Quick tips

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, the well-known adolescent psychologist, has a lot of experience helping young people think about and sort out their lives. In his book Surviving Year 12: A sanity kit for students and their parents he identifies four types of final year students.

• The grand planners – Those who know absolutely what they want to do. Some young people, because of their early life experience and positive parental influence, develop a burning interest and desire to pursue a particular vocation. From an early age they become aware of what they have to so in terms of which courses and qualifications are required, and they have often spent much of their spare time reading about the area, talking to practitioners or gaining work experience in the area. They will either sit the final exams or not, depending on whether it fits in with their own grand plan.
  
  
• The re-generators – Those who are pressured into doing what their parents feel they should do. Other final year students are unsure of the direction they want to go, but come from families who feel they know what’s best for the young person. The parents have decided that their young son and daughter should be a lawyer, doctor, plumber, whatever. These young people feel the immense weight of such expectations on their shoulders and feel obligated to succumb to the needs of their parents. They find themselves doing the final year because it is what is expected of them!
  
  
• The clueless crowd – Those who haven’t got a clue what they want to do and feel bad about it. These young people often find the final year of school very arduous and uninspiring, facing each day in a kaleidoscope of chaos and desperation.
  
  
• The moratorium mob – Those who haven’t got a clue what they want to do and feel fine about it. These students are the ones who can accept that everybody develops at a different pace, and that it is fine to not know exactly what you want to do. These students often take some time off to let nature take its course – they might travel around Australia or the world, or get a job, orchestrating their own destiny in their own time. All very healthy...

After thirteen years of gruelling schooling, the prospect of venturing into the real world can be a daunting one for many final year students. You should think about what you really want to do before making any firm choices. Everyone is unique: what one person wants to do at the age of nineteen may take someone else ten years to realise. There are some careers for which you will need university study, or else you won’t be able to pursue that career at all. There are other careers that need vocational courses provided by TAFE or private training providers.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, is an Adolescent Psychologist who works at the Albert Road Centre for Health in Melbourne, is author of “Surviving Year 12: A Sanity Kit for Students and their Parents” (Finch Publishing, 2004).

You can explore Dr Carr-Gregg’s website for good advice and information, including 10 tips for students and 10 tips for parents on surviving the final years of school.