At Kent, you can explore the ancient world all the way from prehistory to the late Roman Empire and early Christianity. To give new students a head start, we\u2019ve put together some advice from our alumni about how to make the most of your first year at Kent! <\/p>\n
What is the\u00a0one thing\u00a0you\u00a0would encourage all first year students to do in\u00a0preparation for coming to University?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cJoin your academic society! It’s the best way to connect with other people on your course early on and will give you an insight of what’s to come in your first year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn preparation for uni I’d definitely advise checking that you know how to budget (and stick to it), and make sure you have your own bank account, a bi-weekly cash pack from your parents won’t help that much if you aren’t good with budgets!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUse Moodle to your advantage. Lecturers put key information and resources on Moodle that will be crucial to your success. Using these resources, whether its specific guidelines for how to write your essays or the recommended reading list, will save you hours of time on research and essay planning, as well as help you achieve higher marks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWrite up your lecture notes on the same day as the lecture, then fill in gaps by choosing from reading from the list your lecturer put together. It helped me understand a lot more that happened in class and my marks got better!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGet a laptop if you can. It changed my life when I didn\u2019t have to wander around looking for a free computer to write my essays! The library lets you check them out too if you don\u2019t have your own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCheck your Kent email regularly. Lots of really important information only comes by email.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBe prepared for just how little six hours per week in class is! Most of the work for your degree is done outside of class time. The more work you do outside of class, the more you\u2019re going to get from those six hours.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGet the required books for your modules early! It\u2019s nice to have your own copy for taking notes. If you get second-hand copies make sure they\u2019re the same translation!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst it’s not a must, look up a couple of academic articles so you get a feel for what they’re like, and you don’t face your first seminar without a clue what you’re trying to read.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re an eager beaver (not a must because none of the lecturers assume prior knowledge) you can read around the subject just to give you a basis, this’ll help you figure out quicker what you’re most interested in and make it easier to get inspiration for essays.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRead the CLAS Handbook. It has loads of information about referencing and citation systems. If you do this first, then when it comes to writing your essay you can focus on the main aspects of assignments as you won\u2019t need to concentrate on learning these simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n If you could\u00a0recommend a single book or article, what would it be and why?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOxford Classical Dictionary.<\/em> So useful.\u00a0There are two copies in the Library and we have online access too! It\u2019s way better than Wikipedia! It\u2019s good for looking up every author, topic and person that you come across, before you do your wider reading.\u00a0Try to do this ahead of the lecture or seminar on the relevant subject – this really boosted my confidence that I knew what I was doing!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ancient Greeks: Ten Ways They Shaped the Modern World<\/em>. This really shows how pervasive ancient culture is (and has been) on Western culture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMary Beard’s SPQR<\/em>. It gives a nice basis of Roman history for those who know nothing as well as those who have some prior knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c30-Second Ancient Rome. <\/em>Good quick introduction to major cultural elements of ancient Rome written by experts (some from Kent!). There\u2019s once for ancient Greece too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHomer\u2019s Iliad <\/em>or Odyssey<\/em>. These really are best when you study them in class, because a lot is happening in them, but reading them in advance gives you a basis for the creatures, monsters, gods and heroes you\u2019ll come across in class. Try the translations by Stanley Lombardo \u2013 they\u2019re easier to read than Robert Fagles.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHerodotus, Histories<\/em>. I read this before I started and was enthralled. From Athenian war tactics to the daily lives of roaming African tribes to descriptions of temples and ritual in ancient Egypt. Nobody paints a picture of the ancient Greek world like Herodotus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt really helped that I read Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses<\/em> before I started my degree, because I came into the department with very little classical knowledge or experience (but a lot of enthusiasm!). It\u2019s a really good introduction to the myths of the ancient world, and they turn up again and again in classes and lectures.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cArnaldo Momigliano\u2019s article \u2018The Rules of the Game in the Study of Ancient History\u2019 published in English in 2016 in the journal History and Theory<\/em> (pg. 34-45). It\u2019s 10 top tips for the ancient historian; my essays were loads better after reading this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s lots I would recommend, but I\u2019m going to tell you what I wouldn\u2019t. Lecturers hated it when I referenced books by Michael Grant and Robert Graves. They\u2019re really out of date and off base on a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the\u00a0most unexpected thing you learned\u00a0during your degree? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHow much is open to interpretation and how valuable your own opinions can be when studying the relevant sources, be it primary or secondary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI found my passion in week two of the first term. I didn’t expect it to happen so soon after starting, the variety of topics we cover really do mean that there\u2019s something for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI took an archaeology module, and it really surprised me just how many different theories there are in interpreting the same finds. The methods used to look at things are also numerous – I didn’t know that it’s possible to do archaeology using lasers to ‘see’ through trees in rainforests!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never thought about or studied gender before. It was a revelation to think of women in antiquity as a category to be studied.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did not expect to find that learning Latin (which we read and translate rather than speak \u2013 no oral tests!) would help me so much with writing better English. Learning Latin has been an invaluable part of my degree and has enabled me to translate ancient authors.\u00a0It is a beautiful language.\u00a0Many academic articles, which we make extensive use of, incorporate Latin (and Greek) words, but the words aren\u2019t always translated.\u00a0 This means that having a basic ancient language aids your engagement with those articles.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow useful it is to actually speak to other people after lectures and seminars. It was really good to have a group of people to meet up with after class to talk about things, especially since we often helped fill in each other\u2019s notes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLecturers are actually real people! It took me a long time to work up the courage to go into office hours, but when I did it was so awesome because they really wanted to talk to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"