Lecturer John O'Keeffe on adapting your study methods to the demands of third-level

Arguably one of the hardest issues to tackle as a third-level student is finding a study method for yourself. The methods you need may be different to those in secondary school.

You must adjust to a new way of receiving and collating information, and third-level can present problems for students. At the end of your first lecture you will feel like you have spent an hour in the rinse cycle of a washing machine. A man or woman will have walked around the top of the lecture hall while seeming to ramble on matters that have little relevance to the course you have chosen.

Bar a reading list, no further material may have been handed out and you will now be expected to go away and come back prepared for a tutorial.

Fear not. This may not be the world of Coles Notes, but the principal remains the same. Lectures are your first hurdle. Relax and listen to what is being said. Isolate salient points. This will only come with practice, but once you decide that the lecture is not a writing down exercise, then you're half way there.

By the third week each lecture may be only two pages of notes. Once you have relaxed about lectures you should feel less panicked about your course and your first tutorial. Tutorials are critical - nine times out of 10 the bulk of tutorial work that you have been set will come up in your examination. Ensure you prepare for these - they will make sense of your lectures and iron out any issues that remain unresolved.

Assignments and/or course work are important in every third-level course. Research your course work well. Once you are confident of the basics look around the topic and see if you can find any unusual angles.

At this point you should think of suggesting ways of improvement, depending on the subject. Remember to always sound knowledgeable and always look original.

Preparation for the examination is no different from that you are used to. By now you will be focusing on question spotting. Do not question spot for a variety of reasons, least of which is that you may have an embarrassing seizure in the exam hall when you turn your paper over in June.

It is, however, entirely sensible, indeed advisable, to go over past papers and see what topics or areas of the course, rather than questions, that crop up. Your lecturer may have sounded a little off the planet but don't be fooled - even he (or she) will have to sit down and correct 200-odd papers to some formula and award marks for basics, originality and evidence of research. It's surprising how the thoughts of such mammoth correcting can focus even the most wandering of lecturing minds.

It is critical you get your study patterns at college right from the beginning. Enjoy the new style of teaching but do not be intimidated by it.

Use it to your advantage and realise that, there is only so much you can say in a written three-hour exam.

Finally, however, always remember the words of Elbert Hubbard - you can lead a boy to college but you can't make him think - the rest, as they say, is up to you.

John O'Keeffe is head of the law school at Portobello College, Dublin