Overview

Teaching

The First Year teaching programme is made up of lectures, standard tutorials, small-group tutorials and laboratory sessions. These are normally held between the hours of 09.00 and 18.00. Wednesday afternoons from 13.00 are left free to allow you to take part in sports and other Student Union activities.

Lectures

Most modules are taught at a rate of 1-3 lectures per week. Their purpose is to convey core subject material. A summary of who teaches which module, and when, can be found by looking at your timetable.

Standard Tutorials

  • Some modules have associated standard tutorial sessions, during which exercises are worked on in the presence of tutorial helpers.
  • For these tutorials the class may be split between different rooms, according to the circumstances.
  • The number of tutorials for a module will be about half the number of its lectures.
  • There will be approximately one tutorial helper per 25 students.
  • The tutorials are typically for unassessed work, but are sometimes used for assessed mini-tests.

Small-Group Tutorials (PPTs and PMTs)

  • A small-group tutorial typically comprises 8 students, a tutor and an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA).
  • Each tutorial is normally held in the tutor's office.
  • In most weeks of the Autumn and Spring terms, you will have two such tutorials:
    • One with your Personalised Programming Tutor (PPT) with their UTA
    • One with your Personalised Mathematics Tutor (PMT) with their UTA
  • Your PPT or their UTA marks your labwork exercises, and
  • Your PMT or their UTA marks your exercises for the Logic, Reasoning about Programs and Discrete Mathematics modules (but not Calculus/Linear Algebra).
  • The marked work is returned to you in the tutorials and discussed with you. Feedback is quite rapid, helping both you and us to monitor your progress.
  • Either your PPT or your PMT will also be your Personal Tutor (PT) throughout your degree programme.

Laboratory Programme

The laboratory work programme provides integrated support to the other modules. Besides the labwork exercises relating to these modules, it includes hardware experiments and tuition on the use of hardware and software resources.

Your labwork assignments will be marked, but the marks will not count towards the formal assessment of this first year of your degree. Nevertheless, it is expected that you submit all of them.

The laboratory work is a substantial and compulsory part of the First Year programme. It is essential that you attempt all the exercises and attend the tutorials regularly. Its PPT exercises have no pass requirement and these marks will not count in the overall assessment.

Personal Tutoring

Your Personal Tutor (PT) is assigned to you throughout the three or four years of your degree programme. The role of the PT is to provide pastoral care, and you should take advantage of this if some personal problem arises that might impact upon your academic progress here. Even if the PT cannot resolve the problem, he or she can point you to other staff who perhaps can resolve it.

Do not endure problems in isolation - we are here to help you in every way that we can.

Your PT will also be either your PPT or PMT during the first year. Therefore, you should come to know your PT well enough to feel able to discuss problems you may be having. Your PT will also be your primary source of references when you apply later on for positions in employment, or on further courses.