Written by Lara Ralph (Sport and Exercise Science) and Maiki Sun (Sport and Exercise Science)
UTS offers several services to help you make the most of your time at uni, and U:PASS is the place to go if you’re having any issues with subjects or exams. U:PASS is a student learning program designed to assist students who are studying subjects that are perceived as difficult or that historically have a high failure rate.
U:PASS is part of HELPS, which provides English and academic support to all UTS students. We reached out to some of our student ambassadors to hear about their experiences with the service, and why you should consider taking part!
Hear from Health student ambassadors Lara and Maiki, who share their top 4 reasons that fellow Health students need U:PASS.
1) To have the time to process complex concepts.
“At times where content is coming students’ way at a fast pace, U:PASS sessions provide an opportunity to breakdown and go over complex ideas at a slower pace.
Once students have understood the content, it is great to see them conversing with each other – discussing how these might apply in practice and what the best ways to revise these might be. Even better – a fellow peer might be able to explain how they learnt and understood the concept, so there is plenty of knowledge-sharing occurring.” – Lara Ralph
“The students teaching U:PASS all know exactly what you are going through! They can share their own advice and analogies for learning the content.” – Maiki Sun
2) To meet like-minded students who share your passion for the course.
“U:PASS gives you the opportunity to learn off other students and bounce ideas around. Explaining concepts to other students is also a great study strategy! It can be hard to make friends at uni, so the small classes in U:PASS give you the opportunity to meet others. This is especially useful for when you have group assignments!” – Maiki Sun
“Students might attend U:PASS because they are highly interested in the content and don’t want to miss an opportunity to extend their learning. Alternatively, students might attend because they learn better in collaborative, informal environments as opposed to straight from lectures and lessons.
Either way, U:PASS allows you to meet students who share similar learning styles, interests and levels of curiosity to you… plus you get the opportunity to catch-up every week!” – Lara Ralph
3) To gain extra access to resources – such as anatomy models used in difficult exams!
“For those like me who have ‘educational FOMO’, U:PASS is an opportunity you can’t miss. By attending these sessions, students are able to obtain access to extra resources such as practice questions and activities.
For the two anatomy subjects I lead sessions in, students get exclusive access to anatomy models that can’t be accessed elsewhere outside of labs. Plus, these are the same anatomy models used in practical exams, so the extra time available working with them is invaluable.” – Lara Ralph
4) To ask questions!
“U:PASS gives you the opportunity to ask questions you weren’t confident to ask in class or didn’t think of! The classes are much smaller than your normal tutorials so you can spend more time understanding the difficult concepts” – Maiki Sun
Inside | Out 