BESS Thread

Marshy

andrew wrote: »

And someone said the maths can be difficult, I got an A1 in ordinary having dropped down from hons, should I find it particularly hard?

I was in exactly the same situation, getting an A1 in ordinary having dropped higher. Just finished JF and I got on grand with Maths and Stats.

Like has been said, go to the maths tutorials and do the homework. Not only is the practice beneficial but there is 10% of the year going for attendance/homework if I remember correctly.

I found Stats more difficult but thats probably because I went to about half the lectures and virtually no tutorials. The mock paper they give out is useful though and anyone who puts in a reasonable amount of work should at least pass the subject.

andrew

shay_562 wrote: »

Essentially, yes. Economics starts from absolute scratch; business assumes that you have a basic knowledge of the world of commerce, but nothing more complex than you'd get from reading the Business section of the Irish Times once in a while. It may have changed, but for our Christmas exam in economics there were separate prizes for people who had studied economics previously and those who hadn't. That said, for obvious reasons if you go in with a knowledge of either you'll be at an advantage.

Prizes?!

Awayindahils

Magnusd wrote: »

No im actually going in to SS year! I never really gave it much thought, but i had to defer my summer exams to the september sesion due to illness- Im currently trying to fit a full years work into a few weeks study! I should pass but the reults might not be pretty!

Actually, would employers be sympathetic if you have one bad years reults where you just scrape a pass due to illness?

Shay has already ogtten to this, but yes there is a part where you can say why your grades were lower. And if necessary your tutor can include it in a reference letter for you.

prizes

Commons with some of the lecturers and book tokens IIRC.

shay_562

awayindahils wrote:

Commons with some of the lecturers and book tokens IIRC.

Yep, for the top 5 in each of the two categories. From what I remember, the grade differences between the two groups wasn't massive; they really do teach the course from scratch, so if you're smart and work hard catching up should be easy.

tcdstudent

As anyone who takes John O'Hagan's course in Economy of Ireland in second year knows, he gives out a handout with "suggested practice qurstions" in the second term for the end of year exam.

These turn out to pretty much be the exact(or close enough)questions he asks on the end of year exam.

However, I was wondering if he will be giving essentially the same exam for the Supplementals in a few weeks time. He has not sent around any "suggested pratice" for these and so I'm hoping that it is the same.

Can anyone who has repeated this exam at supplementals or knows someone who has please confirms whether this is true or not.

Thanks in advance.

Awayindahils

tcdstudent wrote: »

As anyone who takes John O'Hagan's course in Economy of Ireland in second year knows, he gives out a handout with "suggested practice qurstions" in the second term for the end of year exam.

These turn out to pretty much be the exact(or close enough)questions he asks on the end of year exam.

However, I was wondering if he will be giving essentially the same exam for the Supplementals in a few weeks time. He has not sent around any "suggested pratice" for these and so I'm hoping that it is the same.

Can anyone who has repeated this exam at supplementals or knows someone who has please confirms whether this is true or not.

Thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure the essays are the same. O'Hagan's practice questions aren't practise questions at all. Out of every section one of those questions will be on the paper. When I was in 2nd eyar you had to answer from either section G or H, so prepare one of those and 3 other sections and you'll be sorted.

Magnusd

~Thanks for the replies guys....

Just another question: Is 40% or 50% required to pass from JS to SS in BESS ??

Can't seen to get a definite answer on this one....

Many thanks!

shay_562

MagnusD wrote:

Just another question: Is 40% or 50% required to pass from JS to SS in BESS ??

Can't seen to get a definite answer on this one....

I'm relatively certain it's both. (Helpful!) From what I recall from lectures, you'll need an overall II.2 to progress, with over 40% in each of your individual subjects. Bear in mind that BESS averages are done by mode rather than arithmetic mean (i.e., if you have four II.2s and two IIIs, you'll get an overall II.2 as that's your most common grade), so the absolute minimum you'll need is four scores of 50% or above and two of 40% or above (or three above 40% and three above 60%, but that's less likely).

That said, they may compensate you if one of your grades is in F1 territory (30-40% if memory serves) and another one is sufficiently high (i.e., above 60%), but you wouldn't want to count on that.

Magnusd

shay_562 wrote: »

I'm relatively certain it's both. (Helpful!) From what I recall from lectures, you'll need an overall II.2 to progress, with over 40% in each of your individual subjects. Bear in mind that BESS averages are done by mode rather than arithmetic mean (i.e., if you have four II.2s and two IIIs, you'll get an overall II.2 as that's your most common grade), so the absolute minimum you'll need is four scores of 50% or above and two of 40% or above (or three above 40% and three above 60%, but that's less likely).

That said, they may compensate you if one of your grades is in F1 territory (30-40% if memory serves) and another one is sufficiently high (i.e., above 60%), but you wouldn't want to count on that.

Thanks Shay! you have made a typically confusing trinity rule extremely clear Wish me luck in the repeats!

shay_562

Cool, glad I could help (the rules are just a tad incomprehensible) - and yes, good luck in the repeats!

conor052001

anybody know when the timetables for this year go up?

