If you have been successful as an undergraduate, then you will know most of the things that are needed to be successful in a taught postgraduate course.
Some are very obvious:
• Organise your time well.
• Attend all of the taught sessions, classes and tutorials.
• Do all the exercises and tasks that are required of you by the course tutor.
• Meet all the deadlines for completing and submitting work.
• Keep good notes and records of the work that you do, so you can use them again later. This includes good lecture notes and notes from seminars and workshops.
• Ask for the help of tutors and fellow students if there are things you find hard or do not understand.
There are a number of other approaches, though, which are important if you are going to be successful, and which may be a little different from your experiences at undergraduate level.
First, get involved and participate actively in the programme. You will be expected to contribute and not simply to sit, watch and listen. Ask questions in seminars, add your ideas and views to discussions.
Secondly, be critical – which does not mean being negative. In academic study being critical means thinking carefully about ideas that you come across and deciding whether they are right, wrong, valid or not. As a starting point, it is helpful to use a set of critical questions whenever you come across a new idea or the findings of a new piece of research:
• What is the evidence for this idea or conclusion, or is it just somebody’s conjecture?
• If there is evidence, has it been collected and analysed in a valid and reliable way?
• Is there enough evidence to allow these conclusions to be drawn?
• Does the evidence support the conclusions, or are other interpretations of the evidence possible?
• How does this idea or conclusion compare with other or previous ideas on this topic? If it is different, why is this, and does this make sense?
• Does this idea or conclusion match what I would expect from my own knowledge or experience? If not, why not?
• Does this idea or conclusion help explain or interpret other situations?
Thirdly, read and discuss as much as you can. These are the two main parts of being a postgraduate student. As an undergraduate you may have had short reading lists for courses, and you were only expected to read a few of the items on the list. At postgraduate level you should try to read as much as you can, and even go beyond the reading lists on topics that really interest you. You should expect to spend a lot of your time reading, whatever your subject area. Discussion is just as important, since this allows you to test your ideas, hear the views of others, discover ideas that are new. Discuss different views in seminars, exchange opinions over coffee and lunch, talk about ideas in the pub in the evening. Remember that your fellow students and your teaching staff are some of the best thinkers in your field, so you should learn from them (and contribute to their learning!).
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