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, UNamur is offering a program of preparatory courses in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and university work methodology during the last two weeks of August.
Among these subjects, physics and chemistry are compulsory. You select 2 other subjects from mathematics, biology or university work methodology.
These courses enable you to:
- revise knowledge acquired in high school;
- perfect your working methods thanks to advice from teachers and specific study methods courses;
- meet assistants and professors on a more informal basis before the start of the academic year;
- discover the university (its infrastructure and services);
- create your first links with other students.
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. Depending on your results on these tests, the Faculty will offer you reinforcement sessions. In this way, you can fill in any gaps in your knowledge and help yourself to success. The results are not taken into account in your end-of-year assessment.
Are your methods appropriate?
To succeed in your first year, you need effective strategies.
Working methods sessions are organized to familiarize you with university learning techniques:
- taking clear, comprehensive notes;
- summarizing and synthesizing material;
- understanding material in depth;
- memorizing large amounts of information;
- managing your time during class and blockade periods;
- organizing your work;
- anticipating teachers' requirements.
In addition, if you encounter difficulties in your study method, the cellule interfacultaire d'appui pédagogique offers you individual follow-up.
Throughout the year, an advisor is available to review your study methods and techniques and help you improve them.
And if you run into difficulties?
Throughout the first year, the Faculty offers weekly remediation sessions integrated into your timetable.
The Faculty of Medicine organizes two hours of weekly remediation for first-year students. These sessions are initially devoted to bringing students up to speed in areas requiring a few prerequisites. They are then followed by a review of the various subjects and a re-explanation, by the teaching assistants, of certain difficult subjects covered in the course. The aim of these sessions is to prevent you from facing irreversible gaps.
Putting theory into practice
Practical work, exercise sessions and techniques specific to each discipline.
Thanks to practical work and exercise sessions, organized in small groups, you assimilate the material more easily and personalize your contacts with the teachers.
How can you prepare for the exams?
Study regularly, acquire good methods, but also get to know the teachers' requirements and their way of questioning.
In the first year, formative assessments are organized at the beginning of November in all subjects. You are given the papers, corrected and commented on, and the teachers then orally explain the expected answers to their questions. These tests have no bearing on the grades awarded at the end of the year. They are simply a training tool to help you appreciate the high standards set by our teachers, and to assess 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 pass, but only in the first year of the bachelor's program.
From the second year onwards, any exam failed in the January or June session is automatically carried over to the August session. Depending on the teachers' choice, examinations may be written or oral. Assessment procedures are specified during the first course and are detailed on the university website.