Education Unit I

Vocabulary

Types of schools

• graduate school (AmE), post-graduate school (BrE) - an advanced stage of education that takes place after a student has finished a uni­versity degree «аспирантура или магистратура»

• (post)graduate course, student; (post)graduate research

e.g. She is doing a graduate course. She is a graduate student at Berkley.

• law school/medical school/business school (AmE) - a university or part of a university where students study law, medicine or business

• to be in (AmE), to be at (BrE) school/college/university - to study there

e.g. We were in college together. My younger sister is still at school. He is at Cambridge studying history. • to attend/to go to university

• to leave school, to graduate from high school/university - to success­fully finish one's studies

e.g. He graduated from Yale in 1989. He left high school without graduating. (to drop out of)

• school leaver/graduate (AmE), a college/university graduate

Someone who studies

• student - someone who studies at school/university or college in the USA; at college or university in Britain

• high school/college/university student

• history/English/art student

• part-time student

• full-time student

• transfer student

• first-year student/first-year, second-year student/second-year

e.g. The university only provides rooms for first-years.

• freshman (AmE) - someone who is in the first year at university or high school

• sophomore (AmE) - someone who is in the second year at university or high school

• junior (AmE) - someone who is in the third year at university or high school

• senior (AmE) - someone who is in the last year at university or high school

e.g. a liberal arts freshman, a biology junior, a history sophomore, an undecided freshman

• graduate student

• undergraduate student

• alumna (pl. -nае) - a former female student of a college or university

• alumnus (pl. -ni) - a former male student of a college or university

• fraternity (AmE) - a club of male students usually living in the same house

• sorority (AmE) - a club of women students usually living in the same house

• fraternity brother, sorority sister - a member of fraternity, sorority

• major - 1) a chief or special subject studied by a student at a university

e.g. His major is French. He is majoring in French.

2) a student specializing in that subject

e.g. He is a history major.

The periods into which the year is divided at school, university, academic calendar

• term - one of the three periods that the year is divided into at Brit­ish schools and most British universities: the autumn/spring/sum­mer term

• semester - one of the two periods that the year is divided into at Amer­ican schools and most American universities: the first/second semester

e.g. I took four classes in the first semester and five in the second.

• quarter - one of the four main periods that the year is divided into at some American schools and universities

• school year/academic year - the period of the year when there are school or university classes

e.g. In Russia the school year starts on September 1.

• break/recess - holidays

e.g. fall term break; winter recess or winter holidays, summer vacation

• deadline – the last date for a retake

The periods in which students are taught a particular subject

• class - a period of time usually about thirty minutes to one hour, in which a teacher teaches a group of students

e.g. Hurry up - we have our first class in five minutes!

• lesson - a period in which someone teaches one person or a small number of people, used especially about particular skills such as mu­sic, swimming, or driving

e.g. She gives English lessons to business people in the evening.

• lecture on, to give a lecture on

e.g. a lecture on the causes of World War II, to give a series of lectures on Russian painting

• seminar on

e.g. to have a seminar on modern political theory

Academic programs

• course (a one/three credit course)

• to take a course

• to select a course

• to sign up for a course

• pass-fail course

• to add a course - to take up an additional course for personal interest, not for a credit

• elective- an optional study, a course a student may select from alternatives

• a major/to major – to specialize in particular subject

e.g. What’s your major?

• a minor - second in importance

Grades (USA)

• to get/to give a grade

• pass-fail grading (to take grammar pass-fail)

• grades A,B,C,D,E

• A-student

• to graduate with straight A

• a credit

• to earn a credit

• education record – information on a student’s attendance, degrees conferred and dates, honours and awards; college, class, major field of study, address, telephone number

Qualifications, degrees

• smb's qualifications - all the exams someone has passed

e.g. List your qualifications in the space below.

• degree - the qualification that a student gets when he/she successful­ly finishes a course at university, it can also mean a more advanced qualification

e.g. He has a degree in political science from the University of Chicago.

