Durban — With their first year of university now behind them, top achievers from Durban’s Star College who looked forward to edging closer to the completion of their degrees encouraged the Class of 2022 to put their best foot forward.
Samuel Soodyall, who got nine distinctions in 2021 and is now studying medicine at Wits University, said his first year had gone well.
“The course is fun so far. It’s not easy and somewhat difficult, but if you enjoy what you are doing it’s fun.”
Soodyall said that the adjustment from high school to tertiary was a difficult one, but he advised the Class of 2022 preparing for their first year at tertiary institutions “not to stress”.
“Although you might know one or two people, you have to create a whole group of new friends. It is a different environment where you don’t know your professors and they don’t know you, unlike high school.
“You become a lot more independent a lot faster. You have to really grow up faster, especially in my case where I had to leave my home province and go to another, where everything is new. It’s quite scary but exciting because it’s a whole new beginning.”
Raylen Naidoo, who is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Pretoria, echoed his sentiments.
He cautioned the incoming first-year students to be prepared for a different environment and encouraged them to learn to adapt to more volume when it came to the workload.
Kaylin Naidoo, who earned nine distinctions in 2021 and is also studying at the University of Pretoria, said he had enjoyed his first year studying computer engineering.
The course had been everything he had hoped it would be, he added.
“To those who do not pass, don’t give up. Matric is not the end of the world because you always have an opportunity to improve yourself.
“Take the failure as something constructive as you make the best of the situation. You can always try again and do better. It is not the end of the world,” he said.
Daily News