Transcript

Section 3.

You will hear three geology students, Andy, Bob and Helen, talking about forming a study syndicate for their forthcoming examinations.

Right then, are we ready? Bob? Helen?

Uh, yeah.

And is someone taking notes for John? He’s at a tutorial, isn’t he?

Yeah, I’ll let him know what we agree.

Good.
OK, well, first thing is, has anyone apart from me actually been in a study syndicate before?

No.

What does it actually involve, Andy?

Well the idea is that it’s a way for us students to study together without a teacher.

Oh yeah, right.

When I did it last time I found it helpful because, well, as I said, there’s no teacher so it means we’re teaching one another and I found I really learned a lot through having to teach it myself.
It seemed a very good way to learn.

And presumably it gives us the chance to share ideas as well.
And you get fuller notes if you’re all doing the reading.

That’s right, and as well as that, because of that really, you can do much deeper research.

So I thought we could try to revise what we’ve done on the geology course, because I know this is the one that most of us are worried about, the geology exam.

Oh, yes.

So the idea is we all look at a different topic from the geology course and then give a presentation and talk about it.

That’s right.
I’ve drawn up the framework of a table, which might be useful. Here, I’ve made a copy.

Oh, thanks.

For the first topic, I thought we could maybe do mountain building. Is that alright?

Yeah, sure.

Actually, would you mind if I did that? I’m quite interested in it.

Right.
So is May 9th okay for that?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I’ll just write that down and it’s Bob for mountain building and the following week. It can’t be May 16th because of our tutorial, but what about the 17th?

Okay.

And what about the next topic? What would be the next priority?

Well, there’s glaciated areas, but I don’t want to do that.

Fair enough.

Actually, I don’t mind having a bash. I did an assignment on them.

Glaciated areas, Andy.
Then we need someone to do rock formation. Helen?

Yeah, okay.
And John said he’d like to too, so you can put us both down for that.

When?

May 23rd would be best.

Rock Formation, Helen and John, right.

That really only leaves one week before the exams.
Shall we make it on the 30th?

Uh, I can’t make it, I’m afraid.

29th of May?
The exam’s on June 3rd?

Have to be, okay.

Any ideas for this topic?

Uh, John said he wouldn’t mind doing something on volcanoes.

Great, that’s everyone then.

And how long should these presentations be?

Well, it’s obviously up to us.
In my experience, 30 minutes is about enough.

Mmm, maybe a bit short.
I’d have thought 40 minutes would be more like it.

Well, should we say 30 to 40 minutes?

OK, and presumably time for questions.

And discussion.

Yes, together they usually take about 20 minutes.

Where should we get the information from? Is it mainly lecture notes?

Well, actually I suggest we avoid those because we already have all that information.
I think it’s better to go more deeply.
We could use the bibliography.
And anything else we find in the library, any other books.
Hmm and articles, you know from the journals.
And then, of course, there’s lots of stuff on the internet.

Yes, that’s the sort of thing.

And what about the presentations? Will we just be talking?

Presumably we can’t use slides.

It’d be a bit difficult, but we can use the OHP.
And the whiteboard, of course.
And we can make photocopies of our notes, so everyone can have a copy.

Yes, great.
So, we… Or is there anything else?