Your first year of university is pretty much a stellar accumulation of drunken nights, all-night study sessions and drowsy, early-morning lectures. Life is good as a first-year, but in most cases it’s only seen that way from the perspective of students who’ve already been there, done that.

Uni is coming, and it ain’t pretty #soz. But you should embrace the inevitable and commit to first-year life, even if it isn’t totally fab all the time.

Subject outlines are 10/10 confusing

Getting your life together for real this time means you gotta print off your subject outlines, no matter how much ink it’s gonna use. Having that little bible easily accessible will be the surprising key to success in your race to the top. First-years can be pretty competitive/total gunners, so your best move in this war for ultimate perfection is to actually read that subject outline, and attempt to understand its foreign layout and use of big words – including those that weren’t necessarily taught at your subpar high school.

Enrolling is the devil

Some people manage to go through their entire university degree without actually enrolling themselves in a single subject. In comes the celebrated friend or sibling who can’t be bothered to teach you, so they just do it themselves. Beware though – they may leave you, and you look like the idiot in third year who doesn’t know how to enrol. They should really publish an Enrolling for Dummies book.

Subject codes are the hardest things you’ll ever learn to remember

Oh, subject codes – aren’t they just wonderful? Especially when you have three subjects that only have one or two different numbers in them, which means that remembering those little bastards is harder than studying for your final exams. Please accept your imminent failure to recall any such numbers in the first five weeks and which subjects they belong to. May the odds be ever in your favour.

Started from the bottom now you’re there (again)

Wasn’t life great at the top of the pecking order at the end of your secondary schooling years? Well, that happiness was unfortunately short-lived, ‘cause now you’re back at the bottom and having to deal with all your 99 problems. (P.S. university is a bitch, so it is one.) Never fear, though; this lack of status is not for eternity, and in fact changes pretty quickly once your lecturers realise you couldn’t all be as uneducated as expected.

Some lecturers actually do care, but most don’t check their emails

Getting to know your lecturers can actually be pretty great. Most of the time they’re secret rock stars who’ve conquered many great feats. It’s the perfect equation; a student willing to explore their true passions and a lecturer who’s been there, done that, and come out with the greatest stories imaginable. The only problem with their so-called rock star life is that they seem to be completely unable to spend time doing anything else. For example, computers may be readily available, but the email function just mustn’t work for them. I really have no tips for getting around this one, except to wait a week for your next class with them to ask your more pressing questions.

Referencing will end you

APA, MLA, Harvard. Just make it stop. Please. Have faith, and believe my midnight ramblings come from a reputable source.

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Allison Byrnes is a Multimedia Journalism student at James Cook University. She dreams of emulating Julie Bishop’s style on a uni student budget.

(Lead image: Francisco Osorio, Flickr Creative Commons license)