• to award a degree to smb/ to confer a degree

• bachelor's degree - a degree granted for the successful completion of a baccalaureate program of studies, usually requiring at least four years of full-time college-level study «степень бакалавра»

• В. А. - Bachelor of Arts

• B. Ed. -Bachelor of Education

• B. S. - Bachelor of Science

• associate degree - a degree granted in the US for the successful com­pletion of a sub-baccalaureate program of studies, usually requiring at least two years of full-time college-level study which may be provided by a two-year junior college or technical college or community college

• A. A. - Associate of Arts

• A. S. - Associate in Science

• A. A. S. - Associate in Applied Science

• master's degree - a degree awarded for the successful completion of a program generally requiring one or two years of full-time college-level study beyond the bachelor's degree «степень магистра»

• M. A. - Master of Arts

• M. Ed. - Master of Education

• M. S. - Master of Science

• M. B. A. - Master of Business Administration, doctor's degree - an earned degree carrying the title of Doctor. This degree usually is based on a program requiring at least two academic years of original research leading to the defence of a doctoral disser­tation. (thesis)

• Ph. D. - Doctor of Philosophy (in the arts and sciences)

• Ed. D. - Doctor of Education

e.g. To get this job, you need at least a Bachelor's degree in Elec­trical Engineering. She has a Ph.D. in Linguistics.

Someone who teaches

• a university teacher/a professor (AmE)

• a teacher of English/ an English teacher

• assistant teacher/instructor, a senior teacher/instructor

• good, poor, bad, excellent, experienced, mediocre, born, superior, great teacher

• tutor - someone who gives lessons to just one student or a small group of students

e.g. They hired a private tutor to help Mary with her French.

• The basis of tuition in Oxford is the tutorial for which students are re­quired to meet with their tutor once or twice a week, individually or perhaps, with one or two other students.

• A tutor in Cambridge is called an adviser.

• lecturer (BrE) - someone who teaches at university or college

e.g. a lecturer in World Politics

• professor - a university teacher of the highest rank in Britain, any uni­versity teacher in the USA who has a higher degree such as a Ph. D.: a linguistics professor

• assistant professor

e.g. He's a professor of biology at Cambridge.

• faculty (AmE)/teaching/academic staff (BrE) - all the teachers work­ing at a certain school/university

Administration

Dean

Assistant dean

Department chair man

President of the University

academic vice-president

student government

Tests and examinations

• quiz

• a test - а set; of spoken or written questions or practical activities, which are intended to find out how much someone knows about a subject or skill

• a spelling/vocabulary/grammar/biology, etc. test

• an oral/written test, multiple choice test, essay test, a pass-fail test, an end-of-term test, a test in Literature, a test on the use of articles

• to give smb a test/to test smb on smth., to retest smb on smth

• to take a test on the term's work/in History

• to have a test on smth

• to revise for a test

• to pass a test, to fail a test

• test-paper, to mark test-papers

• student's record book, to sign smb's record book

• examination (formal)/ехаm - an important test that you do at the end of a course of study or at the end of the school year

e.g. How did you do in your exams? Students are not allowed to talk during the examination.

• French/biology/history, etc. exam, an exam in Psychology

• entrance exam, an oral/written exam, school-leaving exams

• graduate/final exam

• final (singular) - an important exam that is taken at the end of a set of classes in the US

e.g. I have a final in biology tomorrow.

• finals (plural) - the last exams that you take at the end of a university course in the UK

e.g. During my finals, I was revising till 3 o'clock in the morning most days.

• to take/sit for an examination - to do a test or exam

• to retake an exam (a retake)

• to pass an examination - to achieve a good enough standard to be successful

e.g. Only 30% of students who took the exam passed it. "Did you pass?" "Yes, I got an A."

• to scrape through an exam

e.g. He scraped through his history paper.

• to fail/flunk (AmE coll.) an exam

e.g. I failed my French exam two times. He thought he was going to flunk History but he got a C.

• to flunk smb

• to study (AmE)/revise (BrE) for an exam

• to be examined in, to be re-examined in

• examiner, an examinee

• examining board

• transcript - an official list of all courses taken by a student in the USA at a school or college showing the final grade received for each course, with definitions of the various grades given at the institution

Admission to colleges and universities

• to admit - to allow entry; to give entrance or access

• to be admitted to a university, to be accepted by a university

• admission - the act or process of admitting; the state or privilege of being admitted

• to apply for admission

e.g. She applied for admission to Moscow University.

• admission application, to submit an admission application

• applicant/a candidate

• university admission board, an admission office

e.g. Before she took her entrance exams, she had submitted her admission application and her school leaving certificate to the Moscow University admission board.

• to interview

• to enroll in (AmE), to enter (BrE) (a) school/university

• reference - a statement (letter) regarding a person's character, abili­ties, etc. ^:

• referee — someone who writes a letter about someone else, describing their work or personal qualities

Financing

• full-time fees

• part-time fees

• academic fees

• housing fees

• grants

• scholarship

• student financial aid