A new chapter: Lectures and exams

Hi again! This is my second of a series of posts I am going to be making about university life and I thought It would be a good idea to share some tips on lectures and exams, as after all you are at university to study! 

As a fresher I was oblivious to what lectures, tutorials and seminars were, and what I could expect from the academic staff within my department. Of course each of these may differ from university to university, but on a broad scale they should all be fairly similar. 

Each course is made up of 120 credits, in which each module can be 10, 20, 30 or 40 credits (mainly 10 or 20 in first year). Depending on your course you may have all 120 credits taken up by compulsory modules. However, many courses allow you to chose some optional modules. These may be directly related to your course, or you could even chose a random module within another department such as a language. This is a great way to broaden your knowledge and meet lots of new people. Although, as I learnt choosing an Agriculture module in which I knew nothing about the topic was interesting but also very challenging when it came to examination. But I suppose its good to be challenged and learn about new things ay!

Most courses will run mainly by lectures, which can range from 25 people to maybe 400 people depending on your course/topic area. Dependent on size they can take place in large lecture halls, to small classroom like rooms, which make you feel a little more like your back at school. Especially throughout first year you can expect to share lectures with many courses under your department, which means that they are generally taught to a broader topic rather than just your subject area. As a Food Marketing and Business Economics student I shared lectures with Consumer Behaviour and Marketing, Food Science & nutrition, Agricultural business management, Psychology, Animal Science and International Development students. This provides some great benefits not only because you get to mix with more than just your course, but you get to learn about other areas that you may have never even thought about. 

Some modules may also involve tutorials or seminars which are generally made up of a smaller group of people, and involve a more practical element. This could be practice questions/problems, advice services or group discussions/debates. 

Personally I haven't had much experience of the latter due to the nature of my course however, I expect I will have more of these as I progress through my degree. 

Tutorials and seminars are a great way to get to know people on your course, or similar courses, due to the smaller number of people. Lets face it your not going to know everyone in your 200 capacity lecture!

Although you are part of a specific department this may not mean that your lectures, tutorials or seminars will always be within this building. Most of the time I found I was in every other building apart from my departments, it just depends on timetabling and lecture sizes. 

Of course within education you are always going to be tested to see how well you understand the content of your lectures, which could take the form of assignments, class tests, presentations, spot tests, end of year exams or simulation exercises. This totally depends on the lecturer and what they think is the best way to test your knowledge. Don't be fooled by thinking Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) tests are easier though, many of my friends and I learnt this the hard way, as they can defiantly be much harder than first thought.

The biggest difference I found when starting university is having to do everything on my own. You defiantly get thrown in the deep end. Obviously you have personal tutors, and academic advisers to help you when your stuck, but you are expected to just get on with it really. I found it quite hard at the beginning to get a hang of the level of writing that was expected and the idea of coming up with  my own essay/research titles. In addition, to these the mass of research that goes into every assignment shocked me, and really taught me a lesson in how to skim read instead of reading every little detail. 

I also learnt that you do not have to do absolutely everything on the reading lists you are given. I tried this out in the first few weeks and oh my was it exhausting! You have to remember that not everything is relevant, and you need to pick and chose what to read depending on what you are interested in. After all writing about something your not interested in within assignments may not come across well. 
Referencing is another area in which I hadn't had much practice in before going to university, and I don' think anyone ever truly learns how to to it properly! My personal tutor recommended an internet browser software called Mendeley which is defiantly worth the download. It saves so much time and ensures that you format your references properly. 

Within my last term I definitely learnt that the library is an amazing place to go study...better late than never! 

Personally, I found that I got so much more work done there than within my halls where there were constant distractions. However, choose the people you go with wisely, some may be more focused than others. 

I hope this advice was of some help, and explains a few things about university that may be quite new to many school students. Thanks for reading!