In our last blog post we looked at how international students who are coming to study in the UK can lay the foundations of a really successful study experience by taking steps to make sure their English-language skills are up to scratch, and we also suggested that at the same time as doing this they could also get ready to study their chosen academic subject by listening to and reading things in English about it. A classic piece of killing two birds with one stone, as we say here (if you don’t know that expression, international students, make a note of it!).

But mastering the language you’ll be learning in and brushing up your knowledge of your chosen subject are only part of the battle to get yourself ready for studying in the UK. In fact, one of the biggest problems that many international students have when they come here isn’t that they don’t speak English well enough, but rather they haven’t learnt how to learn like people in the UK do. Which bring us on to:

Today’s tip: Learn about the demands of the UK higher-education system

It’s a common misconception that wherever you go in the world university is university is university. The fact is that different universities across the world–and even between countries that speak the same language–have very different approaches to learning and teaching at the university level. So while in some parts of the world university is about memorising information at a fantastical level of intensity and takes the form of hours upon hours of lectures, in other countries the lecturers and professors are not there to feed you information, but rather to prod you towards thinking for yourself, taking as they do this what appears to be a much more relaxed approach of not forcing you to do anything.

Still need more convincing that the university study culture in the UK will probably be very different to that of your own country? Okay, think of it like this: by choosing to come and study in the UK rather than in your own country, you’re proof that these learning cultures are different. Because if they weren’t there’d be no need for you to come to the UK for your degree.

Unfortunately, not accepting that there is a big difference in terms of how you are expected to learn and how you will be taught between the UK and other countries really catches out many international students. They do things like not do the reading assignments they are given before seminars, thinking that the seminar will be about the lecturer telling them the information that they were supposed to get themselves from the reading. Then the lecturer gets angry because without this information, they can’t participate in the seminar discussion. And angry lecturers equal worse grades.

You can avoid this unpleasant situation quite easily simply by getting hold of an English for Academic Purposes book now and going through it before your arrival. The university where you are studying will probably also have a guide about your future learning environment.