The first year of uni: where grown adults instinctively feel the same as they did on their first day of high school. Ah, the joys of wandering around a big campus trying to find your classroom only to realise you’re in the wrong building.

If you’re a scared and confused deer-in-the-headlights type of first-year, or just one of those annoying ones that think they already know everything, here is some stuff you need to know before census date and probably don’t.

Fix Up Your Debt Now

Unless you’re crazy rich, you’re getting a HELP/HECS debt. And you gotta make sure you’ve filled in that form before census date. But this isn’t the only fee you have for going to uni. The Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) is a compulsory fee you pay to maintain buildings, sportsgrounds, the cafeteria and other things like your career advisor. You need to have this added to your HELP debt before census date or you’re going to have to pay it out of pocket to get your unit results. The good thing is you only need to add it to your HELP debt once to have every semester’s SSAF added to your growing debt.

Assess How Your Units Are Going

I’m going to say this now: you don’t need to be taking four units. If you’re doing a full uni load because it’s the standard or because it will delay your graduation a little bit if you only do three, stop and consider. If you can’t handle the workload, drop a unit. Even if you’re fine with the workload but you already hate one of your units, drop it.

Don’t pass census date doing a unit you won’t put effort into. I can almost guarantee you won’t study for it, try hard writing your assignments or even go to the exam. You are better off only doing three units than you are failing one.

Get Money

If you’re eligible for Centrelink and you WANT Centrelink, you need to get things happening now. Centrelink student loans or whatever they’re called now (I never paid that much attention, just saw 1k roll into my bank and went shopping) are generally paid out around census date and last I checked, you need to register to receive it before census date. They generally aren’t back paid if you cock it up and forget. Sure, you have to pay it back later, but what’s one more grand on your HECS debt if you can afford anything but 2-minute noodles for a week?

Start Study Preppin’

Census date is when classes get real. So have that library login on lock, get that after-hours access card, get your laptop hooked up to the wireless printer and start crying in small doses to work your way up to that week 11 “I have four essays due in two days and I’ve done none of them” breakdown that’s just around the corner. But for real, if you haven’t got your student ID card or as many student discounts as you can possibly get yet, go forth and conquer.

Census Date Is Not As Big Of A Deal As It Seems

Remember, census date is just there to make students get their shit together. If you hate a unit, you need to unenroll before census or pay for it. It’s essentially a lazy tax. If you are doing a unit and it’s ruining your life/mental health, you can still get out of it after census date without penalty at most universities with a doctor’s certificate.

Consider census date more of a reality check than anything and you’ll be fine.