helping", you may end up being fooled. The best way to solve this is to learn to always have an aura of superiority. The way you move about in your house and among friends is very different from the way you move about in a new place. However, you should try to duplicate that aura around you when you are in a new place. Nobody would approach someone that is already looking like he can take care of himself.

3. Blending In: Due to the social nature of many students, they tend to hunger for a blend-in almost immediately after entering a new place. It is pertinent to note that one of the easiest ways to spot a fresher is that he is always eager for attention! This is one factor that can be capitalized upon and may end up leading the right person to the wrong place. Before successfully allowing yourself to be swallowed into the system, you need to stay aloof for sometime and conduct a survey sub-consciously. This would help you to quickly identify the older people that are up to no good. Also, being extremely reserved may also be an identifying factor; the best thing to do is to have a mix of the introvert and the extrovert in you -be friendly, but with restrictions.

4. Not Asking Questions: There is a popular adage that says that "someone that asks questions never gets lost". This is very true in all cases. Although this may also be a pointer that you are new, it is also one of the best ways of preventing yourself from being tricked. Before you accept what you are being told by one person, do well to ask another person. A story is told of a young boy who needed to make use of the university portal and was directed to the hostel portals simply because he could not differentiate which portal he actually needed to use; this boy found out the true location of where he needed to be by asking three people. It was the third person that took him physically to where he had to be. You may not always be so lucky (or so unfortunate), but always asking questions will surely take you out of the wrong direction!

5. The "Jambite" Syndrome: This is the most detrimental mistake any fresher can ever make -having the mentality that the university is just a protraction of what was learnt in secondary school. This syndrome has made a lot of potential first-class students to end up leaving the school with an ordinary pass or even a third-class. How does this happen? Whenever you begin to conclude that there is no much difference between what you learnt in secondary school and what you are being taught currently, you will end up reducing the way you study. When this happens, you may end up doing so poorly in your first semester results that it will affect your orientation about the university. In the long run, you may find it difficult to cope and catch up with the right reading habit. Eventually, you may just decide to settle with whatever you see.

The best way to overcome this syndrome is to view the university as an advanced level of learning. The concepts and theories may not be new, but the marking scheme and grading system are way different from what you actually know and are used to. 

Summarily, you need to develop a new mindset towards the university before you decide to resume as a fresh undergraduate. Most importantly, ask questions!