How to Succeed At University--International Edition. Danton O'Day
Because of the diversity of university programmes it would be futile to spend any more time giving generalities about what to expect. However, to succeed at university you should spend about twelve hours of work time per class per week. So if you are taking five subjects that means a sixty-hour week, which is longer than a typical workweek. Of course, some students do well with less work and others need more time at the books. Let your grades be your guide. As with anything, the more you work at it, the better things will go. Studying will be covered in more detail in Chapter 5.
Courses and Calendars
One of the most dramatic differences between high school and university is the wide variety of subjects available at the postsecondary institution. At a large university you will have literally hundreds of subjects to choose from, ranging from anthropology to musicology to zoology. Even small universities will have a large number of disciplines in which you can specialize.
As a result, the most important book you can acquire for sorting through this academic maze is the university calendar (also called the prospectus or catalogue, depending on the institution). This document contains all the essential information about the institution, such as admissions and registration procedures, available courses, tuition fees, university policies, etc. You can write to the universities that interest you and request their calendars, or, more conveniently, you can usually find them as PDF documents on the universities’ websites. Your school library or a local university library also may have calendars you can look at. Don’t select a university until you have visited the universities you are interested in or have checked out their calendars and websites and talked to others who have first-hand knowledge of the institution.
The calendar is your academic bible and complete information guide. It will tell you the admission requirements for each programme, explain the minimum number of credits you need to get your degree and outline the general requirements that have to be met. It will show which subjects are required to complete a specific programme and how many subjects are optional. The calendar is divided into sections for each discipline or area of study. So if you are interested in English or history, for example, you simply use the index to find the section and see what courses are listed. The essential contents of each course are also outlined.
The university calendar also has much other useful information. It will tell you how to register, enrol and withdraw from classes. It will explain how to transfer from one university to another. It will detail the grading scheme for that university and the grading regulations. In addition, it will contain information on all other aspects of your academic progress: transcripts, appeals, academic offences (e.g., cheating) and other valuable data.
If the calendar is complete, it will also give you information about other resources available, such as student housing, library facilities, athletics and student organizations. It lists the names and positions of the academic faculty. Thus the calendar is a valuable reference book when you want to find out whom to see about a specific problem.
Confusion: Courses and Curricula
Although your university calendar will give you details about course requirements in various areas, it will not give the lowdown on what you encounter when you enter the university system. One way to find out how other students rank specific subjects and their instructors is to review the results of student teaching evaluations. In most universities, a student group or the university administration itself conducts a student opinion survey each year and publishes the results. You simply look up the subject that interests you to learn what the students feel about the instructor(s), the material and the relative difficulty of the class. Student evaluations of teaching are covered in more detail later in this chapter.
A curriculum (plural: curricula) is simply a prescribed course of study, a programme of subjects in a specific area. The idea behind prescribed programmes is to give the student a well-balanced education while making that student something of a specialist in his or her chosen area. For example, if you were studying English you would have to take a minimum number of English credits to graduate as a specialist in English studies. Some subjects would be mandatory, while in other cases you would be given the choice of selecting a minimum number of credits from a group of related subjects. There could also be an upper limit on the number of English classes that you could take, where you would be required to take some classes in other disciplines (e.g., science or math); the choice would be up to you. Of course, the specific requirements vary greatly depending on the university and programme of study. Some programmes have many compulsory subjects, while others offer a greater deal of flexibility.
Many university systems divide the academic year into two semesters, often beginning during the autumn and spring. An example of such a system is an eight-month academic year beginning in September and ending in December for the first semester, then after a few weeks’ break recommencing in January and continuing on through April for the second semester. However, the specific timelines—the months during which each semester begins and ends, the length of the academic year and the number and duration of breaks—will differ depending on the country and individual university. Some universities have fall, spring and summer terms, allowing students to pursue their studies all year round, to take different terms to complete the academic programme or to alternate terms at school and terms in the workforce. In universities with two semesters there are usually two types of classes: full-year and half-year (single-semester) classes. Universities with three equal terms mostly offer single-term classes.
The value of a full-year class is that it allows you to get your teeth into a subject. Many students balk at the amount of work that has to be recalled for the final exams of such classes. However, if you follow the study scheme we describe later you should have no fear about doing well in full-year classes. Half-year classes are valuable in allowing you to taste a smorgasbord of intellectual delights; you can sample many different areas because you can fit two half-year classes into the same period that it takes to do a full-year class. Another advantage is that there is only half a year’s work to recall on final exams. There too lies the shortcoming of half-year classes—they don’t give the depth and breadth of a subject that full-year classes do. As you can see, there are plusses and minuses to both types of options.
Typically you will require the completion of a certain amount of credits per year for three years for a standard Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree or four years for an Honours BA or BSc degree. Similar requirements exist for other disciplines (e.g., Bachelor of Commerce, BComm). In general, full-year subjects will be worth more credits than single-semester ones. Note that the three-year degree is being phased out in some countries and institutions (e.g., University of Toronto in Canada) while in others it remains common. (Also, an increasing number of students are taking more than five years to complete their four-year degree.) In some universities you may need a minimum average or meet a certain grade expectation in most of your subjects to graduate (i.e., barely passing your classes will not be sufficient for graduation). In other cases your academic performance will affect your degree class or receipt of distinction upon graduation, but once again the specifics will vary between educational systems.
Universities may offer certain specialty programmes and with each programme you will find other requirements (e.g., a minimum average grade in your last two years). Thus you should be sure that you understand the programme you are enrolled in so that you don’t end up lacking the proper credits when you think you are finished.
Many universities also offer extension programmes. Although these are usually intended to provide courses to people outside the university (such as teachers trying to upgrade themselves), they are also valuable to students who have failed or dropped a class. They provide a limited range of classes in various disciplines, usually outside the normal academic timetable (for example, in the evening throughout the year or during the day in the summer). Some students who don’t need to work in the summer may prefer to take a class or two then to lighten their load during the normal academic year or to complete their degree requirements in a shorter time, as is possible with universities that have terms all year round. But generally only a smattering of classes is available outside the