How to make the most of seminars

Guidance and advice to support your active participation in small group teaching sessions.

The seminar environment

Seminars are a crucial part of learning and teaching at university. Seminars are much smaller than lectures – generally between 8–20 students – and are much less structured in their approach to the course material.

Being able to contribute effectively is important and will lead to the development of a number of related communication skills, such as active listening, clarifying your explanations and mediating conversations and debates.

Seminars can be quite daunting, especially for those new to university or to the topic in question. The first thing to remember is that seminars aren’t designed to test you. Instead, they offer the opportunity for discussion and debate with course mates, and to really get to grips with the details of what you’re studying, and the aspects you’re most passionate about.

You might want to try using this preparation and consolidation template to help prepare for and reinforce the learning outcomes of the seminar.

Access the Seminar - Preparation and Consolidation template

Preparing for a seminar

Preparation is key as it will allow you to think about the topic in advance and come up with questions, thoughts or ideas to share. Your lecturer may guide you towards key readings; however, some decisions about what to read, how to read it, and how to address the questions posed will be up to you.

Background reading

Look back at your lectures, or at the questions set for the seminar, and see if you can identify the key theme or topic, and any key words. Look for these while you’re reading in preparation for the seminar.
Underline any key terms, or any terms you don’t understand. This can help you to pinpoint which sections of the reading are likely to be most helpful, or where you need more clarification from the seminar leader.
Consider using a Generative AI tool such as Google Gemini to help summarise a complex or challenging topic (see below).

Background thinking

Before the seminar, try and jot down some ideas or notes on at least one of the questions you have been set. If you don’t have any prompt questions, try and think of some of your own, and devise answers to them.
You might ask yourself what the article tells you, what the main argument is, or what the key words are.
If you’re really stuck, try and think of one or two questions of your own that you might ask in the seminar, one about something you understand, and one about an aspect you might be struggling with.
Some examples include: how does this fit with last week’s discussion? How does this relate to the lecture material? Does anyone have a different example of this? Contributing just one idea is a good way to start building your confidence.

Try using a Generative AI tool like Google Gemini to help prepare for a seminar. You could use it as a way to simplify a complex topic or you could use it to help formulate your own ideas and opinions. You might want to try adapting one of the following prompts:

Provide a summary of [insert theory] identifying five key points that I need to be aware of and why.

Provide a range of critical perspectives on the following claim: [claim or argument].

Do your best to prepare for your seminar class, but if you run out of time, it’s not the end of the world. It is still important to turn up to the class, be honest about your (lack of) preparation and willing to ask questions and learn from others!

Attend a 1:1 online speaking tutorial with an language tutor to practice and build your seminar skills.

Book an appointment (student login required)

Explore short sources covering a variety of speaking and listening topics to develop your skills.

More information

During a seminar

Within a seminar class you may find yourself asked to contribute to discussion, share your views and consider those of others. It is a great chance to test out your ideas and practice listening and communicating those ideas to others in a safe and informal environment.

Joining in with the discussion

Active listening is a key skill of seminar participation. That means that you will need to provide space for others to articulate their thoughts without interruption.
You may not always agree with what you hear or it might challenge your own way of thinking. It is important to remember to be respectful of others' views and to introduce your own views in a way that is sensitive to the views of others. Your seminar tutor will help to facilitate this valuable exchange of thinking.
Don’t worry about expressing yourself using perfect academic English - a seminar is a safe space to have a go and no one will mind if you make some mistakes along the way!
Visit our page on Active listening and dealing with sensitive topics for more information:

Visit Active listening and dealing with sensitive topics

Keeping a record of the discussion

Take notes of the seminar discussion if you can. Listen out for any key words from your reading, or any terms that are repeated: this is a sure sign that these are key to the discussion.
Afterwards, sit down and jot down everything you remember – it’s best to do this on the same day as the seminar.
See if there are any gaps in your notes, and chase these up, either through extra reading, discussion with your classmates outside of seminars, or in office hours with your seminar tutor.

Reflecting on the discussion

Set aside some time (even just 10 minutes) to reflect on how the seminar went. How did your preparation go? Did you participate? Was there anything you didn’t understand?
It can be useful to write this down, particularly if you want to participate or contribute more. Use a reflective model for this (see the page on How to reflect in an academic context below), and see if you can make an action plan for next time.

Visit How to reflect in an academic context

StudySkills@Sheffield