An artificially high ATAR score will risk their future
Over the years, I’ve worked with many families who ensure that their Year 11 or 12 school child has the perfect conditions to do their best and get into the finest course they can. As a means to help their child, these parents might limit teens’ extra-curricular activities or even reduce their chores to have more time to work on their assignments and revise their work adequately. Some parents even take leave from work to be at home more for their Senior child.
But over the years I’ve also seen a lot of university students get to campus very ill prepared for the demands of the new environment. Often, I believe this lack of readiness is directly tied to the perfect conditions set up in a student’s final school year.
The trouble is that flawless conditions mean high school students can study in an optimal fashion. They can focus on their studies without needing to go to training or pack the dishwasher. These students often have extra parent and teacher assistance, encouragement and reminders, because everyone wants the child to do as well as they can.
This approach risks a student receiving what I describe as an ‘artificially high ATAR score’. I see it as artificial because it is set up in almost pristine conditions that are never again repeated for the student in the years that follow school. This is particularly impactful if their extreme study timetable has produced results a little higher than what they could achieve in a truly balanced life that doesn’t focus on study to the exclusion of everything else. Extreme assistance from others also risks them doing better than if it was simply the student’s own motivation and effort pushing them along.
When some students get to university, the advantages they had in Year 12 often disappear. They typically don’t have a set group of friends and therefore need to spend time establishing new relationships and getting to know people before they work with them. They have more complex timetables where they must move from one campus to another and need to master very different subjects, varying responsibilities, and new ways of writing. Lecturers typically won’t be able to offer as much individualised assistance and many parents can’t help with university level content.
Additionally, the students’ families often expect them to do more around the house, now that they are an adult, and sometimes the student takes on part time jobs to get the spending money they need. Not to mention the bars and parties often involved, typically without parents curtailing the hours they spend out and the sleep they get.
This new, much busier lifestyle can sometimes mean that they don’t have the same time to devote to their studies. If they had to study considerably to get into a course, then it is likely that a busier university lifestyle will not give them the same time to dedicate to their study — this might make the course they scraped into seem very difficult.
These students may feel even more incompetent if they are surrounded by peers who got a result more commensurate with their true ability or who show better ease at juggling varying responsibilities.
University clinics often have first-year students coming in after a few weeks or months, saying that they think they have a learning disorder as they can’t keep up with the work and are failing to be sufficiently organised to meet the demands of university study.
While it is understandable that families try to encourage a perfect study timetable for senior school years, I urge them to ensure their child has a truly balanced life. Schoolwork-only lifestyles are also likely to make them more stressed, without sport or downtime to give them a break, resulting in an increased risk of mental health issues.
Year 12 is important, but make sure their experience fully prepares them for what lies ahead.
Takeaway for parents
Make sure they have a balanced life in Senior.
· Keep them focussed on school, but also give them some downtime for leisure, socialising and enough sleep.
· Don’t be too involved — let them learn to organise themselves.
· Sport and regular physical activity help their mental health.
· Keep them doing chores as a good break from study and to encourage their sense of responsibility about contributing to the household.
· Allow them to do the activities they love, such as the school musical or debating.
· Worried they don’t have enough time to do adequate study? Have them draw up a weekly timetable that proves they can do what they want to do, with enough time to get their studies done.
