A Letter to Students Taking Grade 12 Visual Arts

Dear new grade 12 arts students,

Grade 12 university visual arts is not an easy course.

A common misconception—especially among non-arts high school students—seems to be that the arts courses are an easy and fun way to get a good grade, but when it comes to the university level courses, it doesn't matter if you're taking chemistry or visual arts; in order to pass you have to make an effort, and it will be challenging—although possibly in very different ways.

When it comes to visual arts, the grade 12 course is very project-based, and because of the many independent projects that take place over long periods of time, it is also mostly self-managed. Developing good time management skills is a must for this course, and it can become increasingly difficult to catch up the further you fall behind.

As someone who has struggled with time management through the majority of high school, I can definitely say staying on top of this course was a challenge. In order to do so, I made it a habit to start using a planner, making sure to keep track of all important due dates as well as create a schedule so that things were getting handed in on time.

My next bit of advice is something people say all the time, but it really is the key to being successful in a university visual arts course:

Don't leave things to the last minute!

Far away due dates may make it seem like you don't have to worry about assignments the moment you get them, but getting written work such as blog posts, artist statements or reflections out of the way as soon as possible will be a huge lifesaver. This may come as a surprise to some, but there is an extremely large amount of written work that will be required of you in a university arts course (even though this should be expected considering it is a course meant to prepare you for university). In order to have the time to work on and finish your actual art pieces and produce a well made final product, you don't want to be worrying about also completing that artist statement during the final few days before a due date.

Another important point I want to make is to document everything you do. Documenting your creative process as well as making blog posts about it was an important part of my class, and allowed for our teacher at the end of the semester to have a clear idea of how much work you put into the class. Take photos of all the work you have completed at the end of every class and post it for your teacher to see—making sure to immediately back up these photos to multiple places or post them right away, as I learned the hard way that you shouldn't rely on just your phone. Doing this consistently will demonstrate that you work consistently and make use of class time, also making it easy for your teacher to look at all the preliminary work you may have done before actually starting a final piece.

Learn from my mistakes. It may seem self-explanatory, but the main struggle that people faced in my grade 12 university visual arts class was simply procrastination and poor time management. Do yourself a favour and do the course work as soon as you get it assigned! It will save you from endless amounts of stress, and if you need to make improvements you will have the time to get feedback and make those necessary adjustments, guaranteeing a great mark.

Sincerely,

A student who managed to survive grade 12 university visual arts.

#personalexperience