All sorts of choices come with freedom

For most students, going to college for the first time is one of life's major events. It's a time of transition when you move from school with all its rules, regulations and timetables to a world where almost everything you do is entirely up to you. The hour you get up, the time you get into college, how long you study, even whether you attend or skip lectures, is absolutely your call. The chances are there's going to be no-one who is going to tell you what to do and nobody to require that you have, say, early nights. You're utterly on your own. Scary or what?

"School leavers are at an interesting developmental stage," comments Barry Kehoe who is director of student services at DCU. "The transition to college is an interesting time when students have tremendous freedom, often for the very first time. With freedom comes all sorts of choices. Unfortunately, the second-level system is not good at helping people choose for themselves."

It's vital, he says, that at this stage students form their own views on how they will live their lives. They need to examine their values on relationships, drink, sex, lifestyle. "For example, do they really want to stay out every night clubbing? Nobody's telling them what to do, but at least they will have thought about it," he says. One of the most difficult aspects of college life, for some students, is the realisation that they've embarked on the wrong course. Some youngsters struggle on and manage to get through, others fall behind, fail their exams or simply drop out.

Kehoe is adamant that if you feel you're on the wrong course you should make your feelings known. "Don't keep it to yourself," he advises. "Talk to your personal tutor, the college counsellor or the career staff. Remember, if in the end, you decide to do something else - it's not a failure. After a short period of time, you'll find that your experiences - and the knowledge you have gained - will stand to you. It's likely to be the first real decision you have made in your life." Colleges, Kehoe notes, have the resources to help you make the right decisions.

At school, the chances are you've been a very big fish in rather a small pond. At college your position may well be reversed. You could even find yourself doing less well academically than in the past. Kehoe advises students to be prepared to get lower grades in college than they have been used to at school. "Remember you may be among the very high flyers," he says.

Every student dreads failure, but at college failing your first exams, while unpleasant, may be less of a blow you may think. "The experience of failing can be very traumatic," he says, "but you can pick up in the repeats."

A major way to avoid failure is to ensure you attend all lectures and to embark on continuous revision. DCU's director of student services warns against selective revision - it may work for you in the Leaving Cert but at college, it's a big mistake, he says. "You need to know the whole syllabus. If you engage in the process of selective revision you can diminish your chances of ending up with a good honours degree."

Regular revision throughout the course is preferable to last minute cramming. "If you cram, you won't retain the information for later years," he says. Many colleges offer optional study skills and self development programmes and it's well worth availing of them, Kehoe says.