The Biggest Lesson I Learned during my Four Years at University

How a Non-Academic student, somehow, graduated

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

I am officially done University. No more school, no more exams, no more essays, no more classes, all done. Honestly, its kind of a relief knowing that I don’t have to wake up for classes or have any outstanding assignments due and its one less thing to worry about for sure. And since I don’t have plans to pursue any further education, I never have to experience it again (hopefully).

So, I’ve been out of school for a little over a month now and I started thinking about my time at University and the biggest lesson I learned. The thing that got me through everyday, every assignment and somehow graduating when I had no motivation and limited interest in my program.

Admittedly, its hard to be 110% focused and passionate about all your courses, all your projects, assignments, and exams. Even if you are in a program that you love, there is always going to be something that you hate doing along the way, but you have to do it since you have no choice.

So, the biggest thing that I learned in University, and highly recommend any students who are going into University to learn is:

How to Bullshit.

Knowing how to bullshit an assignment and just get the thing done, and submitting it. Even if you don’t fully understand the concept, as long as you know how to fake like you understand.

For example, many of my essays were about a historical time period where I had to write about the impact that it had made in our current society. Now, by no means was I a goo student. So during lectures throughout the term, I did not pay attention in most cases. This meant that when I started the Essay, I was starting from scratch.

Fortunately, I knew how to bullshit. I knew how to find the keywords in my readings and add them to my essay, quickly developing a basic concept. Once you have the keywords and a basic concept, then you are able to pull quotations from readings that can defend your argument. Perfect!

Again, I was not a very good student, and this advice is to help you get through the subjects and courses that you do not care about. By no means does this advice lead to being to the top of the class. Trust me, I am far from the top of my class.

I believe that if you are anything like me, where you have a course or two that you don’t have a large interest in, but you have to get through it, then learning how to bullshit and just getting through the course, it’s a necessity. Being able to quickly skim through lectures and readings, finding the keywords and using them to your advantage as if you understood it all, then you are set to getting through University.