Tutorials and Lectures

Your college experiences will generally be divided up between tutorials and lectures. These are similar to your classes in secondary school.

In general, while Lectures have more in common with your average classroom setting , a tutorial is usually closer in nature to a ‘grind’ class. They are usually more interactive than a lecture.

Tutorials are vitally important to your third level learning experience. They are the classes that give you the hands on knowledge of your chosen subject matter and they are also the time where you get to have a greater level of participation and interaction with your classmates and your Tutors. It is always of vital importance that you attend all of your college tutorials because this is where some of the most intiricate and delicate subject matter will be handled in your college course.

lectures tend to be different in that they have very little class participation. Usually they take place in a lecture hall with many other students, and will require you to be very focused on the proceedings. Notes are usually taken and in general, questions are kept until after the lecture ends.

These are also extremely important as this is where the bulk of the content of your course will be covered and missing one lecture can mean missing an awful lot of learning.

Depending on what type of course you are doing there might also be other types of classes that you will need to attend. Science courses usually have labs, art courses will have practical calsses and sports based courses will have classes of activity. Many courses have a practical element to the course as well as just written and book learning.

It is so important to remember that while one particular type of class might be your favourite all are equally important. Attending all of the lectures but missing all of the practicals will mean that you fail the year. Make sure you attend all of the course classes and you will ensure that you get the best possible grades in your chosen college course.