You’ve almost finished your first year of your degree. The global pandemic has, and is still, really shaking things up. Though it’s not on your doorstep yet, now is the best time to start preparing yourself for the next year of your studies. Second year is when your course starts to get more interesting, you learn more about your discipline, and your brain gets bigger (not true). La Trobe’s Second Year Expo coming up from September 21-25 includes a plethora of events designed to inspire and prepare you for what lies ahead in 2021.
To spice up your day and kick-start some enthusiasm for Second Year, we’ve hastily applied some metaphors to a list of classic movie franchises that only got better as time went by…
Harry Potter
In The Philosopher’s Stone Harry (you) arrives at Hogwarts (La Trobe) for his first year of study as green as Bertie Bott’s vomit flavoured bean. Like Harry, you don’t realise you’re a wizard (scholar) until weeks before. You’re just busy living under your aunt and uncle’s staircase (at home) minding your business.
All of sudden you’re flung into this new world you didn’t even know about. New buildings with labyrinthine, meandering corridors and subjects like Potions (Introduction to Chemistry). Like Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) you’re too young, you can’t act very well and you’re not fully prepared to enjoy it.
Fast forward a year and you’ve already fought off Voldemort (exams and assignments) for the first time and you’ve grown up a bit and improved your magical powers (study skills) extensively.
Also we all know that the Prisoner of Azkaban was the best movie and that’s the third one so you’ve got next year to look forward to as well.
Make your study skills magical using the support services available at La Trobe.
Lord of the Rings
Leaving the bosom of home to go on a terrifying and unexpected adventure is basically your first year of Uni and the plot to the Fellowship of the Ring. You may not have a wizened old lecturer like Gandalf (if you do, please let us know mylatrobe@latrobe.edu.au) guiding your way to the pits of Mordor (exams and assignments).
But everything amps up in the sequel! Gollum gets involved (please note Gollum’s behaviour is completely against the University’s Code of Conduct), and the Battle of Helm’s Deep (the lengthy essays you will go to war with throughout 2020, but will ultimately defeat at the eleventh hour).
“My precious” is that USB someone loses and does a desperate search the following morning for their 90,000 word thesis they haven’t saved to OneDrive, because they still think it’s 2004. (Use OneDrive).
Prepare for battle with those lengthy assignments using our online support.
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins (first year) is an epic journey and makes you want to cry at at intermittent intervals. Bruce Wayne (you) heads into the wilderness (Uni) and learns a whole host of new skills that they will apply in his future career as a super hero.
But… things don’t really kick off until The Dark Knight (Second Year), when he has to apply all of these amazing skills he’s learned. When Bruce is overwhelmed by the anarchic Joker (assignments and exams) and all hope seems lost he saves Gotham City (his GPA) from certain doom.
Our top tips on making the library your bat cave.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
After standing up in a crowd (your family home) and yelling “I volunteer as tribute” (in your head while accepting your offer), you started your first year at Uni.
That first year was all about wandering through the wilderness (University life) armed with your bow and arrows (laptop), hoping to do well enough not to be picked off by other tributes (your grades) while the gamemakers (lecturers, tutors, 2020) throw challenge after challenge at you.
Second year at Uni, like in the Hunger Games, is honestly playing by pretty similar rules. Except in this year, everyone else has also survived round one and are equipped with the skills to win. It’s more competitive.
But in the end, you’ll work out a lot of your success will come down to realising the game is just a giant clock and time management skills will be the difference between escaping the giant enclosure (second year) and progressing into the hovercraft (third year).
Use our time management tips to beat procrastination escape the pitfalls of second year.
Godfather Part II
Part I (first year) is littered with tragedy as Don Corleone (your former High School life) is gunned down and then his son Sonny (your hope that Uni will just be a party) is also brutally dispatched. Then Michael (you) has to seek revenge in the family’s honour by killing the heads of the five families (exams and assignments).
But Part II (second year) is when your true qualities come to the fore, you can retell your Don Corleone (your former High School life) origin story to your new Uni mates and become so ruthless in your pursuit of legitimacy (consistently good grades) that you create an empire at the expense of your family.*
* Jokes – we always recommend a healthy recommended daily allowance of Uni/personal life.
Don’t become a Corleone – here’s some advice on taking care of yourself when the pressure is on.