BESS Thread

dog_pig

I've just transferred into JF BESS but I haven't been able to figure out where exactly the lectures are on apart from the sociology and organisation management ones.

Anyone here able to tell me where the economics, maths and politics lectures are?

andrew

They're probably all on in the Ed Burke, they were last year anyway ie. the same lecture theater as the sociology and org and management ones.

Torque

Yeah pretty much all our lectures are in ed burke apart from law and possibly a language if you do one. im not sure about the languages thhough

dog_pig

andrew wrote: »

They're probably all on in the Ed Burke, they were last year anyway ie. the same lecture theater as the sociology and org and management ones.

Thanks!

Another question: we have 3 tests for reading week: economics, economic policy and maths. When do we do economic policy? I've only started this week so am I not going to some lectures that I'm supposed to be or what?

andrew

dog_pig wrote: »

Thanks!

Another question: we have 3 tests for reading week: economics, economic policy and maths. When do we do economic policy? I've only started this week so am I not going to some lectures that I'm supposed to be or what?

To be honest I didn't even know that you could do economic policy in BESS. But if you're doing it, you have lectures in it. Everything should be on your timetable here: http://isservices.tcd.ie/portal/

RuehlTheWorld

You should probably check that out, I don't think you do Economics AND Economic Policy. . . ?

baden

I've missed a few tutorials so far this year. Will I get in trouble or are they relaxed about it all??

House of Wolves

That depends really and whether they are taking attendance and stuff. I remember the business org classes in first year were important and I think maths and stats hw counted towards a percentage. Thats probably different now though. If you can make the classes you should, they are usually helpful, unless its sociology, its debatable then!

Ugh exams tomorrow, I hate the new schedule! My week to catch up is now just focused on a few particular subjects, while others are brushed under the carpet till I find another time to catch up!

andrew

Damn O'Toole and his fucking 'show' slides.

quirkster

Fcuk this. The repeats taught me nothing. Ive just started studying for OB....its tomorrow.WTF!!
On a side note, anyone know how I can change the address my exam results are posted to? Up to now its been to my home address so mammy and daddy always know how I did. They dont know I have exams this week so if I fail Id like to keep it on the hush hush. So Id like them to be posted to my address in Dublin.

Where do I go to change this?

The Walsho

I doubt these results will be posted out will they?

And yeah, this OB is bullshít. I know very, very little.

dan719

Why did I do European Economy? I hate the EU. A lot. And I've obviously learnt nothing from second year. It's five o'clock, two exams tomorrow!:o No study done, no notes, and time to go buy coffee and cigarettes, and bed down for the night. FML.

Awayindahils

dan719 wrote: »

Why did I do European Economy? I hate the EU. A lot. And I've obviously learnt nothing from second year. It's five o'clock, two exams tomorrow!:o No study done, no notes, and time to go buy coffee and cigarettes, and bed down for the night. FML.

I went to 5 lectures for all of European Economy and got a 65. It is absolute piss.

Seriously, read the book, puke the book back onto an exam page.

Aldito

quirkster wrote: »

Fcuk this. The repeats taught me nothing. Ive just started studying for OB....its tomorrow.WTF!!

Haha same, and I while I should have been in Economics today, I was sleeping like a baby at home...

dan719

Awayindahils wrote: »

I went to 5 lectures for all of European Economy and got a 65. It is absolute piss.

Seriously, read the book, puke the book back onto an exam page.

Oh yeah, eh about that whole eh book thing. Oh well. Also five lectues? Nerd.

quirkster

The Walsho wrote: »

I doubt these results will be posted out will they?

And yeah, this OB is bullshít. I know very, very little.

I pissed alllll over it today. Left at 10:03. I know, too cool. Close to a first Id say...anyone else find OB pretty much common sense if youd ready any of the theories and had the gist of them?

d93c2inhxfok4y

Hey, I'm about to finish up SF BESS, and I was wondering if anyone in 3rd year could give me any sort of info on the following modules:

- Marketing Management
- Organisation Theory and Change
- Operations Management: Theory and Practice
- Human Resource Management

- Government and Politics of the USA (I've heard a few negative reviews...)
- Democracy and Development.

