Workshops
Below is a list of the workshops we run along with the notes for each session. If there are any workshops which are not listed which you think would be of use to students, please let us know.
Exams
Essay-Based Exam Questions
| Course Content: | This workshop reviews ways to revise for essay exams and steps for structuring answers. We will also explore strategies for tackling worries, increasing confidence and being at your performance best. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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Get Ready the Exams are Coming
| Course Content: | This workshop helps to identify exam difficulties or concerns and explores strategies for dealing with them. It reviews exam taking techniques to improve performance. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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Improve your Exam Performance
| Course Content: | This workshop helps to identify exam difficulties or concerns and explores strategies for dealing with them. It reviews exam taking techniques to improve performance. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
| Handouts |  Exam Taking Strategies - (MS Word 110 kB)  Exam Taking Strategies- (MS PowerPoint 6 MB) |
Last-minute peformance preparation
| Course Content: | This workshop focuses on avoiding common mistakes in the exam room and explores exam-taking strategies. We will discuss exam concerns and ways to perform at your personal best to make the most of what you know. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
| Handouts | Last Minute Exam Preparation - (MS PowerPoint 3 MB) |
Overcoming Exam Nerves
| Course Content: | This workshop looks at ways to establish control in the exam room, stay focused and build confidence. We will also discuss techniques for handling performance anxiety. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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Preparation for Objective Exams (Science)
| Course Content: | This workshop reviews ways to revise for objective and problem-solving exams. We will also discuss exam taking strategies and ways to perform at your personal best. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and Unseen Exam Questions
| Course Content: | This workshop covers strategies for preparing for MCQs. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
| Handouts |
Postgraduate Experience
Settling into your Post-graduate Study
| Course Content: | This workshop looks at the challenges that postgraduate students face. It explores the supervision process, self-evaluation, gaining peer support and how to find out more about requirements. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
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Planning & Managing your PhD
| Course Content: | This interactive session breaks the tasks and stages of completing a PhD into identifiable and manageable “chunks”. It covers the challenges and useful supports at each stage with emphasis placed on structured and cumulative writing from the beginning. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
| Handouts |
Viva Preparation
| Course Content: | This workshop aims to prepare students who will be facing a viva examination in the months ahead. WE will focus on ways to prepare, including writing and answering questions as well as managing nerves. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
| Handouts | Viva Preparation - (MS PowerPoint 331 kB)
Viva References- (MS Word 37 kB) |
Presentations
Presentation Skills
| Course Content: | This workshop covers ways to structure oral presentations and strategies for effective delivery including handling anxiety. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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Self-Management
Concentration and Procrastination
| Course Content: | This workshop looks at strategies for controlling distractions, overcoming procrastination and increasing motivation. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
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Get Active
| Course Content: | This workshop explores strategies for better learning and understanding. Learn about how to read more effectively and how to make better notes. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
Get Organised - Time Management
| Course Content: | This workshop focuses on learning ways to cope with the workload and manage your life at university. Explore techniques for time management and building self-discipline. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
| Handout | Time Management Strategies- (MS Word 110 kB) Get Organised - (MS PowerPoint 187kB) |
Managing Groupwork
| Course Content: | Groupwork can often be perceived as a daunting task because students are unfamiliar with “the rules of the game”. This session aims to provide students with a plan for structuring and managing the processes of groupwork in college. It focuses on practical strategies for creating group ground rules, making meetings work, dealing with conflict, and ensuring quality output. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
| Handout | Managing Groupwork Handout- (MS Word 403 kB) Managing Groupwork - (MS PowerPoint 2.3 |
Study Skills
Developing Critical Arguments
| Course Content: | This workshop looks at what’s involved in critical writing including strategies to help communicate your ideas and provide logical flow to your writing. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
| Handouts | Developing Critical Arguments - (MS PowerPoint 190 kB) Writing Samples- (MS Word 26 kB) Tips for developing argument- (MS Word 24 kB)
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Effective Studying
| Course Content: | This workshop offers mature students the opportunity to discuss study concerns and to explore ways to manage and study more effectively. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
| Handout | Effective Studying - (MS PowerPoint 11 MB) |
Effective Studying for Mature Students
| Course Content: | This workshop offers mature students the opportunity to discuss study concerns and to explore ways to manage and study more effectively. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
Systematic Approaches to Literature Reviewing
| Course Content: | This practical workshop explains the systematic review process as a literature review technique. Used in a growing number of disciplinary fields for evidence-based decision making, we’ll explore how the technique can be used or adapted more widely as a methodology for literature reviewing within a dissertation or thesis framework. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
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Writing
Citing and Referencing Academic Literature
| Course Content: | Referencing your sources is essential to good essay writing. This workshop provides the basics of why and how. |
| Who? | Undergraduates /Postgraduates |
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Critical Writing
| Course Content: | This workshop explores the academic writing process, ways to build an argument into your writing and the use of evidence. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
| Handouts |
Essay Writing (Undergraduates)
| Course Content: | This workshop examines the steps involved in writing and structuring essays – from planning your time and understanding the question to writing the first draft and doing references. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
| Handouts: |
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Essay Writing (Postgraduates)
| Course Content: | This workshop examines the steps involved in writing and structuring essays – from planning your time and understanding the question to writing the first draft and doing references. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
| Handouts: |
Essay Writing for Mature Students
| Course Content: | This workshop is similar to Writing Essays but with the needs of mature students in mind, it provides the opportunity to discuss issues regarding writing essays. |
| Who? | Undergraduates |
Thesis Writing
| Course Content: | Getting started and maintaining the writing of a thesis sometimes seems an overwhelming task. This session offers practical guidance to help students undertake this task. The workshop explores some of the blocks that prevent writing and try to identify some possible solutions and approaches. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
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Thesis Writing for Arts/Humanities - based PGs
| Course Content: | Getting started and maintaining the writing of a thesis sometimes seems an overwhelming task. This session offers practical guidance to help students undertake this task. The workshop explores some of the blocks that prevent writing and try to identify some possible solutions and approaches. |
| Who? | Postgraduates |
Writing Scientific Reports
| Course Content: | This workshop looks at the structure, typical content and writing process for general science reports. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
| Handouts |
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Writing Academic Papers
| Course Content: | This workshop covers writing an academic paper from start to submission. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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Writing Paragraphs
| Course Content: | How to build your writing from paragraphs upwards. |
| Who? | Undergraduates / Postgraduates |
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