Prepare for Academic Success at University: Pre-Sessional English

Our guide prepares students for university success, including study skills, completing assignments and improving English proficiency.

The pre-sessional English course is a short course designed to help students prepare for university. It focuses on academic help, help with English proficiency, and also dealing with starting at university.

Academic Help

Our guide provides academic help for students beginning university that are new to complete university assignments . We offer tips and advice on everything from planning and researching to writing and formatting.

The first part of the course helps students learn the processes involved in successfully completing university assignments. There are several articles that explain a step-by-step guide for students. Here is a list of these stages and links to these articles:

To see all of the stages and links to the relevant articles, read the step-by-step guide to successfully writing a university assignment.

English proficiency

There are many levels of English ability, which is often referred to as English proficiency.

These are categorized by number (IELTS), letter & number (CEFR) and also terms ranging from beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper intermediate and the proficient levels such as expert.

It is important that you learn at the correct level, too low will result in a lack of improvement, too high and the learning will suffer because of the difficulty.

This course will focus on students starting university therefore will range from elementary to intermediate, which is the range that will benefit the most students.

Studying at the correct level of English proficiency is crucial for academic success. Our guide provides insights and resources to help students improve their language skills and meet the requirements of their programs.

Pre University

Before classes, students deal with the registration process. This initially focuses on what course and payments.

Once registration has started students will be given general information about the university and other details, then students are assigned an advisor, and then students are required to make decisions about what classes you want to registered for during the first semester.

Your advisor should be in the same area as your course and can help you with a range of issues covering academic matters, courses and classes, official things like withdrawing from courses, taking time out or even options like a year abroad.

The first semester will involve registering for general courses (GE- general education) and course-specific courses. The amount depends on the university but currently are at either 6 or 7 courses for the first semester.

First university classes

After registering for classes you will start your first lessons. These normally begin with an introduction to the course. In this lesson you will learn the following:

Course objectives – an overview of what you will earn
Course syllabus – the timetable of weekly lessons, exams, holidays, and the subject of each lesson
Course details – there are some rules at university, such as no plagiarism
Course grading – e.g. assignments (30%),midterm exam (30%),final exam(40%)

Course semester

A course semester is 15 weeks of lessons, normally two lessons per week of 90 minutes. An example of a syllabus length is as follows:

8 weeks lectures
1 week Reading week
1 week Mid term exams
7 weeks lectures
2 weeks final exams

This includes days university is closed for holiday, but not holiday breaks such as Christmas or Easter.

Reading week differs depending on the university. There is generally only one week before mid term exams, if at all, but they can exist before the fnal exams as well.

University grades

The standard grading system at university is as follows:

A: 80% or over
B+: 75% or over
B: 70% or over
C+: 65% or over
C: 60% or over
D+: 55% or over
D: 50% or over
F(ail): lower 50%

Vocabulary building

Building your vocabulary is an essential part of preparing for university. Our guide offers tips and resources to help you expand your word knowledge and communicate more effectively in academic settings.

School vs University terms

Class / class
Lesson / lecture
Teacher / lecturer, professor, Ajarn (Thailand)
Test / exam
Term / semester
Homework / assignment, coursework
School grounds / campus
‘at’ campus / onsite (not online)
Help / support team
Sign up / registration
Payments / fees
Online platforms – Microsoft Teams or Zoom

enrollment – the process of registering and officially joining a course or program at a university
lecture – a formal presentation by a professor or other expert on a specific topic
seminar – a class in which students and a professor discuss and analyze a specific topic
academic advisor – a faculty member who assists students in making academic decisions, choosing courses, and planning their academic career
syllabus – a document outlining the requirements and expectations for a course
prerequisite – a course that must be taken before a student can take a more advanced course

other terms:

GPA – grade point average, a measure of a student’s academic performance based on their grades
thesis – a long research paper or project that is written by a student as a requirement for a degree
Undergraduate degree – student
Postgraduate degree – ‘postgrad’ student

For additional academic help and learning resources, explore our links to online lessons, writing guides, and other tools to support your studies.

Introduction Exercise

We can describe ourselves using adjectives (e.g. tall, happy, talkative). Describe yourself in three words or phrases in each of the following categories:

Personality
Looks
History
Family
Hobbies/Interests
Course Goals

Here is my example:

Personality: lifelong learner, passionate, hard working
Looks: short hair, dresses like teacher, look like “Messi”
History: Home Ireland, lived near London (UK), home Chiang Mai
Family: married, 2 daughters, others all over the world
Interests: fantasy football, YouTube creator, watching movies with youngest daughter
Course Goals: student learn, help students, happy students

Now your turn.

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Lessons

Tuesday 5-6.30pm – zoom 484 247 9157

University Assignment Lessons (pdf)

Saturday 9am – 12, using Teams

Learning resources (assignment)

Downloading word documents can result in a web page of strange text. If you get this then just save that web page with the .doc extension (e.g. interesting_facts.doc). We have included a pdf version if this does not work.

Academic Presentation Skills

930 092 0330

see email for password

English for Study Skills

Wednesdays – 599 393 1571