Activities

Ensure a smooth transition between secondary school and university

Before the start of the academic year, UMONS organises refresher courses in mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry, disciplines that constitute the tools of scientific reasoning applied to the biomedical field. These courses are part of the 6-year medicine programme, which ensures that the required basic knowledge (pre-requisites) is acquired by the beginning of the first year. These refresher courses are for future students of medicine or other disciplines taught at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy who believe they lack knowledge in the discipline due to the options selected in secondary school.

A syllabus is available for each course of the first year of the first cycle (BA1). Books on the subjects taught are available for reading or for purchase.

High Quality Teaching

For many of our courses, an e-learning platform provides access to all images and texts, a forum, and online exercises, and allows students to interact with teachers.

In the first year, optional refresher and guidance courses are organised by our expert teachers.

Knowledge acquisition is assessed through written and corrected exercises during supervised activities.

The following sessions are organised throughout the year:

• Ten two-hour “mathematics” sessions to ensure a smooth transition between secondary and university education
• Question-and-answer sessions before exams (January and June exams) organised by the course leaders.

To reduce the workload for the June exam session, courses completed in whole or in part at the end of the first term are tested in January. If they wish, students have the chance to improve the mark obtained in January in the June exam session (except for the first year of BA Medicine, following the decree of 23rd March 2012 on restructuring studies of the health sector).

Remedial Activities

Remedial sessions are organised for all BA1 courses in the first term, and for the biochemistry, neurophysiology and physiology courses in the second term. These sessions are led by staff who are specialists in these domains and are primarily intended for students who have obtained unsatisfactory results in the tests, or who have difficulty understanding the subject matter. They are, however, open to all students of the FMP. These activities can take the form of thematic explanatory sessions, question-and-answer sessions, or revision sessions, and are organised throughout the year (first and second terms).

Student groups are smaller than lectures or other revision sessions (mathematics). This is an opportunity for students to receive individualised help with their difficulties. The organisation of these sessions is outlined in the course schedule and displayed on the notice boards of the Faculty. For other courses, students can contact the course leaders and assistants in case of difficulties.