First semester of my Science degree was basically high school level stuff
When you get to second year and you start looking at quantum technology, applicatons of quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's equation, Fourier series, well basically.. If you dont find it interesting.. you wont study and you will go shite
I got 94 something in my UAI, first year i did software engineering, i hated it!
I think i for 1 distinction, 3 credit, 3 passes and a fail that year..
I switched to nanotechnology
During my entire degree i got no passes, 2 credits and 22 Distinctions or above
and my 2 credits were like 72 and 74 and the major component of assessment was a group presentation and i had shit groups both times...
Well anywaiz, My point is that i
enjoyed studying nanotechnology, enjoyed the concepts, applications and implications of some of the things i was studying, so i did my work and went well
I did not enjoy Engineering -- hence i got pissed at the uni bar when i should have been going to class and ended up failing a subject. It's a hard choice when you're confronted with a 3 hour Object Oriented Design lecture or $3 beam and cokes at Markets Bar (Do they still have happy hour down there?)
If you went well in the HSC because you can memorize fuckloads of information and memorize the steps taken to solve specific problems, goodluck in uni and the workforce.
Uni is completely different, at least the degrees i have been a part of.. I mean memory helps, but you need to be able to apply familiar concepts to unfamiliar situations. Dont be suprised if you dont get 80+ for all subjects, some subjects no people get HD's, some subjects no people even get D's (75+)
In one subject, i came first in the subject, but my marks was only like 78
http://www.handbook.uts.edu.au/subjects/68315.html
that was a bugger of a subject and the lecturer was shite!
Oh, another important point.. If you are in a course where there are multiple lectures you can go to, both lectures cover the same material, but they have different lecturers, say one on Monday and one on Tuesday, for the first week or two, goto both and then figure out which lecturer is better and stick with that one. In the majority of subjects it does not matter if you are enrolled in the Monday lecture, but goto the Tuesday one. Generally, that is only with lectures though.. Trust me, a good lecturer can make the WORLD of difference.. Could be the difference between an 80 and a 90.