Awayindahils

conor052001 wrote: »

anybody know when the timetables for this year go up?

If you're a first year you gyo reg afaik. I think they're online from freshers' week in the student informtion system if you're going into 2nd year or later. You may be able to get an idea o your timetable by looking at the course outlines for last years classes.

T-b0n3

Does any one here that has just completed 1st year know the course code for economics for my econ labs (www.coursecompass.com) ?!

Trying to get some study done for the repeat and need to set up my econ lab, never got a round to setting it up before!Can't find the code any where in my emails.

Thanks

manicmonoliths

T-b0n3 wrote: »

Does any one here that has just completed 1st year know the course code for economics for my econ labs (www.coursecompass.com) ?!

Trying to get some study done for the repeat and need to set up my econ lab, never got a round to setting it up before!Can't find the code any where in my emails.

Thanks

Tis : o'toole41632

T-b0n3

Thanks manicmonoliths.

But ;

"One or more problems were detected that must be corrected. Follow the instructions below to correct the problem(s), and resubmit the page.

Your enrollment cannot be processed, because the current date is not within the enrollment period for the course.

Please inform your instructor."

Deadly...

manicmonoliths

T-b0n3 wrote: »

Thanks manicmonoliths.

But ;

"One or more problems were detected that must be corrected. Follow the instructions below to correct the problem(s), and resubmit the page.

Your enrollment cannot be processed, because the current date is not within the enrollment period for the course.

Please inform your instructor."

Deadly...

ah, bit of a problem, well maybe you could log in using one of your mates IDs and password? Or 'inform your instructor' :P bit embarrassing.

Magnusd

Hello experienced BESS peope

Im just about to start the JS supplemental exams in Politics + Business..

Do lecturers generally use the same paper as the summer exams or do they change it ????

I notice that Past supplemental papers are not available on the exams office website..... Is there any way to find them ?

My cunnning plan was to go back over them and see if the lecturer changed of used the same questions in past years.....

You've left it late.

Supp. Papers are available from the departmental office.

Magnusd

Deleted User wrote: »

You've left it late.

Supp. Papers are available from the departmental office.

Yes i have.... Do you think most lecturers change their supplemental papers ??

Don't know - never sat one.

I know that its in their interests for you to pass, so get the papers and maybe drop the lecturer an email expressing your concern. Thats what I would do.

Magnusd

Hmm.... my concern would be that if i ask straight out "will the paper be the same as the summer" then a lecturer who was not going to bother, or who did not think about it would go and change it.....

What do you think ?

manicmonoliths

Magnusd wrote: »

Hmm.... my concern would be that if i ask straight out "will the paper be the same as the summer" then a lecturer who was not going to bother, or who did not think about it would go and change it.....

What do you think ?

At this stage the papers are already submitted, probably have been for at least a month, so even if you ask if it's identical, he/she wont be able to change it. And like zabara said, they want you to pass.

ilovefrankee@ho

With regard to Supplementals, I'm sitting the first year BESS ones tomorrow (Economics) and Tuesday (Maths & Stats), and was wondering how long roughly does it take for the results to come out?

And am I right in thinking that they only tell you if you've "passed" or "failed" them?

d93c2inhxfok4y

Need a bit of help here asap!

Im going into first year BESS, and I was leafing through the info packs we got in the post a few weeks back. One of the sheets I have is for my course choices 2008-2009.

It says it has to be handed in no later than monday 15 september 2008, so I better get this done. I'll be in dublin on monday anyway so I'll hand it in then.

But, beside the 7 courses listed, there are only 6 boxes to tick though.. :P
Surely this is a pretty big gaffe for Trinity..

Unless the last two courses listed count as one? (Introduction to Law and Social Policy Concepts/The Irish Welfare state)

Which course did all of you pick?
I've ticked the box that's nearest law, and underlined Law, so i'm hoping that'll get my point across.
Do you think it'll be fine handed in the the BESS Office like this on monday morning?

quirkster

oh **** man i didnt notice that?
i want to do law aswell but didnt notice a box was missing...maybe it was only the sheet that you got?
crap im worried now that ill have to do the irish welfare state...ugh

d93c2inhxfok4y

Well I'm hoping that there's some room to manoeuver here, it's not going to a machine, so if someone picks up my sheet and reads it they'll surely realise.
Has anyone here still not chosen yet, like myself?

Would the BESS office be open on sunday for me to drop this in?
I'm also quite surprised that we haven't been given any talk etc on these choices, the info on the BESS part of tcd.ie is kind of minimal.

andrew

Thanks for the heads up on that form, I thought that once i had my fees form in i was done. And yeah, I only have 6 boxes too. Weird.

bright

The Irish welfare state wasn't offered to JF last year, so it is a possibility that intro to law has been made 5 credits and split half year with a soc pol course. Unlikely but possible.

It is more likely that it was just a clerical error when designing the sign up sheet.

Do check the updated BESS handbook on http://www.tcd.ie/bess

d93c2inhxfok4y

How are all the rest of you JF BESS students getting on?
I'm looking forward to actually starting our lectures and tutorials, timetable is a bit **** though! Only arrived home to check it now, four 9am starts is a bit ouch...