Before coming to Leeds, I had a good enough score to go straight to the International Foundation Year, but I did not have any experience of academic essays or presentations, so I wanted to practise those kinds of skills in the pre-sessional. In addition, my reading speed was too slow to read resources.
In the pre-sessional course, we did group presentations and essay tasks. It was very useful, because I didn’t have any idea what academic writing means, or how to reference and things like that.
Before coming here I thought IELTS was good practice for university, but it’s actually very different from university study. An IELTS essay is not the same as an essay for the university, so a pre-sessional is important for getting used to the university academic style.
It was also a good period to get used to the university before becoming an undergraduate student. I could get to know how to use the library and how to get my student ID before September.
After the pre-sessional course, I could have confidence in my reading and writing. I did not have any difficulties in my international foundation year and undergraduate study. My degree course is tough but I really enjoy it; my plan is to be an English teacher in Japan.