Widge Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 2/3 of my exams out the way, first one was Maths which I've scooshed. Today was pretty brutal though, Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer. Been a while since I looked around after an exam and saw three quarters of the class turn to their mate and shake their heads/laugh about how disastrous it was. I remember doing an exam like that. Got the obligatory 10 minutes reading time at the start. To a man, we sat there clueless. Needless to say we all did badly, luckily the exam counted for nothing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killiesquirrel Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 I was constantly wondering this in my second year but in third year now (totally different course but I'm sure its all much the same) and uni is far better in every way. I would recommend jumping ship for your second year, larger class sizes but all the lecturers have gotten back to concerns plus you will have more students around about you to help you. I also thought they introduce you to more literature in uni so its up to you whether you use it or not, never got any such help in college although our lecturers may have just been particularly unhelpful!. Was hoping you'd comment as I knew you'd jumped to uni from college when you posted last year. I've pretty much decided I'll go to UWS if I can get in. I'd imagine I'll get a conditional of getting a A/B in my graded unit! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 . Was hoping you'd comment as I knew you'd jumped to uni from college when you posted last year. I've pretty much decided I'll go to UWS if I can get in. I'd imagine I'll get a conditional of getting a A/B in my graded unit! I hated 2nd year of college, we were basically given the graded unit and told it was all down to our research without any real insight into recommended references etc.The instructions weren't clear at all either and the specification was very badly worded and our tutor kept telling us all different things. Was online searching for stuff and getting nowhere for weeks on end as had no idea where the right resources were, was a pretty unhappy period for me tbh and i wish i had just jumped ship after the HNC. Uni i find is far better organised, if you want to get in touch with tutors then you still can email them and they will get back to you, i haven't even needed to as have found instructions to be clear enough. Only reason i stuck at HND was that i would have something to fall back on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killiesquirrel Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 I hated 2nd year of college, we were basically given the graded unit and told it was all down to our research without any real insight into recommended references etc.The instructions weren't clear at all either and the specification was very badly worded and our tutor kept telling us all different things. Was online searching for stuff and getting nowhere for weeks on end as had no idea where the right resources were, was a pretty unhappy period for me tbh and i wish i had just jumped ship after the HNC. Uni i find is far better organised, if you want to get in touch with tutors then you still can email them and they will get back to you, i haven't even needed to as have found instructions to be clear enough. Only reason i stuck at HND was that i would have something to fall back on. Yeah, the early good impression I had of my course is fading away. It's practical journalism I'm studying but it's sports journalism I'm ultimately interested in, and UWS is the only place that does it. I reckon I've made up my mind that I'll go there if I can. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Yeah, the early good impression I had of my course is fading away. It's practical journalism I'm studying but it's sports journalism I'm ultimately interested in, and UWS is the only place that does it. I reckon I've made up my mind that I'll go there if I can. Nice one - you won't regret it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10menwent2mow Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 I was in the very first intake of students for the Journalism degree at Caley and for most of us it was a disaster. Seems like they have ironed out many of the issues but half the stuff we were promised never came to fruition. I do agree about it providing a wider range of courses than other Journalism courses but in our case the balance was not right and there wasn't enough journalism based stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 I get asked a lot about the 'jump' from college to uni. The thing you have to remember is that students in uni going from year 2 to year 3 usually find it's a bit of a jump as well. Of course it'll be that bit more challenging. Overall though, college students tend to do a bit better (in my experience) than they expect. Mostly it's a work ethic thing - in my classes students who went to college tend to turn up every time, whereas some who came straight from school start thinking that they can get by using course texts and the VLE and skipping a fair chunk of the lectures. Some can, but I always think that in the end their grades do suffer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 I agree with Scottsdad - also in 3rd year uni every grade you get matters towards your final mark where as college is all pass/fail apart from graded unit (think thats the case with most courses anyway). Some amount of lead swingers at uni as well, guys given a month to do coursework then go to the library and do an all nighter the night before its due is quite a common occurrence. Quite a few people see the pass mark as 40% and aim for that as if a 3:3 degree will be of any use to them in the future. