Education and Learning

Learning at University is somewhat different to how you will have been expected to learn at School and College. Although you do have more freedom to get away with taking days off. It is pretty much expected of you to do some work outside of class time so yes, that does mean you’ll need to get to know the inside of the library or at the very least, make use of your student loan to buy some books.

Depending on your course, you’ll come to experience a few different ways of teaching from Lectures to Labs for Science students. Here’s a quick guide to what you can expect.

Lectures

Depending on the number of students on your course, you could find yourself in a room or large lecture theatre. The University wont be sympathetic towards your social life or the fact that it’s Student night at the local nightclub the night before so you’ll be nursing a hangover at 9am every week.
So you can bet you wont be the only person in attendance who doesn’t want to be there. Likewise, they could also be taking place last thing in the evening at 5pm or 6pm when it appears the rest of the University has long been deserted and the cleaners are the only other living beings wondering the corridors at that sort of time.
You can be sure that attendance numbers will start to drop off by Christmas and beyond, either because people quit or people start to realise that lecturers put their lecture slides online.

Seminars / Tutorials

Depending on the course or University, they’ll likely be given different names but all mean the same thing. Essentially, these are classes for smaller groups of students which means you’ll have more of an opportunity to ask questions or in turn, be picked on to answers questions. Not so bad if you’ve read through notes before class, a bit awkward if you haven’t…!
You’ll no doubt be hoping to be put in a class with at least one loud mouth person who is willing to answer all the questions. The thought of long pauses whilst the lecturer scans the room for somebody to pick on anxiously hoping it wont be you can be unnerving.

Labs

Labs are something students studying Science or Engineering degrees will be getting used to. Unlike most degrees where answers are found (*coughs* on Wikipedia or) in a Book in the Library. For these students, they’ll have to do their own testing to come up with their own conclusions. Labs are done in small groups just like seminars/tutorials and usually for a couple of hours every week. Due to this, it is always best to find out in the first few weeks who is likely to do well and work hard so you can copy their results (not that we’d suggest anybody do such things…).

The Library / Computer Rooms

This wont be on your timetable officially, but all those gaps you see aren’t an excuse to go to the Student Union and try their fine ales. It is of course meant as study time and you’re expected to use it that way too. Now in theory, most students will be doing the former.
Even for those who do venture into the library, it is highly unlikely that many will be heading for the books since it’s also usually where the University will house it’s computers. So the majority of students will be using it as a meeting place with mates in the library and those online. Some may even be tempted to borrow a few books too to read at home. Which leads us onto…

Your Bedroom

You’ll no doubt have the best intentions of doing some work when you get home to relative peace and quiet at home. The place that houses your Laptop/Computer, MP3 player/HiFi, TV/DVD Player, Games Consoles, the list goes on. Not to mention the distractions you’ll find yourself with from house mates, eating, making drinks and being invited to the pub.
Of course you’ll get loads of work done at home. We believe you ;o)

Now of course not everyone will find themselves succumbing to the distractions mentioned. But it is always advisable to know your limitations and to make sure your attendance doesn’t drop to a point that you being to miss assignment hand in dates and so on…