They cover everything taught in the class, plus reading done outside of class. Students have to study hard to understand everything, memorise important information, and apply the theories that they have learned. In seminars, which are more advanced and for fewer students, exams are not emphasised, but individual research, presentations in class, and writing papers are emphasized. Many courses have two tests, a paper, and other projects, and teachers have to grade all of them. In the third term and during the summer, students spend most of their time writing their dissertations.
Writing is believed to be very important in learning, perhaps the most important thing.
All grades for postgraduate students are based on their writing. In the United States, MA theses are not required for all programs. Even formal writing is not emphasized, students usually take two exams and write one paper in a course. This means that they write nine to twelve papers, excluding an MA thesis, which are usually more informal and shorter than the papers students in a British university write. Another important part of the linguistics program here is research groups.