Hi. I’m Amy and I’m Laura and today we are going to talk to you about the differences
between university and school study.
Differences you’ll experience will obviously depend on where you previously were. Some
people go to sixth forms that are attached to their school, you might have gone to college,
you might be a mature student or even an international student with a completely different learning
system but the majority of people tend to do A levels on their way into university,
so we’re gonna mainly focus on those differences.
One of the big differences is the grade system. We don’t have A, B, Cs anymore. We have
Firsts, 2:1s, 2:2s, thirds and Fails but we won’t talk about that because you're all
going to do fabulous.
Also you will find that the syllabus is a lot less strict and structured like you might
have experienced at A level. There’s less, ‘Structure your answer in this way and then
you’ll get a good grade’, like you get at A level. It’s more you learn whatever’s
interesting, that fits into your degree. It’s a lot more free and open.
And also every week in your lectures you won’t be given, or you won’t be told, what you’re
gonna be studying the week after you’ll have to go to Moodle which won’t become
your life. It’s a really nice place because Moodle just has all the answers and you just
go there and see what reading or what topic your lecture is going to be on next week,
and the seminars and all the times, everything you need to know is on there
- so Moodle is your friend.
That’s another big difference at university, you have to be a lot more independent with
your study which might be a lot different to school where you’re a little bit spoon-fed
in the structure of your learning. Whereas at uni it will just be like, ‘Research this…’
and they won’t say what specifically to read, you just have to kind of be independent,
to motivate yourself to do the work and to do some extra work - so that’s a big difference.
University is also great because you get to study something you’re really interested
in. It's not all just working towards an exam. For example, we studied stuff that didn’t
really mean anything in coursework or exams we just learnt it around other things we needed
for our assessment that was just interesting and it's just really nice to not have that
focus all the time.
Plus you only have the one subject to focus which is really nice. When you might think
back to your GCSEs and A levels, or whatever qualifications you did, where you had completely
different subjects. You might have done Maths and English and you had to dedicate a lot
of hours into that revision whereas at university you get to focus on one subject and it, kind
of, can take all your time and that’s really nice: it’s less stressful.
And our last general difference is that January exams are a thing again. I know that they
got cancelled around A levels but we have them at university and you might have some
midterm assessments for your course or formative essays. There’s lots of like little things
that you get assessed for throughout the year so be aware of that and keep prepared.
The next big difference is, obviously, you learn slightly differently at university.
The teaching methods are definitely different. You’ll have a lecture which is basically
a big hall, probably a couple of hundred of you, and just one person talking and lecturing
and just giving lots of a big bucket of information to a massive group that you can then go off
and sort of digest and more finely tune yourself.
And then there’s also seminars, which are a bit more like classes that you may have
had at GCSE and A- Level and things. They ‘re just little groups of you discussing
and things like that. And also if you’re a science student you may have labs and practicals
and things like that so there’s a big variety in how you learn that is quite different.
Another difference is that your timetable may differ from week to week, and also you
may have less or more hours on specific days where you have to make sure that you eat your
lunch around it. Like it’s not specific and you have to tailor your timetable to yourself
and you might even get to pick your own.
The learning styles are also different in that you probably won't have the same teachers
consistently. Lecturers for each week may be different. It depends who’s a specialist
in different topics. Your seminar tutors may vary from term to term. That can be quite
different in that you don’t have a specific teacher who sees you through your whole year
but you do have a tutor that you’ll have throughout your entire time at university,
who’s like a constant source, but it’s definitely different to school.
You do have a lot of support at university but if you want it you do have to go seek
it out. You do have to put the hours in yourself. But it’s all so rewarding and the libraries
will turn into like your favourite thing because
they just have all the information that you need.
Coursework may also be different at university to your past experience. There may be a lot
more of it than you’re used to. I know in previous types of study there may just be
one big bit of coursework a year, maybe two, whereas depending on your subject you may
have like six pieces in the whole year.
Another thing is that deadlines are more strict. There’s no leeway unless you have a proper,
proper reason, so just make sure that you don’t leave it until the last minute.
Handing in coursework is also quite a different experience. It depends on your subject, but
pretty much all subjects will have a specific box that your coursework has to go in by a
certain date and time. You have to time stamp your coursework so they know when you’re
handing it in. If you’re a minute late you will actually get marks deducted from your
coursework, so you have to be very organised with the handing in process.
And a tip for coursework is to familiarise yourself with how to reference because you
have to do this for every bit of coursework, because universities get, not uptight, but
they get really specific about plagiarism and you could even get like thrown out if
you plagiarise. But you don’t have to worry, just chill about it, but just make sure that
you do your own studying and then you don’t have to worry about it.
A difference between exams is that they are all set by the University and they’re all
internally moderated which means that they are very specific to the course that you have
been studying and also when you get the marks back you don’t have to get them remarked
or reassessed because the University gets them right - unlike A levels.
But apart from that difference, exams are pretty similar to what you may have already
experienced. They’re very strict. There’s a big hall that you sit in, in silence. It’s
got a similar kind of cover sheet so I think exams work in quite a similar way. There may
be less past exam questions and exemplar essays to look at compared to the big exam boards
that do a lot of A levels.
And just to help you on your way to overcome the differences, here’s some study techniques.
The main tip is just to be organised from the very start of the year whether that’s
typing up lecture notes, colour coding, putting things in folders, you’ll really thank yourself
at the end of the year to not have just scraps of paper from lectures from October that you
can’t even remember. And if you’re organised it just makes the
whole revision process a lot easier and just your whole work ethic is just simpler, when
you have it all straight in your head exactly what you have to do.
And make sure that you familiarise yourself with the library, and do the extra reading
or study because it’s really difficult if you get towards exam time and you’re stressed
and you’re trying to like work something out or something that you didn’t understand
or remember at the start of the year.
And it might not sound like fun but you’ll really thank yourself if you revise all year.
Obviously, you’re not really intensely but if you’re just organised and go over things
as you go along, when it comes to exams and coursework , you’ll just have it clear in
your head - what you understand, what you need to work on and you’ll really thank
yourself for it.
So those are our study tips, we promise you that if you do these you will have more fun
while you are studying because you’ll be on top of everything.
Just stay relaxed, and have a great first year at university. The examinations and coursework
are nothing to worry about and you’ll soon get used to the way that university is slightly
different to what you have already experienced.
So have fun.
Bye.