Taking Classes in the UK

Differences I experienced as a student from the US

Coming from attending college in the US I was extra aware of the differences I was experiencing taking classes in the UK. Of course I can't speak for everyone, I know that not all colleges in the US are the same and even within my own college not all majors experience classes the same way. This is just my experience as a double major in Media and Society and Writing and Rhetoric from a small private liberal arts college in Geneva, NY.

Class three days a week

I only took three classes while I was abroad but they counted as four back home. I was enrolled in British Film through the decades, American Comics, and British Contemporary Fiction. My British film and comics class were both seminars once a week for three hours with a 10-15 minute break halfway through. Contemporary fiction consisted of an hour long lecture once a week that all the students from each section of the course would attend and the professors teaching each section of the course would rotate presenting the lectures. Additionally it consisted of a 2 hour long seminar where each small section would meet with their assigned professor separately as a small group, so I essentially had that class twice a week. I lucked out in the way that my schedule worked because I only had classes Monday-Wednesday which left me with ample time to explore Norwich and travel on my 4 day weekends. Not everyone was so lucky schedule wise but it seemed as though 3 hour long lectures once a week were the norm at least in my field of study.

The importance of independence

I think that the number one important skill to develop when taking classes in the UK is independence. The professors I had were all very approachable, helpful, and extremely knowledgable but they are there for you to seek out if you need help or have questions. I was assigned an advisor at UEA who I didn't feel the need to contact often but I did meet with her a few times for information about picking classes and grades as well as for guidance during the overwhelming overlap of finals and the global pandemic. She was very kind and was very helpful answering all of my questions. They gave out the syllabus for the semester on the first day with the schedule listing the assignments for each class. For each of my classes there was the important content to go over before class and then there were extra supplemental readings and resources listed. It was important to go over the important materials before class so that you would be prepared for the discussions in the small seminars. For British film I usually had a movie or two to watch before each class, for Comics there would be a comic book or a couple comics to read and go through, and for contemporary fiction there was a new book to read for class each week. If you weren't familiar enough with each resource then it was difficult to participate in the class discussion however, I did not experience professors calling anyone out for lack of participation or having not done the reading because it was our responsibility as students to prepare. The supplementary content assigned was a resource to help you learn more about the context, history or gain a better understanding of a concept in order to help students with understanding the more important assigned content. I rarely went over the supplemental resources until I was working my final papers at the end and I never experienced professors calling me or any of my classmates out for not having looked over it. What I did notice was a professor calling out the class as a whole for seemingly not being prepared because no-one was volunteering to speak during the discussion but it was never and individual call out. In class my professors were skilled at leading and facilitating the discussion but they were not reaching out to students outside of class to add any extra insights. If you had questions or needed an extension etc. it was your responsibility as a student to contact the professor yourself and set up a time to meet with them or communicate via email. Of course all my professors welcomed any questions or meetings if the student reached out. During covid professors seemed to check in more via email because we were not meeting face to face. When I reached out to them for guidance about my finals considering I was now in a different time zone and had just had a house fire which was stressing me out they were more than willing to meet with me virtually and give me feedback on writing I was working on.

One huge final at the end

This was perhaps the biggest difference in terms of taking classes in the UK and the thing that I both loved and hated. Throughout the semester I did not have homework assignments other than the reading and viewing of the content for the class discussions. Unlike my classes here I wasn't assigned weekly reading write ups, multiple essays throughout the semester, or midterm projects. In the States I'm used to my grades being made up of homework assignments, various essays, projects , participation, in addition to the final assignment. I was assigned a formative assignment in each class, meaning it was technically required and feedback was given, but it was not graded. For British film it was a proposal for the actual final research paper, contemporary fiction was a 2-3 page paper using one of the books as an example to answer a set prompt, and for comics it was a Pecha Kucha presentation about one specific comic strip of our choosing. For British film I only had the formative and the final research paper which because it was the only grade for the course was a lot of pressure and a lot of work to produce. For contemporary fiction my grade was based on a mid-semester paper and the final paper, having two graded assignments was less nerve-racking because it wasn't all or nothing, but having the weight of the grade fall on only two assignments still caused stress. My comics class felt the most structurally what I'm used to because we did have a participation grade, we had two graded creative comic drawing assignments, and the final paper, so my grade was made up of 4 things. I loved and hated this because on the one hand having almost zero graded assignments due throughout the semester gave me the most free time I've ever had in college and I used that time to travel and experience Norwich to fullest unlike my classes at home that have me working constantly on graded assignments every night leaving me with very little free time. On the other hand when it came time for me to write my final papers I was very anxious about having only 1-2 assignments make up the entirety of my grade. I'm leaning more towards liking it than hating because I was so grateful for the free time that I had and in the end I still passed all my classes.

Initial shock at the grading system

Another element to taking classes in the UK is that the grading system comes as quite a shock to students from the US like me who are used to grades in the 90s being As, grades in the 80s being Bs, grades in the 70s being Cs, etc. but in the UK it is extremely rare for students to receive grades in the 90s, an A+ are grades 80 and above, a B is 55-59, and a C is a 43-45. For an American to see they received a 55 on an assignment is very startling because we're used to that being a failing grade. It caught me off guard at first but once I understood how the grades worked and that they would be converted to the US scale once I returned home, I was put at ease and stopped worrying so much about grades.