13 Course Structure

In the traditional structure of French courses (cours magistraux) the professor lectures and students take notes, read required texts, and prepare for an all-or-nothing final exam. An increasing number of courses have contrôles continus (i.e., oral reports or exposés), short papers (devoirs or mini-mémoires), mid-semester exams (partiels), all designed to give students some indication of their progress in the course. Nevertheless, some courses might still have only a final exam. Some of the large courses have parallel travaux dirigés, for discussions, questions and answers, and supplementary work. If you enroll in such a large course, you must also enroll in a parallel travaux dirigés section. Similarly, you may not enroll in a parallel travaux dirigés section without also enrolling in the related lecture course.

Government funding has not kept pace with the recent dramatic increase in university enrollments in France, and few resources are available for repair and upkeep of heavily used classroom buildings. Thus, you may find the sprawling FAC AMU building shabby, crowded, and noisy. There is no break between classes, so students surging out of one class must jostle past those trying to enter for another. Try to arrive early and sit near the front of the classroom so that you have the best position for hearing and understanding the professor and are less distracted by student chatter during the lecture.

ATTENTION! It may be tempting to let your work go when your classes meet only once a week, but you will see that it takes far more effort to catch up with a delayed assignment or a missed class precisely because it is not like missing a class that meets three times a week.  Your professors may seem somewhat undemanding, but this is an illusion. They may not be demanding about specific assignments, but they expect you to read beyond the class assignments. Professors assume that you are a mature and responsible scholar who will take the initiative of reading widely from the bibliography without having to be told which specific pages to cover. Students doing only the “minimum” will find themselves in serious trouble toward the end of the semester.