Undergraduate Study
Well, we couldn't avoid it for long - the inevitable issue of work had to come up eventually. And yes, I'm afraid you haven't been misled - there is a lot of it! Although there is undoubtedly rather a large jump to be made from school / college to university, this transition is made as gradually as possible and St Anne's provides both the perfect environment and the resources required to achieve your academic potential. This video highlights what Learning is like at St Anne's:
Teaching
Your weekly routine and the work expected from you varies, depending on your subject, with the relative emphasis on lectures and tutorials resting on whether you are an arts student or a scientist. The general weekly schedule for a scientist consists of a series of lectures supported by practicals, classes and a couple of tutorials. The schedule for the average arts student consists of a few lectures supported by classes, seminars and tutorials. Although the contact hours for the science students are undoubtedly more, arts students generally receive full weekly reading lists which take up a lot of their time.
Tutorials
Tutorial
The tutorial system is the one big thing that sets Oxford (and Cambridge) apart from other universities. Tutorials are in college with the tutor in that subject with two or three students, once or twice a week. It may seem daunting at first to have a weekly meeting in such a small group with an academic who is likely to be at the forefront of the field - often the author of books you're given to read, or the lecturer of courses your following. After your first tute, you realise that the tutors are normal people and are there to help you learn, to explain the concepts you didn't quite grasp. This is great as you know you can get help and support when you're finding things difficult to understand. It's not like at school where the teacher's always right - you'd often engage in academic debate during tutorials and it's all a part of the learning process. As you spend a considerable amount of time in tutorials, you gain a friendly, yet professional relationship with your tutor and are treated as an individual as opposed to other places where you may just a be a 'another' student in a class of 20, or a lecture hall of 200.
Academic societies at Anne's
There are several apparently.
Libraries
Hartland House - home of St. Anne's library
St Anne's has one of the two largest college libraries in Oxford, with over 100,000 books in our collection. For a lot of subjects, there's a copy of each core book on reading lists for each student that needs it, and this can save you a lot of time and money. If there's a book you really need, you can suggest it to the librarian and it may be ordered straight away for you to have a copy to read within a week. Very useful! There's lots of study space though it usually fills up towards exam times. It's open 24/7, and you can take out as many books as you like. There's also other libraries around Oxford which stock more subject specific books and have loooads of reading/study space and you can access them all as an Oxford student. SOLO is an online library tool so you can locate copies of the books you need in all the libraries in Oxford and renew your books etc.
Independent learning
The emphasis at Oxford is on autonomous learning as opposed to being hand-held throughout your degree, an ethos which by its very nature introduces a freedom which calls for the quick acquisition of high levels of responsibility, organisation and self-discipline. But don't worry - everyone finds the prospect of work at Oxford daunting at the outset, and you'll be amazed - and proud of yourself - when you see how quickly you can adapt to it.
Everybody has different work patterns, with some people preferring the day to the night and vice versa. The 24/7 opening hours of the library and IT room are perfect for the nocturnal students, and the rest of us who are cramming with a last minute essay crisis.
Exams
Post-exam celebrations
College exams known as "collections" are often given at the beginning of each term (but not your first!) as a method of assessing your general progress and good practice for the real ones. These collections are largely dependent on your subject and whether you are set any is up to your tutor.
At the end of your first year, you will sit Mods or Prelims (first University exams) at the examination schools which you have to pass to continue with your degree, but they do not count to your final degree result. After these you are not formally examined again until your Finals.
In Summary
Although the amount of work here cannot be denied, it is not all-encopassing, with there being plenty of free time for you to play sport, get involved in any number of college/uni societies, explore everything Oxford has to offer, or simply satisfy your secret Hollyoaks addiction. St Anne's is a relaxed, yet hardworking college, an atmosphere which allows you to get on with your studies at the same time as experiencing the best of university life.