Tutorials!

[Kdawg124]

Well well well. What do i say about the tutorials? On my first tutorial, i was full of butteflies! I was simply shaking! I didn't want to mess up, or say the wrong thing.. i wanted to be PERFECT! I left St. Hughs about 2 hours prior to my tutorial with my camera around town, in hopes of getting my mind off things- then finally i showed up at my tutorial. My session was at Pembrooke College, in this grand location across the street from Christ Chruch. It was BEAUTIFUL! So that just made the tutorial even scarier in my opinion. But lucky enough, my tudor was waiting for me at the gate with a big smile and a "Welcome to Oxford and a big grand smile!" Despite what people say, or what you hear- tutorials are not bad at all. Your tudors don't bite.. hard. But they're there for you 110%! Ready to answer any questions you may have to ask them. Just go in with an open mind, and everything will be A-okay!

[brit.byrd]

My tutorial experience was very challenging. My tutor, although a grad student, did not take it easy on me, which is fantastic. My tutorial was on a Friday and I have portions of my essay due on Monday and Wednesday even before we meet. She wants my essay to be top quality, and even suggested (jested might be a better word) that I could publish my work. Jokes aside, my tutor takes this tutorial seriously.

Also, having a tutorial across the street from a castle is quite intimidating.

[Will]

If there is one thing i learned about tutorials is that you can't be completely prepared. I spent hours before I went in memorizing the specifics of my paper and topics. I go in to find that we talked about nearly anything, from tatoos to meningitis, brushing into chemistry, biology and physics, it was an interesting hollistic approach to look at anything even faintly related to inflammation and repair

[SbGreenhill]

My first tutorial went by rather quickly. We didn't necessarily agree on everything, but the conversation kept coming until we'd spent four minutes past the hour. It helps to have confidence and know your subject, or at least know what you know about your subject. I learned the difference between a narrator and a speaker in that hour and had to keep changing which word I used as I read my first essay aloud. We got a bit into psychology and the cultural backgrounds implied in my topic piece. We didn't stay restricted to a subject, but addressed any topic that came up in discussion.

[Ioana]

I think my tutorial was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. I went with my tutor(the horse whisperer) in an english village where a woman had a problem with her horse. The horse saw himself in the mirror, he got very scared and after this experience, he was afraid of any horse that was walking around him. My tutor solved the problem in 10 minutes and the owner of horse was very pleased about how relaxed her stallion was.
I am very happy that it was posible to have such an unusual tutorial.

[EricaM]

My first tutorial was startling different from the familial atmosphere I was used to back at my school. Since my class only consisted of about 100 students, the teachers and the students are incredibly close. However, the one on one tutorial was not like that, and I can't say that I feel completely remorseful because I gained so much knowledge. My tutor was very professional and confident in any area of medicine. Since he was a neuroscientist, I had expected him to know just a little less in cardiology, but once again, I was surprised. He was able to take me to the very beginning of fetal development and teach me the formation of the circulatory system. Furthermore, he asked me many questions, some I was thankfully able to answer. However, when there were questions that were a little more difficult to answer, he wouldn't take "I don't know" for an answer and kept dropping hints here and there until the answer was finally dragged out of me. I left the music room in sort of a daze, awed by how much I learned in an hour. It felt like a splash of cold water in the face: refreshing.

[Mcriso]

I had a fairly easy-going tutorial, compared to the others I've heard about. She commented on my paper, but just suggested a few things that would make my next essay stronger instead of tearing it apart like I was expecting. I was really surprised at how much information she had looked into and printed out for me. During our discussion she would pull out related articles that she had found and give them to me, having me skim some of them in front of her so we could discuss the main point. My favorite part of the tutorial was when she found a short video relating to my topic and we watched it together. I thought that the range of sources she found was fantastic, and they made planning my second essay with her very straightforward. I walked out of my first tutorial completely overjoyed, and actually excited to start working on my next paper.

[nvir]

I have to say that my first tutorial, as well as my second, was extremely helpful in getting the final plan on my essay. As an IB Diploma student writing my extended essay, I have to say that this is a wonderful way to help you get a real grasp on your topic if you don't know where to start. There is so much valuable information that you can attain from just the first tutorial. One of the most important things, like Dr. Clerici told us in a lecture she made, is not to just sit there and let your tutor do the talking, but for you to engage them and really dive into the subject with them. My tutor was very cool about understanding where I was at in my paper writing process and I was really able to expand my essay by another thousand words so just from a one hour tutorial. By the next tutorial, I was much more prepared and my paper just needed some minor tweaks. The tutors here are INVALUABLE to you and as long as you do what they ask of you, your paper will turn out as well as you want it to. I think that's all that needs to be said.

[Daniella]

During my first tutorial I was terrified!! My tutor made me read my essay aloud and I was so self conscience about the way I was speaking, what I was saying, even the way I was sitting!! When she asked me questions I always had a mind blank and I would panic (sometimes i would recover and answer correctly and other times I was not so lucky) but, despite this, I loved it. I have had the oppertunity to visit the neuropathology lab at John Radcliff's hopsital and see the work that leading scientists in the field are studying. My tutor is amazing and I have loved every moment of it. I would not trade this experience for anything!

[DUB-a-YA021]

My first tutorial was nothing that I expected. I expected that Dr. Joe Taylor was an old, experienced, doctor who would be very intimidating. Turns out Dr. Joe Taylor is a young, sophisticated, doctor who knows everything. Despite his youthful appearacne, I was still intimidated about how much he knows about medicine. It is hard to get a vibe from Taylor on whether he likes or dislikes the paper. He grades on an ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, system, so that was very unexpected. The first tutorial was brutal; howver, I learned a lot. It was brutal because i was not expecting the intense Q&A session. But once we got to know each other, we have had a good time. He is actually a pretty funny guy. Cant wait for the third tutorial.