Why Attending Talks & Lectures is Important for University Applications and Beyond
Why drag yourself out of bed on a cold wintry weekend to go to an event for which attendance isn’t mandatory? Well, there are many reasons why going to lectures is important, not only in order to be successful in an application to a top university, but to gain a rounded appreciation for a subject you are passionate about beyond the syllabus. School, with its strict schedules and compulsory material, often does not allow enough space for individual exploration and time for you to find out what you are passionate about; instead, you must have the initiative to seek out knowledge. There’s plenty on offer, with lectures and talks open to the public at universities across London, as well as at hallowed institutions such as the British Academy or Royal Society. Find out why lectures are important and where you can attend them with MU mentor, Sarah.
1831 - Michael Faraday hosted one of the Royal Society’s famous Christmas lectures, in which he demonstrated the link between magnetism and electricity, and went on to invent the dynamo, precursor of the electric motor, as well as laying the groundwork for the understanding of electromagnetic radiation.
Lectures provide the opportunity for you to hear from experts in a field. These are often people at the cutting edge of research in what you’ll be studying at university, and as often as not, their name will crop up on a university reading list. Lectures present an opportunity to access the expertise of leading academics or researchers, who are there to share their knowledge with you. Some of the most widely known writers out there, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Vladimir Nabokov, were once lecturers; you’ll be hearing from people who may well equal such renown in future. However, going to lectures isn’t an academic celebrity-hunt; it’s about getting the chance to engage with ideas as they are being developed. This is a prospect which is in many ways immensely exciting.
Across the range of subjects, lectures and talks provide concise and incisive introductions to topics which you’ll either be covering at university or might choose to explore at a later stage. Think of how much clearer things are after a teacher has explained them; it’s the same with lecturers. The lecture hall provides a space for concepts to be explained at length and in greater detail than what’s written down in books or articles. With mathematics-related subjects, it’s helpful to see a problem worked through step-by-step or a theory explained in manageable terms, whilst with humanities subjects, a lecturer can offer connections and analysis beyond the scope of a text. Attending a lecture, will often stimulate a desire to read further around the topic covered and open your mind to new schools of thought you may not have considered yet or been exposed to at school. For university applications, the information given in the lecture can give you an edge when you’re devising arguments and interpretations at interview. For example, if you’ve mentioned Dickens’ ‘Bleak House’ in your personal statement, and there’s a lecture on the nineteenth-century ‘Condition of England’ novels, you might see the lecturer make connections between ‘Bleak House’ and other works within the same genre, such as Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘North and South’ and you can bring this up at interview. This might prompt you to develop further connections, pushing beyond your original scope of knowledge. Lectures stimulate you to go beyond minimum requirements of school, and present a wonderful opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of your subject or subjects you may be interested in applying to for university.
This last point is the most important one: it’s important to approach a lecture with the right mindset, otherwise you will be wasting your time after all. Develop a system of note-taking which is effective for you – that might involve jotting things down on paper or taking more extensive copy on a computer screen. Either way, resist the temptation to spend the hour in the lecture hall on Facebook or Instagram! You won’t get anything out of it if you do, and you’ll leave wishing you’d stayed in bed. To avoid this situation, switch your phone off as you enter the room, and if you think a computer is too tempting, take notes by hand. Often handwritten notes are easier to remember, too, so it’s a win-win! Don’t try to take down everything the lecturer is saying, or you’ll simply get bogged down scribbling. It’s better to listen to the sentence and then write down a condensed version of the point. If you do this, you’ll be able to keep up and you’ll have made sure you understand what has been said. Remember that the best way to view lectures or talks is as a starting-point for your own exploration of the topic. Attending lectures are edifying intellectually and pragmatic as lecturers can point you directly towards material that may be relevant to your university application. Lectures can serve as a valuable introduction and means of orientation when you are exploring subjects outside the school curriculum. Find out what is on offer below!
Humanities & Science Events: London
There are many institutions in London you can look to for events & lectures, which span Humanities and Science subjects.
The British Library plays host to events throughout the year. Past & current opportunities include an exhibition on William Wordsworth, a talk on the fight for Women’s Rights and The WISE Festival – Celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The Royal Institution is the home of science in London, with a packed programme of accessible science your to explore.
Leading scientists and cultural commentators explore the latest amazing science and the way in which it shapes our lives.
Join retired astronaut Kathryn Sullivan as she describes her work on the NASA team that made The Hubble Space Telescope, world-renowned physicist Brian Greene, on a journey from our most refined understanding of the Universe’s beginning to the closest science can take us to the very end, or computing pioneer and 'father of the internet' Vint Cerf to find out what is to be done to preserve the great utility of technologies, while suppressing their abuse.
Gresham host free public lectures, which span art & literature, business, history, law, mathematics, medicine, music, politics, religion and science. From a talk on the Ethics of Surgical Innovation, to “Thomas Beckett & London” and a series of lectures on the possibility of using gender equality to solve climate change, Gresham provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore your subject beyond the curriculum.
The Royal Society, founded in the 17th Century, an age of discovery and exploration, counts numerous Nobel Prize winners and pioneers in science, from Newton to Stephen Hawking, amongst its fellows. The Society works to promote scientific excellence, hosting events & lectures on cutting-edge topics and developments.
So, lectures are important and exciting. Make the most of them while you have the opportunity; as Mark Twain said, twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do.
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