Prepare for Success is aimed at international students who are coming to the UK for academic study. It is mainly intended for international students whose first language is not English, but students whose first language is English can also benefit from some of the activities.

The learning activities involve learning by doing, but you will also need to think, listen, read and write as you interact with them. Many will test your understanding and you will need to make choices or move items to show what you have understood. You can check your answers at any time, and you can also repeat an activity as many times as you like. For the listening activities you can also refer to a transcript to help you understand if necessary.

Institutions in the UK are aware that it is both an exciting prospect and a challenge for international students to come and study in the UK. Many things will be new at this time, so Prepare for Success has been created to enable you to find out before you arrive what study will be like and what will be expected of you.

At the same time as finding out some important information about your future life and study in the UK, you can use the activities to practise and improve your English.

You can improve a range of language skills as you use Prepare for Success. In particular, you can practise your listening and reading skills. All of the listening activities include an audio or video transcript so you can check your answers afterwards and use the transcripts to improve your understanding of spoken English.

Some of the vocabulary may be new for you, so you can use the learning activities to develop this aspect of your English as well. You will also learn about spoken English and written English, especially academic writing, through doing the activities.

Each activity has an instruction which explains what you should do. Look at the instruction and then read it carefully. If you need more explanation, open help below the instruction. This provides step by step guidance in how to do the activity using the mouse, keyboard and video or audio player.

Each item contains between one and three activities. When you have done them, open the feedback and read it. At the end, there is a review which reminds you of the main learning point. It may also provide links to websites where you can find further useful information or practice around the learning point.

To take full advantage of Prepare for Success you will need sound on your computer. You will either need a web browser such as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 9 or above, which supports HTML5, or Adobe Flash Player 9 or above to play audio and video files. Prepare for Success works on tablets and mobile phones as well. You may find that some activities work best in 'landscape' mode, particularly on smaller mobiles.

The activities and audio/video material in Prepare for Success can be used with a keyboard or a mouse. To use a keyboard for the activities, use the Tab key to move between items on the page, and the space or enter key to select items or activate buttons. You can also use the cursor keys to move items in some activities.

How long you spend on each item is entirely up to you. Each item is designed to provide you with about 30 minutes of learning activity in total but if you only do one activity, repeat some activities or explore the links to websites in the review section, the amount of time you spend may be less or much more.

After using Prepare for Success, we would like you to give us some feedback on your use of it. This will allow us to continue to improve it. When you have finished, please open the final part of the course - 'Reaching the end and taking the next step' - and fill in the online questionnaire to send us your opinion. Thank you!