I've looked at the descriptions on the Business/Political Science department web pages, which are admittedly pretty helpful, but nothing really beats someone saying 'avoid this like the plague, the lecturer is dreadful, and the content is really boring', or 'really enjoyed it, it's everything the course outline makes it out to be'. etc etc.
I know from experience - comparative politics for SF sounded like a very interesting course, but it really was very, very dull.

I've got to choose two more business modules (already set on Financial and Mgmt Account), and one more politics module (set on Irish Politics and EU Politics). Of the modules above, none are really big standouts as being wholly necessary for the modules I want to take in fourth year and finish my degree with... so I'd like to do ones that were useful, interesting and worthwhile.

Would really appreciate any feedback on any of the above modules, thanks for your help!

gutenberg

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT do American politics!!

The course is dreadful, and by the end you won't have learned much more than you would have by just watching a few episodes of the West Wing. Topics are covered extremely superficially, both essays we had to do were terrible (one inappropriate for an academic course, the other extremely dry & technical), and to top it off the course lecturer is AWFUL! He came to class every week & regurgitated the textbook: the book actually came with slides for lecturers to use, so he really did just reel off the textbook every week, no real analysis or engagement with students.

Perhaps with a different lecturer it would have been better, but this course has seriously put me off political science in general!

Democracy & development seems to have improved a lot, I've heard very positive reviews of it this year after a seemingly dismal year last year; lots of scope to choose your own essay topics & some interesting lectures on African politics.

Hope this helps!

d93c2inhxfok4y

gutenberg wrote: »

Really helpful post

Thanks a million for that, it's kind of a carbon copy of what I've heard about US Politics off everyone I've asked so far - it was a toss up between that and Democracy and Development, so I reckon I'm going to go for D&D now. Too much negative feedback for USA Politics. Thanks again

Anyone for those business modules?

andrew

I'm going into JS too, does Anyone have any info on:

Money and Banking
The European Economy
Economics of Less Developed Countries
Investment Analysis
Economics of Policy Issues
Econometrics
International Relations

Thanks.

d93c2inhxfok4y

andrew wrote: »

I'm going into JS too, does Anyone have any info on:

Money and Banking
The European Economy
Economics of Less Developed Countries
Investment Analysis
Economics of Policy Issues
Econometrics
International Relations

Thanks.

I don't think there's any 3rd year I.R module, do you mean the 4th year one? Also, pfffft economics.

andrew

Eva Petite Rank wrote: »

I don't think there's any 3rd year I.R module, do you mean the 4th year one? Also, pfffft economics.

**** i thought there was. Pfffft, Business. What kinda job would you get with that

manicmonoliths

andrew wrote: »

I'm going into JS too, does Anyone have any info on:

Money and Banking
The European Economy
Economics of Less Developed Countries
Investment Analysis
Economics of Policy Issues
Econometrics
International Relations

Thanks.

Did a few of these this year so should be able to help.

Money and Banking- Pretty poor overall, interesting enough content but the lecturers in both terms pretty much ruin it. There are roughly 8 group tutorial presentations throughout the year and collectively they're worth 10% so each comes down being worth something close to 1.25% so no one really cares about them. Lectures in both modules were very boring, in the first term this was ok because the lecturer Catia Batista was just reading off the slides anyway but in the second term the guy occassionally went off on tangents not even mentioned in the slides or book which then featured heavily in the mid-term, though he has said the final exam wont be like this and I don't think this guy is doing the course next year. Given the choice again I wouldn't pick this module, it is handy enough (except for really annoying presentations), but horribly dull.

European Economy- First term is John O'Hagan so it's very similar to Economy of Ireland, material is really interesting, there's a handy term test and an essay due just after Xmas. The second term isn't so good, the material switches to the monetary side of the EU, so starts off with trade theory then goes into optimal currency areas and the history of EMU, to be honest I couldn't go to the lectures because the stuff was horrendously boring, the term test was handy enough though and overall it is a pretty easy course.

Investment Analysis- I picked this having never done anything related to finance or investments, personally I didn't really like it having found out I've no interest in finance, but it is a pretty good course, the two projects are handy enough and the material is all covered on the slides or in the book.

