Critical Thinking Developing your skills
Critical thinking skills are vital to university life and beyond. You need to know how to construct arguments, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of information, and how to implement these skills in your own writing.
Use code ‘CTINTRO’ to get Critical Thinking for £80.
Use code ‘CTPSINTRO’ to get both Critical Thinking and Problem Solving for £145.
This course has been designed to help prepare you for successful academic progression into university and will help you gain confidence in your essay writing. Whether you want to advance your ability to create an effective argument, or you’re needing to improve your writing skills, NEC’s Critical Thinking course will open your mind to different ways of thinking. You will learn how to think, not what to think, allowing you to develop lateral thinking skills.
Applying for Cambridge or Oxford? This course is designed to help students prepare for:
- Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) (Section 1)
- University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
No matter your university of choice, studying critical thinking will enhance your application.
This self-study course includes around 20 hours worth of interactive online learning materials and quizzes designed by subject matter experts. Your enrolment will give you access to the course for 12 months, meaning that you can revisit topics as and when you need a refresher, even if you have completed the course.
Want to develop your logical and mathematical problem solving skills? Learn more about our online Problem Solving course.
The course is divided into two sections with an online assignment in each to help you track your progress.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this course you will be able to:
- explain what is meant by critical thinking
- list the elements of an argument
- identify the conclusion or conclusions in an argument
- draw conclusion(s)/inferences from a line of reasoning
- recognise the implicit assumptions within an argument
- assess whether further evidence weakens or strengthens an argument
- identify appeals in reasoning
- identify flaws in reasoning
- identify similarities in the structure of different arguments
- identify principles in arguments and identify arguments which rely on the same principle.
Section 1 Arguments in critical thinking
Topic 1 What is critical thinking?
Topic 2 Argument
Topic 3 Drawing an inference
Topic 4 Identifying implicit assumptions
Online assignment 1
Section 2 Evaluating arguments
Topic 1 Assessing the impact of additional evidence
Topic 2 Identifying appeals to external evidence
Topic 3 Identifying flaws in reasoning
Topic 4 Matching arguments
Topic 5 Applying principles
Online assignment 2
There are two online assignments in this course which are computer-marked and will give you feedback.
Everyone studies at a different pace but we recommend that the course will take approximately 20 hours to complete. You will have access to the course for 12 months so you can study at your own pace and revisit topics if you need to.
If you gain 50% or more on the two online assignments, you will receive a digital certificate.
This course is designed to help students prepare for:
- Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) (Section 1)
- University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
These tests are administered by Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing: https://www.admissionstesting.org/
Would you like to talk to our Course Advice Team about the best route for you? Visit our Contact Us page, fill in the form and a member of the team will get back to you!
