A supervision in college
Analytical skills are developed by the regular issues of sheets of problems called examples papers. Each paper covers the material taught in about four lectures and since there are about 10 lectures per week in each year of the course, students must organize their time to tackle 3 examples papers per week. Supervision is basic to all Cambridge teaching. Undergraduates go once or twice a week, and normally in pairs to a member of staff connected with their College to be supervised. The principal role of the supervisor is to help the students by discussing any queries they have about the lectures or examples papers.
Many important engineering skills are developed in a wide variety of coursework exercises. Practical courses introduce students to instruments and techniques which can then be applied to laboratory experiments. Three dimensional visualization and communication skills are encouraged in the drawing exercises. Creative thinking and synthesis are fostered in design projects in the first three years of the course. Techniques in computation are introduced so that students will be able to create their own software and to come to an independent evaluation of commercial packages. The ability to speak cogently and write is also addressed. All these skills are brought together and put to the test in the final year where a major project occupies about half the student's time.
In contrast with most other engineering courses, the Cambridge timetable rarely involves lectures in the afternoons. This gives students the flexibility to organize afternoons and evenings to satisfy outside interests within a framework of private study sessions.