The course in general
How many contact hours do you have in the average week?
11-12 depending on courses

Ideally, what 3/4 subjects would you recommend doing in order to be in the best position for your course?
English Literature is essential, history would have been useful but not essential, parts of theology may come in use but again definitely not essential. No other subjects bear any relation to the subject. I took Art, Sport Studies and English Lit and cope

Why did you decide to study your degree programme?
I chose Scottish Literature because the English Literature course was full when I applied and very competitive. It is essentially the same subject, with different set texts, although across 1st and 2nd year, many texts are shared between the subjects.

Explain the things you wish you'd known about your degree before you applied:
I wish I had better known the structure of University and the hours where there is very little to do. In first year there is a limit to how much research you are required to do in the library so the hours between lectures can get pretty dull. Another thing which is important to know is that you are given very little help with essays and assigments. There is very little encouragement and you have to work out most of your arguments and structure it all yourself, which can hard when you haven't written an essay for a couple of years.

Describing your average day
Explain how your day is made up. For example, do you have labs/seminars/tutorials/lectures?
Throughout the week I had 3 lectures for each of my 3 subjects and one tutorial for each. This year all of my lectures were over by lunchtime, leaving only 3 hours of contact work in the afternoon across the whole week. I also had no lectures nor tutorials on a Friday meaning I could go home or go to someone else's home on Thursday nights. My lectures started at 10 o'clock 3 times a week which is considered early by students but really not the end of the world!

How much extra work/reading are you required to do out of lectures?
For English or Scottish Literature there is of course alot of reading to be completed before tutorials each week. Usually there is one text per week but this can range from a couple of poems to a 500 page novel. There are usually some set questions to think about and make notes on but no formal written work or tests. This depends on the tutor however, as some don't ask questions, and just want the reading done.

The best and worst parts of the course
What do you like best about your degree programme?
I like the diversity in Scottish Literature and the move away from the typical classics that have usually already been done at school. Because Scottish Literature is slightly more limited than English Literature, the texts are spread across a larger time scale.

What do you like least about your degree programme?
Because of the limitations of Scottish Literaure, some of the books are boring. Studying Scots poetry can get very tiresome after a while.

Academics and course content
What do you think of your university's academics and facilities?
The facilities are good at Edinburgh. Once you come to terms with how the library works it is an excellent place for research about all sorts of texts.

Explain how you expected your course to be and how it compares to how it actually is. Give an outline of the content of the course.
There is one set text a week and sometimes an extra, such as an essay by another author on the current text. Lectures often summarise the text, the key themes, genres etc and explore some ideas in more detail. Lectures vary from the very interesting to the very boring. There are usually about 6-8 people in your tutorial, with one tutor. Depending on your tutor and the people in your group, there will be varying degrees of discussion. Presentations are made once a term by each person in the tutorial and are not scary. You simply think about some questions posed by the tutor then talk about the answers you come up with in front of your group for 5-10 minutes.