Studying Sociology

Making the most of your lectures

If your lecturer is structuring their lectures around our book, there are other features on this website to help you make the most of these.

1    Before each lecture, print off the relevant list of essential concepts on that topic from our site and complete it, using an appropriate dictionary or A-Z of sociology. This will tune you into the important ideas you will be encountering and will also help you to concentrate on the main arguments that your lecturer is trying to put across without getting distracted by the meanings of particular terms. Your lecturer may produce a slide or handout of the concepts with their definitions, but there is no guarantee that they will. So be prepared: this work will stand you in very good stead later on.

2    Print off the relevant template or mindmap we provide on this site for structuring your note-taking. While the lecturer is likely to follow the broad themes of the chapter, they are also likely to use their own illustrative material and embellishments, so you will need to be proactive in taking notes. Listen carefully to identify the main points of debate and focus for the particular topic that you are covering and don't assume that it will all be in the textbook.

3    After the lecture, try your hand at the self-assessment material available on this site. For each chapter, this consists of 20 multiple-choice questions and 10 true/false questions, designed to help you to absorb the material and check your factual grasp and sociological understanding in a fun, as well as challenging, way.