Econometrics-This course is a lot of work, you've to hand in 8 homework assignments over the course of the year and collectively they're worth 20%, there's also an original research topic which includes an initial presentation on your topic idea worth 5% then the project itself worth 15%. This isn't a course you can skip the lectures in, the material is covered mostly on the projector and the slides aren't much use, the textbooks are useful but can differ highly from the material the lecturers actually want you to cover in certain places, you really have to attend pretty much everything. There are weekly lab sessions that are there to teach how to use the statistical software package used in the project, to be honest the labs aren't that great and you learn more about the software actually doing the project then going to the labs, but they are needed for the basics at the very least. The project itself is a lot of work and will pretty much consume your life for 2 weeks, but it gives you a good understanding of the subject and this combined with the homeworks makes you keep up with the work. This is a pretty tough course but the continuous assessment is designed in such a way to make sure you keep up. This was probably my favourite course this year and in my opinion it was the best run course (continous assesment, labs, lectures-wise) I've taken in 3 years of college. If you can stick with it, it's a huge asset to an economics degree as it's pretty much essential to any post-grad stuff.

House of Wolves

Hey I'm in JS

I'd recommand Operations as there is good project work in it and the lecturer is great (good project work in comparison to others)

Marketing - I heard good things but didn't do it. There is a huge project involved.

OTC - If you enjoy OD then maybe. David is a good lecture but Gemma was dreadful in my opinion. The paper this year was pretty fair so my opinion is slightly changed.

HRM - the first half of the year was pretty bad, with a presentation. The second half Mary Keating done, which changed my view on HRM and made me respect it more. The exam paper is particularly easy to predict (Nkomo Framework and Key personal issue) but there is a project involved which again was slightly frustrating at times, but depending on your group could be engaging.

Applied Finance - project is difficult but rewards effort. This is probably the hardness subject I did this year (pretty bad at economics before this)

IS / IT - recommend this subject as has a good projects and the exam paper seems fair (there is two separate exams for it though, but this is working out well for me at the minute) its not using computers though!

House of Wolves

Think I'm a week late!

Time Magazine

manicmonoliths wrote: »

Econometrics-This course is a lot of work, you've to hand in 8 homework assignments over the course of the year and collectively they're worth 20%, there's also an original research topic which includes an initial presentation on your topic idea worth 5% then the project itself worth 15%. This isn't a course you can skip the lectures in, the material is covered mostly on the projector and the slides aren't much use, the textbooks are useful but can differ highly from the material the lecturers actually want you to cover in certain places, you really have to attend pretty much everything. There are weekly lab sessions that are there to teach how to use the statistical software package used in the project, to be honest the labs aren't that great and you learn more about the software actually doing the project then going to the labs, but they are needed for the basics at the very least. The project itself is a lot of work and will pretty much consume your life for 2 weeks, but it gives you a good understanding of the subject and this combined with the homeworks makes you keep up with the work. This is a pretty tough course but the continuous assessment is designed in such a way to make sure you keep up. This was probably my favourite course this year and in my opinion it was the best run course (continous assesment, labs, lectures-wise) I've taken in 3 years of college. If you can stick with it, it's a huge asset to an economics degree as it's pretty much essential to any post-grad stuff.

Glad to hear Econometrics is being well-taught. Once you get over the initial hurdle (which takes forever, granted) econometrics is a bloody fascinating subject. It is by no means an easy course, but I strongly recommend it.

stainluss

1. Would finishing with a BA in Economics or a BBS serve you better in getting you into that all important first interview in an Investment Bank?

Im guessing the single honour in Economics but not 100%?

2. Is it as depressing and boring as LC Economics?

T-b0n3

Any one doing Financial and Management Accounting (BU35301) exam tomorrow morning? I'm looking for solutions to q1 2009 or any other years please? (I have solution to 2006)

I'm really struggling and would highly appreciate it. Thanks.

Richieee

Starting BESS in September. Is it at all necessary to have a laptop with me or will the computer at home suffice?

daithiolabhrai

Richieee wrote: »

Starting BESS in September. Is it at all necessary to have a laptop with me or will the computer at home suffice?

Computer at home will suffice. Some people come in with these state-of-the-art flash laptops every day, and just end up playing games or staring at the facebook homepage. Just a distraction really, I got through the whole year without ever bringing in my laptop.