It is not a secret for anyone that studying in South Korea is difficult, overwhelming and stressful. Most students who pursue their higher education in Korean universities, especially foreigners who are unaccustomed to demanding education system of Korea, are constantly under pressure and get their mental and physical health damaged. If you plan to study in South Korea or if you currently studying and encountering similar issues, this article is to be of a great help for you.
As a foreigner who studies in one of the top 3 universities in South Korea – Korea university, I will share my own experience and tips about how to show high academic performance with least amount of pressure, avoiding distress.
Brief introduction of myself: I am a 3rd year Master’s student in Korea University Business School who has never got a grade below A+ so far, despite struggling less than all my fellow students. This article is going to present advice and tips of succeeding in Korean universities without much struggle. Let’s get into it:
1. First things first. A big mistake everyone makes (including me in my first semester) is comparing themselves to others and thus, losing self-confidence. It is important to start with the right emotional state because everything that comes after depends on your emotional condition. It is extremely difficult to get into a university in South Korea, and if you managed to do so, that says a lot about your potential. That means you are capable, you are smart and you are worth. Do not compare yourself to others because it does not make any sense – you come from different countries, you have different educational background and life experience, new people will always appear throughout your life be it at university, work or elsewhere, thus you cannot always try to excel everyone everywhere. The only person you should compare yourself with is you – try to become better today than you from yesterday. Comparing yourself to others is demotivating and can play with your emotions; consequently, you will lose your confidence to show high performance.
2. Participate in class discussions as much as you can. Experience taught me that this is the most valuable contribution you can make to your academic performance. You will probably feel difficult and scared to add your opinion or ask a question during class discussions as you will think if your opinion/question is relevant and makes sense. You will think others and professor will react to your question/opinion negatively if it is not quite relevant. Let me tell you what they will think in reality. Other students: “Wow, this student seems very smart and his opinion makes sense”. This is because everyone doubts in himself, so usually, they are unable to critically evaluate other students’ class contribution. Professor: “This student is active and trying to contribute to my class.” This is the worst case scenario if your opinion/question is really irrelevant. If your contribution is relevant, on the other hand, you will be even in a better position. If you keep participating in class discussions there are a plethora of benefits such as: you will get more comfortable sharing your thoughts in following classes, you will better analyze and understand the course, your confidence will boost, you will have more chances of getting a high grade because in Korea, discussion is more important than exam.
3. Arrange meetings with your professors. All professors have “office time” when you can visit their office and discuss something with them. It is recommended that you show a particular interest in the course they teach by sending them an email asking for a permission to visit their office. During the meeting, you can ask something that you did not understand properly or ask for advice about how to better perform in this particular course. Or if your course syllabus includes writing a research paper you could meet your professor to discuss your ideas. Doing this once or twice throughout the semester is quite enough to impress your professor.
4. Don’t push yourself hard. Doing your best is enough if you understand what doing your best means. Unless you sacrifice your meals, rest and sleep hours to get extra few hours to study in the library you might do your best. Certainly, you should dedicate much time to studying, but if you spend 12 or more hours a day to study non-stop your productivity will drop, you will get exhausted quickly, get chronical stress and eventually ruin your health. Learn to manage your time effectively leaving a room for recovery. It is not the end of the world, so be on ease. Be responsible, be serious but take it easy. Doing so, you will not only avoid distress and feel great, but also perform much better. I try to not waste time on meeting my friends or having fun several times a week, as I have important stuff to accomplish, however, meeting my good friend(s) in the weekend to have a nice chat and delicious meal recharges my batteries and gives me a burst of energy that I can use later for studying.
5. Do your presentations in the beginning of semester. In most universities you have to make on average 1 or 2 presentations per course. You are free to choose when you want to present (on a first come – first serve basis). It is highly recommended to volunteer for presentations in the beginning of semester for 2 predominant reasons. First, most students avoid presenting early and thus, professors usually give more credits to early presenters later on. Second, you will have less time and energy by the end of semester as you will be full with workload such as writing a research paper or studying for upcoming exams. Hence, it’s a good idea to eliminate this obligation as soon as possible. I personally always try to present during the second session. It is quite early and I can still get insights from first presenters and professor’s reaction and feedback to understand his expectations better.
6. Show your confidence to professors. If you are not confident pretend that you are. As it is said, fake it till you make it. If you pretend to be confident, you will gradually get confidence. What I witnessed so far is that the main problem of all students studying in Korea is the lack of confidence. Do you know why it is important? If two students make one same argument (one with confidence, the other with hesitance), who do you think will look smart and right? If you claim something with confidence it means that you are aware of your knowledge. Moreover, as I mentioned above, most students lack confidence, therefore, it is an opportunity for you to stand out and impress everyone with your level of confidence. When my fellow students made comments during class, some of them started with a phrase “I’m not sure about my answer, but...” or “Well, maybe…”, but when I make my comments, even though sometimes I actually hesitate, everyone thinks that I am the smartest and I know everything (except for me).
If you wonder, how a confident person looks like, let me give you some hints:
1) A confident person talks in a loud and stable (not trembling, mumbling) voice.
2) A confident person maintains eye contact while talking.
3) A confident person uses hand gestures and body language.
7. The last but not the least, keep contact with senior students, or how they are called in Korea, your sonbaes (선배). Sonbaes are students who already took the courses you are taking in their previous semesters. They know better than anyone else what the professors’ expectations are and how you can get best out of their classes and thus get a high grade. They can also help you if you have difficulties with your assignments. Do not hesitate to ask sonbaes for help because they are often willing to help you, but certainly do not run to them for every slight difficulty you have. In my case, sonbaes helped me a lot so far even when I did not ask them to. As I am a very extraverted person, I often meet other students just to have a meal or coffee together. And just in one meeting, my sonbae can give me useful information I didn’t know, be it related to a course or in general.
These are most effective pieces of advice about studying in Korea one can give you. Studying does not always have to be stressful and overwhelming. I do everything described here in the article and hence, I study without stress, get highest grades and manage my time to not only study but also eat well, get enough sleep and meet my friends time by time. Everything can be difficult in our lives, but everything has its own secret methods that will reduce difficulty and boost effectiveness. All you hav to do is to try.
Good luck!
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