Preparatory courses
Discover university education and life at UNamur while revising the subjects essential for your future training.
To get your first year of study off to a good start, at the end of August the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters is offering courses and exercises that will enable you to:
- check your command of the French language, your ability to take notes and report on an oral presentation or text;
- approach activities specific to Latin and French languages and literature;
- discover the demands of university life and being a student;
- introduce you to the methodological principles of your discipline;
- confront your choices of disciplinary orientation.
Do you have what it takes?
Test your knowledge and skills with "Passeports pour le bac".
At the start of your first year, "Passeports pour le bac" allow you to compare what you've learned with what your teachers expect.
Following these tests, the Faculty offers you sessions and workshops to reinforce your:
- reading strategy;
- analysis of questions and construction of appropriate answers.
You thus fill in any gaps and promote your success.
Are your methods appropriate?
To succeed in your first year, you need effective strategies.
Every Wednesday, two hours of methodological sessions are organized to familiarize you with university learning techniques:
- taking clear and comprehensive notes;
- summarizing and synthesizing material;
- understanding material in depth;
- building your study tools;
- memorizing large amounts of information;
- managing your time during class and blockade periods;
- organizing your work;
- anticipating teachers' demands.
In addition to these methodological sessions, your Faculty's Cellule d'Appui Pédagogique organizes individual assessment interviews after your tests and exams. If you request it, you can also benefit from personalized follow-up throughout the year.
If you're experiencing difficulties with your study method in general, the cellule interfacultaire d'appui pédagogique also offers individual follow-up. Throughout the year, an advisor is on hand to take stock of your study methods and techniques and help you improve them.
Finally, on the eve of the first blockade, you can take part in an exchange and advice session with 2nd or 3rd year students under the supervision of the Cellule d'Appui Pédagogique.
How can you consolidate your reading and writing skills?
Learn to express yourself correctly in writing and deepen your understanding of texts.
Your Faculty's Pedagogical Support Unit enables you to improve your skills in various areas:
- writing assignments and exam answers
- reading and understanding university-level texts
- by language tests at the start of the year assessing spelling, vocabulary, syntax;
- by workshop reinforcement sessions and online exercises;
- by supervision of some of your written work: commented corrections, individually and collectively ;
- by the organization of mock exams (November tests) ;
- by individual follow-up (by e-mail and face-to-face).
- by a reading test at the beginning of the year;
- by reinforcement sessions on reading strategies.
Special follow-up is provided for students whose mother tongue is not French.
What resources are available to you?
Central and department libraries, computer space and e-learning platform: valuable resources.
At the central library ("BUMP" for Bibliothèque Universitaire Moretus Plantin), you can consult : catalogs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, literary works, CD-ROMs, databases... Rarer or specialized journals or books can be obtained on request.
At the departmental library, located on the floor of your section, you have free access to most of the working tools you need: journals, grammars and special dictionaries, summary collections, scholarly studies, exemplary monographs, collections of published or manuscript sources and even sometimes microfilm reading devices.
You'll also benefit from practical advice from more senior staff, and even from the professors occupying the adjoining offices.
And that's not all! Thanks to the WebCampus e-learning platform, you can download the documents that teachers make available to you, access discussion forums with other students, ask your questions live...
And that's not all!
![aides à la réussite-latin-francais](/sites/default/files/styles/parag_img_small_sm/public/2024-04/201810_BUMP_036.jpg?itok=k0CjX3Zt)
How can you prepare for the exams?
Studying regularly, acquiring good methods, but also knowing the requirements of teachers and their way of questioning.
In the first year, formative assessments are organized at the beginning of November in most subjects. Copies are given to you corrected and commented on, and teachers then orally explain the expected answers to their questions.
These tests do not play a part in the grades that will be awarded at the end of the year. They are merely a training tool, giving you an idea of the teachers' exacting standards and enabling you to judge the effectiveness of your work.
Exam organization
January, June and, if necessary, August... three sessions to prove your mastery of the subjects.
In January, you sit the exams on the 1st term courses. If you fail, you can retake the relevant exam in June and/or August. Three chances to succeed, but only in your first year as a bachelor. From the second year onwards, any exam failed in the January or June session is automatically carried over to the August session.
According to the choice of teachers, courses may be assessed either in writing or orally. Assessment procedures are specified during the first course and are detailed on the university website.
Throughout your training, verification of the knowledge and skills developed in the technical courses is almost continuous; it relies above all on quizzes and exercises carried out during the year.
You conclude your training by demonstrating, through your end-of-cycle work, your ability to carry out personal research and analysis.