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 We were quite lucky because our 3rd year results haven't counted towards our honours degree mark, don't know why, but it's definetly helped me with how well I'm doing just now. Agree about how College students tend to do better, it's certainly evident in our modules. I've put it down to needing to work harder. Got an exam a week tomorrow, which I'm not looking forward to, but it's my only exam this trimester yet. We've already have 3 group work projects that were a total of 6000 words (1st for that) and an individual assessment which was 4000 words (2:1 for that) now we have a 3 hour exam. Even the lecturers thought it was a bit much, but I suppose it's nearly done! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Im not even sure that i was right when i said that our 3rd year mark count towards everything then as some people say they take your overall grade as your three best subjects which would undermine those who perform well throughout IMO. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Depends on the uni and their own rules as to when grades are counted. My degree was at Stirling and some grades in 2nd year counted, which went well against me as I had a big upswing in late 3rd/4th year. I know now that whenever I set a deadline, students will not look at it or think about it until about 20 days beforehand, and start work properly until (at most) 5 days before. Then I get panicked emails and calls, and then I get people handing in late with various dog-ate-my-homework excuses. None matter - my deadlines are hard and any lateness is penalised. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Third year results count towards your degree at Glasgow anyway which is when you start honours courses. I had a big upswing from second year so am looking for better for a decent classification now than I would if second year was taken into account 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Quite right about deadlines and lateness being penalised - don't have any sympathy for those who can't hand things in on time and they will probably carry on this sort of lax attitude to the work place. I got lumped with a group of guys who didn't give a f**k like that for a group assignment and i basically did it all myself, some people are just pathetic. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10menwent2mow Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 (edited) I'm not a huge fan of group work for that particular reason. We had a course (3rd year Politics and IR) last term that was 80% group work. Fortunately I had a very decent group and we shared the workload just about evenly but certainly in honours courses I'm not sure about having to rely on other people. Other groups in our class certainly had issues. However, I also see the point that most people will have to work as part of a team at some point in the future so it can help in developing some key skills. Edited January 12, 2016 by 10menwent2mow 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Yeah I think it is down to the uni's themselves. You are right regarding deadlines. However we have a 12 week trimester and the essays have to be in on week 12, however week 1-11 is teaching, so we don't get all the information until a week before the deadline. I'm sure someone more organised than myself would be able to start their essay with information they already have.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DensParkNumber1 Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Did a HNC and HND then went onto 3rd year . Found the jump not too bad , infact if anything im doing better All about work ethic in Uni , i believe college prepares you better for that than school 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Yeah I think it is down to the uni's themselves. You are right regarding deadlines. However we have a 12 week trimester and the essays have to be in on week 12, however week 1-11 is teaching, so we don't get all the information until a week before the deadline. I'm sure someone more organised than myself would be able to start their essay with information they already have.... Surely you are given the recommended texts...The teaching (contact time) is only meant to be a small fraction of your learning. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Surely you are given the recommended texts...The teaching (contact time) is only meant to be a small fraction of your learning. We get 2 hours lecture and a 1 hour tutorial (all in a 3 hour block) for each module. Our recommended books etc are very vague though. We usually do have a core text book which has everything, but untill you're taught it, if it's brand new to you then it's not so straight forward. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Group work is terrible. I believe had it not been for group work in third year I could have got a first rather than a 2:1. We got lumbered with two of the laziest guys in our class for a module that had a 50% mark on the group work, and got a terrible mark as a result, even with me and the other boy putting in a considerable amount of time and effort into it. In fourth year we were handed a module that required group work and we managed to swing it that the group work would not count towards your overall grade, instead the essay you produced on the project overall made up 100% of the mark. I managed to get my first graduate job as a result of that project and result, so very happy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Honestly....One guy applies here with nowhere near our minimum entrance requirements. Out of curiosity I opened up his personal statement to see why he even bothered. The statement was basically a love letter to Glasgow Caley, saying why he always wanted to go there and thought their degree was the best. I don't work at Glasgow Caley. Funny thing in Scotland is people going to the 'local' university. Nowhere else has this. I get a lot of Glasgow applicants who'll never come as they get itchy as soon as they hit the motorway 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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