Classes & Grades

There are two components to your study schedule: formal contact time which is made up of is made up of lectures, tutorials and practicals and non-contact time, your private study time.

To successfully pass your courses, you will need to allocate an appropriate time commitment to your study and achieve minimum grades.  

Lectures

Lecture class sizes – especially in first year courses – may be very large. You are expected to listen carefully and take notes with little guidance from the lecturer in identifying what should be recorded – learning to take good notes may be a new skill.

Lectures usually run for 50 minutes - though some last up to two hours - and all lectures start at ten minutes past the hour. If you are sick or have a genuine reason for missing the lecture, see your lecturer to catch up. Some lectures are audio or video streamed and can be downloaded from MyUni.

Tutorials

Tutorials are small discussion groups of students lead by a tutor. You are usually required to attend one tutorial per week for each course. Weekly assignments are often set and may involve a presentation to the group, a written exercise or participation in group discussion. Attendance at tutorials is usually recorded, especially where tutorial participation forms part of the course assessment. Check your course outline or with your Faculty or School about the rules relating to the tutes in your particular course.

Practicals

Some academic programs have practical classes of up to three hours duration. This is common in science-based and language courses. Practicals are very hands-on sessions usually in small classes.

Non-contact time

Non-contact time is time not scheduled but is still very important! Your non-contact time is where you read, research, revise, write, speak to your lecturer/tutor or have informal discussions with other students. Joining or starting your own study group will make this time more enjoyable. Information on studying with friends can be found at the Counselling Service.

While the relative proportion of contact and non-contact time may vary, a full-time student should expect to spend, on average, a total of 48 hours per week (or 12 hours per course) on their studies during semesters.

Grades

At the beginning of each course your lecturer will discuss assessment requirements with you, which may include continuous assessments (written work, tests, class participation) and/or a final exam.

University students are expected to assess and critically think about issues and to evaluate different sources of information from a critical perspective. For many students this is another new skill. If you experience difficulties, take time to talk to your tutors/lecturers to find out where you can improve.

For more information on results and grades visit Course Results.