Mangala: Group assignments = nightmare or paradise?

Though I have two days off this semester, I also have two days where I must get to university by 8am for classes. Today was one of them. Fortunately, I live close by and I can afford to wake up at 6:30, and still get to class on time.

An 8am maths class is perhaps not the ideal way to start a Tuesday for many of my fellow peers, but I find mathematics really intellectually stimulating. Though many of the concepts I learn are abstract and frequently overwhelming to absorb, I quite enjoy the unit. Today, we received feedback on our first group assignment, and our group ended up doing quite well. Hooray! After the tutorial we had to submit our second group assignment, which we had finished over the weekend.

Group assignments at university can either be a nightmare or paradise. Depending on your luck, you’ll be allocated to a group with hard working and dependable members or you’ll be placed with a bunch of slackers who expect you to do the bulk of the work. On the upside, Monash does have regulations in place to sort out any group disagreements, and luckily, I have never been involved in any controversies. The maths group I was assigned to couldn’t have been better. Everyone worked meticulously and enthusiastically contributed to discussions.

Despite starting early, I also finish early on Tuesdays. My second class of the day is a management accounting class which concludes at midday. This tutorial is equally intellectually stimulating, as I happen to have the Head Tutor of the unit, who is extremely thorough in all her explanations and teachings.

On most Tuesdays, I also have a peer mentor group to attend to from 12-1. As part of the Ambassador program at Monash Business School, senior students are given the role of “peer mentor” and assigned to a group of new students to ease their transition into university. The peer mentor catch up is a good opportunity for mentees to catch up with us mentors and let us know of any problems they may have. I remembered being a mentee in the first semester, and I looked forward to these catch-ups because my mentors were always so welcoming and friendly. As a result, I try to be a helpful mentor.

This semester is my second semester of mentoring and hopefully I have the opportunity to continue mentoring for many more semesters. I have been placed with a great group of mentors and mentees this semester, so we have consistently met up on a Tuesday every week. So far, we’ve played basketball, talked about life, eaten free hotdogs and played Pictionary and many other games together. This program is definitely one of the best opportunities the university has to offer!