1、如何准备英国的大学为什么会这样？其实很容易理解，我们发现是繁重的课业把他们打垮了。无论你的英文有多好（不如说你的雅思成绩有多高！）头脑多聪明，由于英国教学机构的硕士课程较短，让学生无法在课程结束的时候感觉自己做得足够好。尤其经我们的研究证实，课程下半部分开始出现了众多论文、课题和项目，其中包含了大量的阅读并需要运用各种研究方法，这些课业对于我们所调查的学生中 40%以上都过于繁重。其次，要努力拿下主要为大学硕士点首个学位的延伸学习而编写的课程，以及适应学习环境的巨大改变从读本科的轻松环境到充满了孤独枯燥的研究或教学的硕士攻读环境。而且还是在一个陌生的国度，没有母亲帮你洗衣服，缺钱花的时候也没有
2、和善的亲戚帮你度过难关。一个方法是考虑在一个信誉良好的中心开设硕士预备课程。当我所在的公司涉足硕士预备课程业务，并将其作为正在蓬勃发展的 EF 大学准备预科部的附加课程时，我们很快发现我们需要提供一种完全不同的准备课程，从尝试和错误中总结而来，尽可能异于许多学生预期的传统老旧的第二语言课程。好的硕士预备课程较少关注如何让你入学，而是入学之后会发生什么。我们已经到达了一个阶段，我们几乎三分之二的课程与教学研究方法有关：至关重要的技能，如何有效利用排满了论文或提案编写等科目的课表上的时间空档。然后，在演讲技巧和具有挑战性的各种团队项目上占有很长的篇幅，这些都是为鼓励活跃的学术氛围而设计的，我相信我
3、们在这一点上做得非常出色。人们犹豫是否参加硕士课程有很多原因，而最常见的是需要额外的时间以及大学预备课程往往不是获得硕士学位的必要条件。我的写作伙伴和我把学生申请大学时做的调查问卷与他们硕士课程结束时做的调查问卷进行了比较。我们热衷于研究学生在申请进程之初主要关心的事项。对我们疑问的回答千篇一律，不是一个单词而是令人生畏的缩写 IELTS。我们抽样调查的学生最担忧的是入学，而很少有人关心入学之后发生的事。比较而言，两年之后我们再与同样的学生交谈，他们即将完成硕士课程，此时对于他们所关心的问题的回答有所分歧，主要表现在阅读技巧和时间管理方面。尽管人各有异，但事后他们都意识到当时应该更努力地训练自
4、己为即将学习的课程作准备。因此，如果你们中有人想在英国读硕士，一定要尽可能多花时间去看课程内容。我告诉我所有硕士预备学生，不要只看入学要求，而是深入研究课程本身。试着想象自己正在学习这门课程，或者甚至已经学了一半。能看见自己在那儿吗？如果你有所疑虑，那就早点来英国参加硕士预备课程。至少你可以慢慢适应这里的天气，奇怪的饮食习惯以及公共交通。来这儿的一大优势是有时间逛街购物，四处参观，在确定具体攻读某个学位之前和许多人交谈。选择一个好的硕士预备课程，您将在开始攻读学位之初，就获得全方位的指导，做好充分的准备，对于教学形式、导师要求和期望具有全面的了解，而且最重要的是，你将拥有在大学里赢得一片天地的
5、自信，并带着这份自信步入你的研究生班。Mick Davies 是 EF 大学预备部的高级大学直通经理，在过去的 10 年内一直从事大学预备课程的开发，并把许多海外学生送入大学殿堂。 How to Prepare for University in the UKWhy is this? Well understandably really, we found the work load is what overwhelms them. It doesnt matter how good your English is (or how good your IELTS score tells you
6、 it is!) or how amazingly smart you are, the shorter time allowed for completing your masters degree at a UK institution is just not long enough to give students time to really feel they have done enough by the end.In particular we learnt in our study that the burden of a massive dissertation, thesi
7、s or project begun second half of the course, with the huge quantity of reading and the variety of research methods required proved too much for over 40% of the students we surveyed.Added to this there are the secondary issues of firstly trying to engage with courses which are largely written as ext
8、ensions of first degrees at the universities where the masters take place, then secondly the problems encountered in making a massive leap from one learning environment - the cozy world of the undergraduate degree - to another, the largely solitary and bookish world of a research or taught masters p
9、rogramme. All this in a new country where there is no mum to do your washing, nor a kindly and sympathetic relative to help you out when you run short of money.One answer is to consider a pre masters course at a good and reputable centre. When the company I work for got into the business of offering
10、 pre masters courses as an adjunct to the thriving Foundation Year arm of EF University Preparation, we quickly found that we needed to provide a very different kind of preparation, and the course that has evolved through trial and error is as different as it could possibly be from the traditional o
11、ld second language course that many students expect it to be.A good Pre Masters Diploma is one that worries less about getting you in, and instead concerns itself with what happens when you get there. We have arrived at a stage where nearly two thirds of our course is concerned with teaching researc
12、h methods: vital skills like critical thinking jostle for space on the timetable with subjects like dissertation or proposal development.Then there are the lengthy sessions on presentation skills and the challenging and varied team projects. All are designed to foster an active and robust approach t
13、o academic tasks, and I really believe we do that well here.People hesitate to join a masters course for many reasons, the most common objections are the amount of extra time and that a pre university course is often not a condition of entry to a masters degree.My writing partner and I compared the
14、questionnaires we conducted at the point where students were applying for university with those conducted at the end of their Masters programmes. We were keen to learn what the main concerns for students were at the beginning of their application process.The almost invariable response to our query w
15、as not even a word but the dreaded acronym C IELTS. The largest concern for our sample group was getting into university and very few had considered what would happen afterwards.By comparison, the same students we talked to two years later, as soon to finish masters students, were a little more divi
16、ded in their responses to questions about their concerns, largely between reading skills and time management. As with so many things with human beings, hindsight told them that they should have worked much harder at training and readying themselves for the course.So, if any of you are considering a
17、masters degree in the UK, please make sure you devote as much time as you can to looking at the course content. I tell all my pre masters students to try to look beyond the entry requirements and into the course itself. Try to imagine yourself on the course, or even better halfway through it.Can you
18、 see yourself there? If you have any doubts, make sure you come to the UK early and do a pre masters course. At the very least you will feel at home with the weather, the strange eating habits and the public transport.A huge advantage of being here is that you will have time to shop around, visit pl
19、aces and talk to lots of people before you commit yourself to a specific degree.Choose a good pre masters course you will start your graduate degree feeling fully guided fully prepared, entirely knowledgeable about the teaching styles, your tutors requirements and expectations, and most of all, you
20、will walk into your first seminar confident that you have earned your place in that university.Mick Davies is the Senior University Pathways Manager for EF University Preparation, and has been developing pre university courses and sending overseas students to universities around the world for the last 10 years.
