How does assessment at university work?

You will do some form of coursework and exams. Coursework is quite broad and can range from traditional essays to vlogs, poster presentations, patient leaflets, policy briefs, business reports and so on.

Exams can be on paper or on a computer. Depending on your programme, you might do field trips, labs, internships, clinical placements etc.

Assessment will be either summative or formative.

Summative means that assessment is designed for you to show how you meet the learning outcomes of the course and is weighted towards your final grade.

Formative is to help you practice and the best opportunity for you to get feedback.

Your tutor may ask you to hand something in for them to look at, it may be part of an assignment (eg research proposal), or a first draft of a report or an outline of a presentation etc.

Feedback is important because it tells you what you have done well and not so well and how you can improve for next time.

You may be expected to participate in peer feedback. The point of peer feedback is for you to develop the skills of judging others' work which you will then be able to apply to your own. This will make you much less dependent on markers to tell you when you have done well, and you will gradually gain confidence in the quality of your own work before you hand it in.