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Since many of you are planning to study at a college or university in this country, you may be curious to know what a typical college course is like. What can you expect to do in a typical week? How many exams will you have? Will you have to do a lot of writing? What should you do if you have any problems? These are the questions I want to discuss with you today.
    First let’s talk about what your weekly schedule will look like. If you’re an undergraduate in any field or major, you can expect to spend between four and six hours a week for each class attending lectures, no matter what your major may be. Lectures are usually in very large rooms because undergraduate courses such as introduction to psychology or economics often have as many as two or three hundred students, especially at large universities. In lectures, it’s very important for you to take notes on what the professor says because the information in a lecture is often different from the information in your textbooks. Also, you can expect to have exam questions based on the lectures. So it isn’t enough to just read your textbooks; you have to attend lectures as well. In a typical week you will also have one or two hours of discussion for every class you take. The discussion section is a small group meeting, usually with fewer than thirty students, where you can ask questions about the lectures, the reading, and the homework. In large universities, graduate students, called teaching assistants or T.A.s, usually conduct discussion sections.
    If your major is chemistry, or physics, or another science, you will also have to spend several hours a week in a lab, or laboratory, doing experiments. This means that science majors spend more time in the classroom than non-science majors do. On the other hand, people who major in subjects like literature or anthropology usually have to read and write more than science majors do.
    Now I’d like to go on and say a few words about examinations. Most university courses have at least two exams: one in the middle of the quarter, called a midterm, and one at the end, called the final exam. Most courses also have occasional quizzes, which are small tests given every week or two. There are two basic types of exam questions. There are object questions, such as multiple choice, true/false, matching, or filling in the blanks, and essay questions, where you must write an essay or a composition in response to a question. Most exams are a combination of essay and object questions.
    In some courses, especially in non-science ones, you might also have to write a research paper. A research paper is a writing project in which you choose a topic related to the course, go to the library, read several articles and books on the topic, take notes, and then write a paper about what you have read. You can see that the ability to write is extremely important in American universities.
    The final point that I want to cover today is what you should do if you need help in a particular class. If you’re having a problem, you should make an appointment to see your instructor immediately. Don’t be shy! Instructors plan to spend a certain amount of time each week with the students. They see the students in their offices during office hours. Instructors will almost always announce their office hours at the first class meeting. You can also can’t go to his or her regular office hours. I might add that it’s a good idea to make an appointment to see your instructor even if you don’t have a particular problem. That way it will be easier if you need special help later on.
    So far I’ve talked about college courses structure, about exams, about research papers, and about getting help if you need it. Let’s stop here and see if there are any questions.