Tips on Tackling University

Tips on tackling university by Adil Boughlala

How to handle all the courses

Every course you’ll get is different from the other, and that makes the studies very interesting. However, this also requires different ways of preparing for tests and/ or essays. For the first semester, I will give you some tips on how to tackle your first four courses.

History of the Western Arts 1

• The first part of a 4-part course, HotWA1 will introduce you to the classic art history and follows it. • For all of the HotWA exams, I found it very useful to take notes during the lectures, and at the end of the period, turn those notes into a chronological summary, divided by each discipline. That way, you can see the development of, let’s say, monophonic to polyphonic music in just one glance. • Don’t be discouraged if you can’t do all the reading, or if you feel like it takes you longer than what is expected of you! The base of the course is mostly discussed in the lectures and the literature helps you prepare for the lectures and understand them better. In a sense, this applies to most courses, but definitely not all! • Prepare for the seminars! Even if it’s just looking at the assignments and thinking about it. There is nothing more timewasting than attending a seminar of which you have no idea what it is about. Seminars are most effective when everyone tries to contribute something.

European Culture

• What I remember most about European Culture is that whatever I knew about Europe in advance, I should not take for granted. I challenge you to have an open, yet critical mindset during this course (actually, all courses)! • At first glance, the course might seem intimidating because it’s a two period course. But it’s still a 5EC course, just like HotWA. So in the end, you’ll probably put as much energy in this course as a single HotWA course, but you’ll have more time to do so. • Pay close attention to the lectures, because your exam will most likely feature points that were discussed in class. But that obviously doesn’t mean you get to disregard the literature.

Academic Skills

• In my opinion, one of the most important foundational courses in the first year! Everything you learn during this course, you will need for the rest of your academic career. From writing essays and citing sources to presenting in front of a crowd. • AcSki is probably the most practical and least theoretical course in your first year, so make sure to keep up with assignments that you are given! Practice makes perfect, especially since the feedback you’ll recieve is key to passing this course.

Image, Music and Text Analysis

• One of the two 10EC-courses you will have this year. And for a good reason; IMTA is basically a combination of three smaller courses, but in the end, it’s all about analysis. • Make sure you watch/listen to/read/understand all the examples that are given during class. They will not only help you as inspiration for essays, but chances are the examples will be referred to in the exams! • Since analysis is a combination of theory and the practical, be sure to practice your analysis skill and know all the theories! This will help you find patterns in analysis and become faster.

Overall

• Don’t be scared to answer or ask questions. Even though it’s mostly lectures you will get, it’s best to see them more as a conversation between you (the class) and the teacher. You will learn best if you interact with the teacher. Answer their question or ask questions when you don’t understand. You can even ask a teacher to slow down if they’re talking to fast (please do, cause teachers are humans as well). • The teachers are not just there for their paycheck and for you to look at them. They are there to help and teach you. If you struggle with an assignment, or you don’t understand a sentence you’ve written down during one of the lectures, you can always mail them or walk up to them. It’s best if you don’t do this a day before the exam though. You can also always ask a second-year or someone else in the study! We will always be here to help you (trust me, we’ve all been there). • Be sure to find your desired way of planning, because planning is essential! Trust me on this, you can’t do everything one day in advance and still expect to pass with flying colours. Sometimes it takes a bit more effort to get there.

Reading academic articles

• The best tip I can give is: keep reading. Practice makes key, so make sure you read plenty enough. Sure, reading takes time, but the more you read (including your study books), the faster and easier you’ll read. • You will find that some articles will be harder to read than others. Sometimes authors even reference other authors and their works or theories. Make sure you look up these works and get the gist of what the author is trying to make out. There is always a reason why someone else is being referenced. • Look up the words you don’t understand yet frequently see. This will help you better understand the article, and it will broaden your vocabulary, which will help with other sources. • Not every source will be useful to you. Make sure to always read the summary if it’s available, and start by scanning your article. After a more distant approach, you can decide whether it is necessary to read more. Then, you can do close reading, which is more focussed on the content. This way you don’t waste precious time reading articles that won’t benefit you, no matter how interesting it is.

How to find good academic sources

• Although Google is one of the best ways to find information (general definition), it’s not necessarily a great way to find actual academic sources, but you will learn this soon enough. Rather, use the resources that the university has given you access to; • The university library is filled with useful books from several studies of the Faculty of Arts. Sometimes you find even a book outside of our faculty will deem useful. To access the catalogue of the University Library, you go to www.ru.nl/ ubn • On here, you will also see a lot of e-sources, like e-books, journals and more. You can, of course, also use these! There are some databases that I prefer to use, because the university catalogue is sometimes a bit too broad a place to look for sources. You can try using JStor or Project Muse (or find your own preferred database!).