Exeter University seminars are often peppered with a variety of interesting and unique students. Yet, despite their original aspects, many students can fit into different types of “seminar characters”.
From my experience of seminars at Exeter University, I have come up with six different characters you can notice in seminars.
1. The yapper
This student loves the sound of their own voice, and everyone can tell. They’ll be the first to raise their hand to share their opinions. Sometimes they’ll even interrupt the tutor to chime in with a hot take or critical theory.
In lecture’s you can sometimes see them waiting at the end to discuss more ideas with the lecturer. One must applaud their ferocious tenacity for learning. Their mind is crammed with an abundance of thoughts and ideas, thoughts they would prefer to share rather than holding on to them. You can always rely on the yapper to provide an opinion or to fill a gap in a seminar!
2. The silence hater
This student will say whatever they can to break the awkward silence that follows a baffling seminar question. Closely linked to the yapper, the silence hater is another main contributor to Exeter seminars. But if you look closely, the difference between the two is that the silence hater will squirm when the seminar falls into silence when no one wants to answer a question.
They will desperately force themselves to come up with something to avoid disappointing the academic that stands in front of the class. They will offer up anything, even if they aren’t entirely sure that it makes sense, just to fill a silence. It is easy to confuse this student as another prolific speaker, but look again, and you will see the silence hater desperately scanning the room to see if someone else will speak first.
3. The reluctant attendant
This is a simple one. This student would much prefer to be cosy in bed at home. But alas, they have missed one too many seminars and can’t afford losing the participation grade. So, they force themselves to attend each seminar.
You might see them creeping in sheepishly after sleeping through their alarms, or jumping out of their seat, packed and ready, as soon as the seminar ends. They aren’t afraid to throw an opinion or two into the mix. But it is obvious that they don’t really care about what they are saying. You won’t see them at lectures, or study group meetings. But you can rely on them to always attend every seminar… whether or not they want to.
4. The stoic silent student
In every Exeter seminar you are guaranteed to find the stoically silent student. Like a monk, they have undertaken an oath of silence. They’ll come to every seminar but will never share an opinion, unless forced to by a desperate tutor.
You have to applaud these students; their consistency is remarkable. The silent student listens, absorbs, and takes notes. Building their work on the different opinions they can observe. The silent student is an avid people-watcher, but less so a participator. They are an enigma sat before you, it will take a lot to crack the code. Sometimes you wander, what goes on in their minds? What interesting thoughts are they keeping to themselves?
5. The absent student
In most seminars there is always a name called out on the register that is met with a resounding silence. This is the name of the ambiguous, mysterious student. They seem so blasé they don’t have time to come to class. They probably have better, and much cooler things to do. Maybe someday you’ll see them in a lecture hall, but I doubt it. A silent celebrity of the seminar, no one knows who they are, but everyone knows their name.
6. The sneaky assassin
This is an interesting one. The seminar assassin is one of those students who doesn’t speak often. They don’t mind the horrid awkwardness of silence in a seminar. They’ll surprise you when they pipe up out of the abyss to give an eloquent, well thought out and original take.
In study groups they contribute well, and they have some of the highest grades of the class. This is someone who is really passionate about their subject. They can sometimes fall under the category of the silent student, but they are acting undercover. When they chime in with something new and interesting you realise that they are who we all, really, want to be like.
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