The study load for the colloquium is 6 EC (168 hours) which equates to 21 working days. If you work on your colloquium full-time, you should be able to finish in about one month. It is recommended to focus on your colloquium rather than combining it with other activities.

Day 1: Make an appointment with your supervisor to discuss your topic, refine your question, and ask when they have time to check your draft. Agree on deadlines.

Day 2-3: Do a systematic, in-depth search of the literature.

Day 4-7: Read, analyse and process literature.

Day 8: Build the essay structure.

Day 9-11: Search and read more literature to fill gaps; write body content. Make another appoinment with your supervisor when in doubt about the depth or boundaries of your research question or the structure of your essay.

Day 12-14: Refine essay, work on figures, write an introduction and a conclusion.

Day 15: Do a final check of your text: spelling, grammar, lay-out and references.

Day 16: Send draft to your supervisor. While they look at your essay, start working on your presentation.

Day 17-18: Work on your presentation.

Day 19-20: Analyse the feedback from your supervisor and use it to improve your essay.

Day 21: Finalise your essay text and send to supervisor. Finalise your presentation, check it with supervisor if required and practise.

Note that it is not possible to give your presentation on day 21, because you need to submit the final approved essay 5 working days before your presentation. Read more about the colloquium procedure.