First Year students in the Law Faculty Background and experiences: Results of a survey of 245 first year students, 2001 Kathryn Boin The Transition Program

Who are the first year students?  Majority came directly from school to university Reasons for studying Law: - interest or curiosity in the field - money and prestige - altruism - pressure from others - not wanting to ‘waste’ a good ENTER - not getting into Medicine - don’t know

How well are they prepared for studying Law? n 60% said they were prepared ‘very little’ or ‘not at all’ n 77% studied Maths and Science at school n 55% studied Humanities (excluding English) “I needed science subjects to get a high enough grade to get in”

Assessment experience n Average length of essays written before: words n A quarter have only written essays of 1000 words or less n Recent changes to the VCE make this even more of an issue: “We are not well prepared enough for large complex assignments since the CAT system was abolished”

VCE experience n Trend of students undertaking Maths/Science n Average length of assignments words n Teachers willing to read drafts n High proportion of assessment completed in class n Focus on ENTER score as main goal n Accustomed to being high achievers

Adjusting to university n Independence – ie, having to work alone and motivate themselves - noted as biggest difference between school and university. n Biggest difficulties in coming to terms with a new learning style: þ the amount and type of reading þ time management þ independence n 43% had felt intimidated by university learning

Difficulties in adjusting n the amount and style of reading n time management n independence n uncertainty about expectations “We weren’t told any ways to go about studying law”

Reading n 62% did less than five hours a week of reading. n Only 12% completed more than eight hours. n 70% of students felt that the amount of reading set was ‘a lot’ or ‘too much’.

Feedback n Most understood it to mean comments on assignments n Other forms of feedback: discussions with staff and in class; grades n 46% feel that they did not get this feedback

Skills needed/wanted n 71% would have liked to develop more essay writing and research skills n Half wanted more skills in individual study, and in oral communication n Presentation and teamwork skills were also sought

Student support n 64% of students said they did not feel confident they knew about all of the support services available through the Faculty n 71% did not know about support services available through the University. “I basically felt we were on our own”