Nottingham.ac.uk/philosophy

Studying philosophy at Nottingham is unlike any other educational experience you will have encountered. The course is very demanding, and there are many new concepts and ideas that you will be exposed to; don’t worry we are here to support you.

We’re sure you won’t be able to work the same way that you did before university and we’ve found that students often find the transition to university challenging. You’ll need to develop new ways of doing things.

The following information on this leaflet will help you on your way. The most important bit of advice we can give you is not to be afraid to ask!

Study Skills for Philosophy Students by Philosophy Students

The following reflection from a third year philosophy student outlines how she successfully adapted to the philosophy course. This is followed by tips and advice from philosophy students in their own words...

Coming into first year I had three main feelings surrounding studying at university. First, that I was really excited to have the opportunity to do it; second, that I was nervous it would be a huge leap from school, and third (and this one was the most dominant), that I had absolutely no idea what I was meant to be doing. I may be alone in these feelings, but I suspect that I’m not, so I’m going to tell you how I managed to adapt to the academic side of university life.

In the start of my first year I found myself looking at the reading lists of the modules I was taking and wondering how I was ever going to get it all done! So I would go to the library, take out all of the recommended books and take them back to my room (with great difficulty, hugely wishing that I owned some sort of shopping trolley to carry them all in). In a caffeine-fuelled, long study session, I would desperately skim read as many of them as I possibly could. This probably sounds ridiculous; as it should, because this was just about the worst way that I could have gone about getting my work done. After a week of doing this, I went to speak to my personal tutor (an absolutely invaluable resource that will be available to you) and she explained that this really was not necessary. While it is important to do the compulsory reading, and to read around the topics you are studying as much as you can, it is not possible to read absolutely everything. It is far more important and valuable to read and understand a handful of articles or books than it is to skim read everything: quality over quantity!

After that, I came across my second hurdle: how to take useful and effective lecture notes. I started off as I think most people do, taking a pen and some paper and scribbling down anything/everything that looked like it would be useful. I must say at this point that I still know lots of people that use

this method, and it works very well for them, but I found that for me it wasn’t working out. I would find myself writing down what was written on the lecture slides and as a result missing a lot of what the lecturer was saying. After realising this, I started either taking my laptop to the lecture with the lecture slides downloaded in advance, or printing the slides off before the lecture and writing down the useful things that were being said on the slides themselves. This is still the method that I use, and it hasn’t failed me yet!

The last main thing I found that I needed to adapt to in terms of the academic side of university life was learning how to revise effectively. My advice for this is simple. Plan well in advance and make yourself a realistic timetable. Leave yourself plenty of time before each exam and timetable in a manageable amount of revision to do each day. That way, you’ll know you’re being productive, be able to track your own progress, and not have to feel at all guilty for stopping work at the end of the day, because you’ll know you’ve done what you were meant to do.

Those are my three main tips for adapting to university work, but that is just the way that worked best for me. Ultimately, everyone will find his or her own way of doing things that is really effective and works for them, and may be completely different to how I’ve done things. So good luck finding your own way of working effectively, and enjoy your time at Nottingham!

Boo Jackson (3rd Year Philosophy BA)

Key tips from Philosophy students

GET ORGANISED

GETTING YOUR WORK DONE

MAKING THE MOST OF

LECTURES & SEMINARS

• Either read everything at the weekend

or pace it out. DON’T leave it to the day

before your next seminar.

• Take notes and look over them after each

lecture.• Go to all lectures then summarise

afterwards.• If you miss a lecture, catch up as soon as

possible, not at the end of the month.

• Record lectures.

• Go through each lecture after each lecture

while it’s still fresh in your mind.

• Make notes during your lecture, so when

you come to revise it will be easier as

the lecture slides may not have enough

information.

• Review your notes as you go along. It cuts down on revision in the long run. Also, do seminar reading! • Plan your essays thoroughly and well in

advance of the deadline. It makes the writing of it so much easier! • Get as much information as

possible, then condense it as much as you can. Removing what is not relevant and adding what is unique of your own

• Do your essays on time!! Plan well ahead, like as soon as you enter uni you should be planning your whole year

• Get some form of daily planner - if

you don’t schedule it, it’s not real!

• Time management is essential.

• Get a diary - be organised.

• Using post it notes as little to-do

lists help a lot! Put them on every

surface!

• Plan your revision sessions. A

timetable is useful for this.

HELP WITH READING AND ESSAY WRITING

• Keep up with the reading/work or it may become too hard to catch up!

• Make sure you read the seminar readings.• Don’t do your essays the night before.• Start your coursework as early as possible. You won’t

regret it when the deadline arrives! • Trick yourself that your essay deadline is earlier than

it is so you can get it done/checked well in advance. • Figure out which essay question you want to do early

on. That way you have more time to do the readings• Take notes from all the books you read for essays and

put the page numbers in the margin and write the bibliography first.

• Make full use of information in Philosophical journal collections in your essays - it’s easy to get hold of and shows great extended reading.

FIND NEW WAYS OF

WORKING

• Explain things out loud as if you were talking to

someone who understands nothing about Philosophy.

• There are a stupid amount of apps and programmes for

productivity. Choose what you are going to use as soon

as possible and get them working and integrated.

ASKING FOR HELP • Go and see a tutor if you need help on an

essay, rather than just guessing.

• Lecturers want to help you! If you need

help ask for it.• Being prepared for seminars is a massive

help.• Take advantage of lecturer’s drop in

hours. It’s the best resource you have at

university.• Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you

need it, both academically and personally.