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23 October 2018
Kovsie Advice- Exam edition

Fellow Kovsies, welcome to another edition of Kovsie Advice. The exams are just around the corner, but if you jump in now, you can excel at your studies. This edition of the Kovsie Advice is here to help you plan, prepare, and be ready for the end-of-year exams. We believe in you: You can end this year strong!


Some of the articles featured in this edition include setting up a revision plan, looking at study techniques that really work, exploring study tips from Qwaqwa, and learning about different note-taking methods. You will see that this edition also has links to some interactive elements on Blackboard to enhance your experience.

Feel free to drop us an email at advising@ufs.ac.za and tell us what you think of this edition.

Happy studying and remember that the academic advisers at CTL are here for academic support.

News Archive

Music lecturer’s innovative app is a first in South Africa
2014-07-24

Dr Frelét de Villiers, lecturer at the Odeion School of Music (OSM) at the University of the Free State (UFS), is in the process of developing an innovative interactive mobile music application – Notes&Fun.

Notes&Fun is being designed to assist aspirant pianists. It will support beginners with notation and rhythmic patterns.

The app will display single notes, phrases or rhythmical patterns on the phone or tablet and then apply the built-in microphone to measure the frequency of the notes played on the piano itself. It will indicate whether you’ve played correctly, or if you have made a mistake, the correct note will be displayed. Notes&Fun consists of multiple levels, each with a practise and test mode that gradually increases in difficulty and complexity. As opposed to existing apps, Notes&Fun is conceptualised with immediate pitch detection and is applied with a real (acoustic) piano.

For the pilot phase of this initiative, the developing company Maxxor in Cape Town will create a demo app which can be downloaded for testing purposes and general feedback. Once the developing company and innovator are satisfied with the first phase, the product will be marketed vigorously on social media. The initial app will be free, but subsequent levels will need to be purchased. The developers will start a Facebook page where users of the app can add their latest scores and compete with other users. Initially the app will only be available on the Google Play Store due to the fact that more people own Android devices than Apple products. Once the product has proven to be financially viable, the developers will adapt it for the Mac App Store as well.

“The beauty of this app is that music has a universal language, so it can be marketed internationally and I am privileged to have the institutional support from the UFS Technology Unit regarding the judicial process and developing process of the product,” Dr De Villiers said.

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