So I recently posted a blog about the difference between Sixth Form and University and that’s all said and good until you realise you don’t really know the smaller differences. You may be wondering, is a lecture and seminar the same thing? Or when can I speak privately to my tutors? Well, this little guide breaks it all down for you…

Lectures

Lectures are pretty much the same for all courses and include a lecturer at the front presenting their slides. Lecture rooms at BU range in size, sometimes holding a small lecture group of 20 to a higher number, maybe three courses. For Marketing Communications, we share a lot of units with PR, Politics and Advertising so we all share lectures together too. Lectures don’t tend to be interactive so this is usually the time to write more notes! Some people find it really handy printing off the lecture slides (4/8 slides per page) to write notes straight onto the content given as lecturers always post the slides the prior night.

Seminars

Seminars mirror classroom environments which are definitely more interactive. Your lecturers will split your course into a number of seminars where you can often be found doing group work, talking through assignments and tackling what was covered in the lecture earlier that week. Each week, be sure to double check if you have any seminar prep set by your lecturer so you’re always ready to do the work in seminar.

Tutorials

This is the perfect time to speak one to one (or group to lecturer) about assignments and anything personal to you. Tutors tend to put time ‘slots’ up on a number of platforms so you can chose which times best suit you. Make sure you turn up to these prepared with any burning questions as you aren’t supposed to email lecturers with personal assignment issues frequently.

So there you go, I hope this helps! Please write any questions you may have about University and I’ll try and follow up with a blog as soon as I can.