Before I went to university I had the impression that it was going to be all sunshine and daisies. I thought everything would go perfectly and it would be a walk in the park. I could not have been more wrong. Very quickly I learnt that the my initial belief was so far from true and that university was going to be a lot harder than I thought. Here’s a few of the false beliefs that I held about university and what I learnt when I got there.

The jump from GCSE to A level is harder than A level to uni

Whilst this is technically true, it doesn’t mean that uni will be a walk in the park like I initially thought. Uni is hard work! You have to learn to spread your work out and not leave it all until the last minute. At the end of the day, you’re getting a degree and the workload will reflect that.

Lecturers will be as hands on as staff at school were

This follows on from the last point. You have to remember that you’re doing a degree and it is going to be harder. Staff are not going to spoon feed you. They’ll give you the building blocks but then they want to see what you can do with them. Don’t forget, you can always go to them if you have a problem! It will take a bit of adjusting but you’ll soon learn to thrive under this method of teaching.

It will be really hard to make friends

I went to uni thinking that it would be really hard for me to make friends, especially when I can be super introverted at times. But the thing is, everybody is in the same boat! It so much easier to make friends than you think. I even made friends with somebody because of my sheer lack of directional knowledge! Yes the first night in your accommodation might be super super awkward (speaking as the voice of experience) but one of your flat mates might just end up being your best friend! Your course friends may end up being your biggest support network. So don’t worry, you will make friends!

Every social event involves drinking

This one is definitely not true! Yes students are known for enjoying a drink but not every social activity will revolve around drinking. There’s plenty of things that you can do that will be alcohol free. Invite a friend over for a meal. Go to the park. Try your hand at boating on the lake. When you think about it, there really is a multitude of activities that don’t involve drinking and nobody will care whether you want to drink or not.

Nobody really cares whether you turn up or not

You’re not in sixth form anymore; your head of year will not ring your mum if you don’t show up. Unless your attendance gets really bad nobody really cares unless the lecture is mandatory. The only person that does care is the person you annoyingly message every week asking to borrow their notes. Sidenotes: seminars are mandatory and they do care if you don’t turn up to them.

You can get good grades without putting any work in

I coasted through A-level without really doing much revision. I thought that I could continue this through to uni; boy was I wrong! It’s actually really hard to get good grades at uni without putting the effort in to get them. You have to turn up to lectures, do the reading and revise if you want to get a good grade.

I’d know exactly what to do

I made so many mistakes in my first year of uni. I don’t think anybody knows exactly what they’re doing when they get there. It’s a case of trial and error, finding out what works and discovering who you are. Luckily for you, I wrote an article about lessons I learnt during first year: you can find it here!!

Budgeting would be easy

I thought that it would be easy to manage my money at uni but it turns out that it’s actually super hard! There’s so many things that you need (read want) and student loans only go so far. Luckily for you, I’ve got your back and have all the best student deals here!!

Was there any other false beliefs that you held about university before you went? If so, I’d love to hear them so please share them with me in the comments below.