Computer Science at Oxford
A typical week at Oxford
From Computer Science at Oxford
At first, university is likely to seem very different from school. At school, you will be used to learning in a way that is directed by your teachers, getting new information in lessons and consolidating it by working through examples in class and at home. As an undergraduate student, you will find that you are very much more in charge of combining various resources to reach your own understanding of what you need to know, although there will be a great deal of support from your tutor in college and from the Computing Laboratory.
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Lectures
The teaching is structured around lecture courses, and in a typical term you might be studying four or five courses. The lectures themselves will be given by a member of staff at the Computing Laboratory (or Mathematical Institute or Faculty of Philosophy.) Each lecture course is given by an expert in the relevant area, who will explain about the subject, and help you to discover the important and exciting aspects of it. They will also work through some examples, helping you to understand various features and procedures.
The lectures are held in various places, including the Computing Laboratory and Mathematical Institute building, and sometimes lecture rooms in the Natural History Museum – passing the dinosaur fossils on the way in! No register is taken in lectures, so it is entirely your responsibility (with a bit of help from your tutor and other students) to find from the lecture list where and when the lecture will be held and to turn up at the right time.
Lectures are a very important and helpful way of learning new material, but the information is usually available in a more condensed form in books. Each lecturer will recommend one or more books for you to study alongside the lectures, and usually your college will either lend or give you copies of the books that you need.
Tutorials
The lectures are closely tied to the tutorial work you will do, and usually the lecturer will prepare a series of problem sheets that form the basis for tutorials. You are not expected to be able to do all the problems on each sheet, but you should give them your very best attempt. Your tutor will meet with you about twice a week for tutorials. During this hour you will discuss the work you have done, the questions you struggled with, and the elements of the course that interest you most. Tutorials normally involve a tutor and a pair of students, so you will get very close attention, and the tutorial discussion will focus on the issues that you want to discuss. The amount of preparation needed for each tutorial varies, but you should expect to spend an average of about 8 hours for each tutorial in reading notes and books and attempting the problems. During the second and third years of the course you are able to choose more specialist options. There will still be lecture courses on this material, but weekly work is often discussed in small classes, taught by someone with this particular specialism.
Practicals
Practicals are another important part of the Computer Science course. They don't count towards your degree result as such, but you need to complete them in order to pass. They are held in a lab in the Thom Building where there is a computer for each student. Thus, although it is quite useful to have your own computer in your college room, it is by no means essential. In any case it is still important to attend the lab sessions, because there are demonstrators at each sessions to help you with technical difficulties, and also to check that the work is completed. Practicals are a helpful means of learning more about a topic - and always very interesting. You can find out more about some of the practical work you will do by looking at these demonstration programs.
Project
For the first time in 2011 second year students will carry out a group practical. This group work will bring together all the programming skills students have acquired so far, as well as developing project management and team working skills. Several external companies (such as IBM) will be involved in various ways such as offering support and advice, providing equipment, and sponsoring prizes.
In the third year of the Computer Science degree, and in the optional fourth year, you will be able to do a project, often involving the development of a substantial computer program of your own. Each year there is a list of projects that have been proposed by members of staff who offer to supervise them; alternatively, you can suggest your own project, provided there is a member of staff who can supervise it. Many students find that the project is one of the most fulfilling parts of the course, and devote a big fraction of their time in the final year to it. Apart from anything else, interesting project work is an excellent way to impress potential employers when you apply for jobs. Another page on this site lists some of the projects that have been done by our students recently.
There are many different opportunities for learning at Oxford, both within your subject and outside it. It is important to make good use of them. The amount of time you spend preparing for tutorials and classes, and reading over your lecture notes is entirely up to you, although the old adage is certainly true: the more you put in, the more you get out!
