How to approach the College course work
The College does not ask of any student the level of education he has achieved in his life. The adjudicator takes the work of the student and responds to his submission as best he can, highlighting in the work material that might not have been mentioned, but would be useful to know.
The adjudicator may ask of a student to perhaps expand his work to include such material and then re-submit the paper.
Best methods of working through courses
I. Set a time(s) each week when you will work on a course.
II. Find the best place in your home to study.
III. Know the best time for you to read and gain full understanding of material. It is good to re-read material that is of length. Even better is to make a summary of sections of a paper in your own words and read them back to yourself.
IV. Do a little at a time, and be consistent in how long you work at course each session.
V. Always have if possible all material you think you will need close at hand.
VI. Use a journal to write any thought you may have as you go about each day. It is surprising when something may come to you and you need to recall it later. Use a small note book, and always have a pen available to write.
VII. Make a list of reference books you use and the pages from which you find material that is worth knowing. A hard covered exercise book can help in both cases – recording your thoughts, and recording the books or article read. In your assignments, please make sure that you cite references.
You may not have written an educational paper for a long time, so the first course offered – 1A.1 — is a simple course which to start rebuilding your writing skills. It asks only of your thoughts on how you think freemasonry began – what might have been the keys to find the operative mason lodges to move towards gentlemen who had not skill in building to meet together and talk about life and what s going on in that time of the century. We have few true records from which to know of speculative Masonry in situ. Therefore I repeat, consider this course as a means for getting into writing again.
A written paper is not the only way of submit responses to assignments. One could send in a tape of you dictating your thoughts. If skilled you might submit a CD of your thoughts accompanied with a series of photos with captions. Or consider a DVD with you speaking to a camera. A power point presentation is also flexible enough to not only identify a script but to add photos, video clips, etc.