Now that we are over half way through the Lent term, deadlines again begin to loom and the pressure of multiple assignments due in for the last week of term begins to take hold. With this in mind, most students commence the job of multitasking; keeping up to date with lecture and seminar material is essential so as not to fall behind with course content that is examinable in the Summer term, but assignments must also be completed alongside this.

I thought I would take the opportunity to blog about assignments and exams at Lancaster this week, as it presents itself as a topical theme. In the first year, undergraduates are required to submit a written assignment (usually ranging from 1500 words to 2000 words) for every subject module they undertake. For Philosophy, the compulsory PHIL100 course is split up into many sub modules, such as Berkeley’s idealism, critical thinking, free will, ethics based modules and the philosophy of capitalism (although these modules often vary from year to year). Mostly, students find these assignments doable as they are evenly spaced out throughout the Michaelmas and Lent terms, with deadlines falling in the week when one module finishes and another starts.

The organisational structure of exams at Lancaster University is often praised by PPR students due to its lack of January exams (this is the case in the PPR department, although not necessarily in other departments). This allows students the opportunity to really relax and enjoy the Christmas holidays without the constant niggling worry of revision. Of course, this leeway granted to the students is not without a price- the Summer exams hold a lot more weight as a consequence.

In the first year, there is only one Philosophy Summer exam, wherein students have to answer questions from three different philosophy modules. This has the major advantage of enabling effective selective revision practices: if there is a particular module that you struggled with and found particularly hard to grasp, then exam disaster can be mitigated by instead focussing on your areas of strength. Thoroughly revising 4 out of 6 modules should set you up to receive a high mark.

In the following year, students have to take a minimum of 8 modules per year. Each module requires a submitted assignment as coursework (usually 2500 words per module) as well as its own Summer exam. In the third year, the same setup applies, but assignments usually have higher word limits of 3000 words and the Summer exams are longer and require greater depth of understanding. In addition to this, a dissertation unit (and half dissertation `special subject` units) can be taken which requires the student to submit a 10000 word dissertation (5000 words for the special subject dissertations) and does not include an exam. Many students opt for this choice as it relieves some of the stress of the final exams, knowing that you have less to be examined on and may already have a 2:1 or 1:1 in a whole unit before you commence exam season.