After convocation, Audrey Tam is heading to Oxford to do her Master’s in Financial Economics (MFE). The Trinity College student has now completed her specialist degree in Financial Economics, worked as a learning assistant at the Economics Study Centre at Max Gluskin House, and this year, won both the Nanda Choudhry Prize in Economics and the William T. Jackman Scholarship in Corporate Finance or in Transportation Economics. She is also a Presidential Scholar. These successes were helped along with Tam’s determined recovery from receiving her first and last C.
“University is a huge adjustment,” Tam said. “At the beginning I was having trouble adapting to the testing procedures, it was all online and the way Professor Gazzale tested was different than what I expected. I got sixty-three on my first test and it was a big shock because I had never gotten a grade so low.”
The C-shock, and even the D-shock or F-shock, are common experiences among first-year students. Feeling discouraged and uncertain is also common. Instead of giving in to the shock, Tam drew on her inner resiliency.
“I didn’t dwell on it and saw it as a natural part of the learning process,” she said during a recent interview. “Going into university, everyone knows it is going to be a huge adjustment and I didn’t want to get a bad mark on a test, but when it happened, I accepted it and used it as a very motivating learning opportunity. I know now that it was not an issue with my understanding of the concept, but in how I expressed the answer.”
Tam used readily available people and tools to help her return to being a high-performing student and she offers them as tips to other students as she prepares for her own undergraduate journey turns toward Convocation Hall.
“I tried to reach out to previous years’ students as much as possible to get their tips. I also went to office hours, and talked to the TAs about how they mark and find out what they were looking for,” she said. “It’s different than it is in high school. While I was doing the IB program in high school, as much as they want it to be intuition-based, there were model answers and structures I could base my own response on. Here, they want to ensure students fully understand the concepts and that they can put newly acquired knowledge into their own words.”
She also recommends that current students use the lectures as their guide to learning.
“It’s really about doing the past tests and seeing how the professors are going to evaluate you and how they want you to write your answer,” she recalled. “Understand that what will be covered on the test will be covered in the lectures. If I struggled to understand what was said in the lecture, then I read the explanation in the textbook or went to office hours.”
Tam also credits her work as a learning assistant at the Economics Study Centre with helping her to refine her techniques.
“It was a meaningful and rewarding experience,” Tam said. “I always went to the ESC in first and second year, so being an LA in fourth year helped me bring the experience full circle. It also allowed me to develop a fresh perspective on how to study. Upper year students will tell you tips and tricks, tell you what is important, and what worked in their personal experience. The students helping students’ model really works.”
Tam’s time at UofT wasn’t all about studying. Last year, she served as the President of Canadian Undergraduates in Behavioural Science (CUBS). The club hosted several successful events and competitions, one of which resulted in internships for two participants. Interested in joining the management consulting space in the future, Tam also joined the University of Toronto Consulting Association as Director of Business Development and later, Director of Finance.
“Joining clubs and taking on leadership positions, really changed me for the better,” she recalled. “When I was in high school, I was quite introverted, but taking these positions forced me to get used to talking to as many people as possible. I did it repeatedly and it got easier over time.”
Resilience turns personality change into character development. It’s a process Tam exemplified over the four years of her undergraduate degree.
“As her instructor–twice–and mentor, it has been an honour to have a front-row seat for Audrey’s academic and intellectual journey,” said Professor Robert Gazzale, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Programs. “She has consistently chosen to challenge herself, and through commitment and hard work she has risen to these challenges. She is a clear example of the power of fully engaging with the opportunities here at the UofT.”
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