Staring at a pile of textbooks and a long reading list, An Xiaohong, a freshman at Tongji University, began to doubt her ability to manage her studies.

A freshman at Peking University introducing herself to fellow students. [Xinhua]

And to think, only a minute before, she'd been so excited about starting campus life. But now for her, college work looks like being a lot more challenging than anything she's ever found before. The "heavy" workload is a lot more than she expected.

The law major has to study 11 subjects in her first semester, more than double the number she studied at high school. She even has to attend an average of seven classes a day.

Courses like advanced maths, logic and computer science are posing the biggest headache for the girl.

And worse still, she is likely to fail in exams if she doesn't work hard.

"In high school, teachers gave you an idea about what would be in the test, and even where to find the information," she says, "But here, lectures can be very different from what's in the textbooks. I have to adjust myself to the rigours of classes and modify my study habits to fit a new schedule and requirements."

An also complained about the lack of face-to-face contact with professors at college: "Professors here are too busy to take care of you. I have to sort problems out by myself."

An's complaints are common among university freshmen. The only way out of them, according to Du Junfei, a professor at Nanjing University, is to "learn to handle all the problems by yourself."

Courage is necessary too, says Li Guangjin, vice dean of the business administration school at Sichuan University: "Don't be afraid to ask for help. Get advice and counsel from your mentors and older students to ensure that you start off on the right track."

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