How does an exam look like for taught postgraduate in UK?

Hello! I'm an international student, and I don't know much about the exam system there in UK. But I'll be doing my MA in International Studies at Univ. of Birmingham this fall, so I'm plained worried about it. :dontknow:

I'd like to know how do seen and unseen exams for MA taught postgraduate run. Is it that you have to sit in a big hall and complete the exam paper in a limited time (say, 2 hours)? Or do you just submit a super long essay before the due?

By the way, how hard is that to do a master's degree compared to getting a Bachelor's? :hmmmm:

Reply 1

tommyboy

Exams can take a number of formats. In most cases you'll be sitting in a room (anything between 5 and 500 students I'd say) and will have to answer a coupe of questions - for essay-based subjects normally a couple of essay questions, each of which will probably take you 30mins to an hour (although this can vary). On some courses students might be allowed to take a limited amount of books into the exam room with them, but on a course like International Studies this will probably be the exception rather than the rule.

Another form of examinations might go as follows: you get an examination paper with a couple of essay questions and are allowed to answer the questions at home within a given (relatively short) time frame, say 36 or 48 hours. In this case your answers will probably be expected to be better researched, even though it can be quite exhausting to write say 4 essays in 48 hours.

The format of examinations depends on the University and on the Department in which you intend to study,so if you're really worried about what form your exams are going to take exactly, it would be best to e-mail the Department.

Reply 2

pggirl

I am also gonna do my MA in international studies in Leeds and as you, I had the same worries, what I did is, that I called my department at Leeds and asked them, and fortunately for me, Examinations are in essay form.
So my advice to you is that u call and ask, it will give u peace of mind. believe me!!

Reply 3

0516

Thank you! I think it's rather similar to what we have now, expect the length of the essays... 2,000-5,000 words for each essay, I guess...
But in Univ. of Bham, you only take one subject each term! To me, that's a really good arrangement, because you can focus on that particular subject you're taking. And this is one of the reasons why I chose Bham over others~