Schols Schols Schols, information and venting thread.

FloatingVoter

Jack Gleeson (stars in Game of Thrones apparently) got it last year. Don't know if he was a first or second year at the time though.

http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/game-of-thrones-star-becomes-trinity-scholar-419403-Apr2012/

Rhadamanthus

TemptationWaits wrote: »

Does anyone go for schols in their first year?

I remember this being discussed before, and it was mentioned then that the college statutes seem to imply that only second years and above can be elected scholars ("rising Junior Freshmen" in Section 10 is seems like it could only refer to people currently in first year who have not yet sat annual exams).

Given that the papers, as far as I know, test both first and second year material it also seems relatively unlikely on a practical level that you could possibly cover the material in enough detail in the three or so months of study you'll have been exposed to before then.

NeuroCat

Rhadamanthus wrote: »

I remember this being discussed before, and it was mentioned then that the college statutes seem to imply that only second years and above can be elected scholars ("rising Junior Freshmen" in Section 10 is seems like it could only refer to people currently in first year who have not yet sat annual exams).

Given that the papers, as far as I know, test both first and second year material it also seems relatively unlikely on a practical level that you could possibly cover the material in enough detail in the three or so months of study you'll have been exposed to before then.

First years can be elected scholars for definite. John Lighton Synge, the Irish mathematician was elected a foundation scholar while he was in first year. It's unusual, but it does happen.

Tears in Rain

NeuroCat wrote: »

First years can be elected scholars for definite. John Lighton Synge, the Irish mathematician was elected a foundation scholar while he was in first year. It's unusual, but it does happen.

So did Professor Simms (Maths) afaik...

The bottom line is unless you're some sort of prodigy you should leave schols til 2nd/3rd year, you'll only make your life hell trying to learn all your 1st And 2nd year material to a super high standard in 3 months. Those 3 months of 1st year are for settling into college and making friends, not banging your head against a desk

Rhadamanthus

Rhadamanthus wrote: »

I remember this being discussed before, and it was mentioned then that the college statutes seem to imply that only second years and above can be elected scholars ("rising Junior Freshmen" in Section 10 is seems like it could only refer to people currently in first year who have not yet sat annual exams).

Given that the papers, as far as I know, test both first and second year material it also seems relatively unlikely on a practical level that you could possibly cover the material in enough detail in the three or so months of study you'll have been exposed to before then.

Looked into this back in the day, going on memory 'rising Junior Freshman' refers to JFs who have been accepted to college but haven't started yet.

Michael Collins

If you sit and obtain Schols in first year, does that mean your first year fees would be paid for (say you don't qualify for full fees)? Whereas sitting it in second year I guess would mean that your fees would only be paid for from then on?

Scrappychimow

Michael Collins wrote: »

If you sit and obtain Schols in first year, does that mean your first year fees would be paid for (say you don't qualify for full fees)? Whereas sitting it in second year I guess would mean that your fees would only be paid for from then on?

No.

EuropeanSon

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Jack Gleeson (stars in Game of Thrones apparently) got it last year. Don't know if he was a first or second year at the time though.

http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/game-of-thrones-star-becomes-trinity-scholar-419403-Apr2012/

He was a second year.

Nobody is going to be getting it in first year, it's only theoretically possible. As somebody said, Prof. Simms did get it in first year, but that was 60 years ago, under a different system with (as he put it himself) less competition, and Simms is/was a genius.

NeuroCat

EuropeanSon wrote: »

He was a second year.

Nobody is going to be getting it in first year, it's only theoretically possible. As somebody said, Prof. Simms did get it in first year, but that was 60 years ago, under a different system with (as he put it himself) less competition, and Simms is/was a genius.

Don't they often say that competition doesn't matter?, If everyone in the class knew the material to the required standard they would grant them all schols in theory.

EuropeanSon

NeuroCat wrote: »

Don't they often say that competition doesn't matter?, If everyone in the class knew the material to the required standard they would grant them all schols in theory.

Yes, that is often said. However, what the required standard is can change over time. In Simms' day (1952), the exam structure was almost certainly different, as was the material examined etc. There were far fewer people in college, and though there were fewer scholars too, the proportion was higher.

ApeXaviour

NeuroCat wrote: »

Don't they often say that competition doesn't matter?, If everyone in the class knew the material to the required standard they would grant them all schols in theory.

This is true... and is why generally a much larger ratio of people in medicine and theoretical physics tend to get it.

I'm sure however (before the results were published) they might have a little review of the results/papers/marking if one year an anomalous number of people in one subject got it. No conspiracy or anything, just a check to see if everything was fair and the scripts/marking were up to standard. In general though if you get a first, you get it.

In my experience though (a few years ago now) the marking tends to be a good bit less lenient for schols, than say for resit exams in the summer. It's human nature. Also it would be a bit embarrassing for a lecturer if most people in his/her class got significantly different marks than in other classes (higher or lower). Also I've heard some of them say that "it's supposed to be a hard exam", so that mindset is there when they set the questions and mark the answers.

Michael Collins

Scrappychimow wrote: »

No.

Cheers. It is just from second year on then? What if you attempt them in 3rd year? There doesn't seem to be any detailed information about this on Trinity's website.

bscm

Michael Collins wrote: »

Cheers. It is just from second year on then? What if you attempt them in 3rd year? There doesn't seem to be any detailed information about this on Trinity's website.

Fees are paid for the subsequent years, I don't know of anyone who has been refunded fees because of schols

Kwekubo

Michael Collins wrote: »

Cheers. It is just from second year on then? What if you attempt them in 3rd year? There doesn't seem to be any detailed information about this on Trinity's website.

The emoluments aren't backdated; the flipside of this is that you would be able to go on to use schols as a postgraduate student for an extra year, if you so choose.

gutenberg

Michael Collins wrote: »

Cheers. It is just from second year on then? What if you attempt them in 3rd year? There doesn't seem to be any detailed information about this on Trinity's website.

Check out this website: http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about.php

If you get it in third year, then you will have four years' worth of postgraduate fees paid. That's enough for a PhD, or even a Master's + PhD if you completed the latter in 3 years. I got schol in my third year, and it was an amazing feeling knowing that I would be sorted for a PhD if I wanted to do one (or at least, my fees would be paid). As it turns out I will actually be going elsewhere for my PhD, but having that 'safety net' was brilliant.

One person I know used her three years' worth of schol after her B.A. (she got it in her second year) to put herself through a second undergraduate in medicine: she 'only' had to pay the fees for her fourth and fifth year. However, whichever year you get it in, the entitlements aren't backdated, so if you get it in third year then you can't reclaim fees or accommodation or anything for the first two years.

zam

When are the emoluments forms sent out? On Erasmus and wanna make sure I get ma monay.

Hollzy

I'm in second year and I'm going for schols this year. When will we get information about it?

gutenberg

Hollzy wrote: »

I'm in second year and I'm going for schols this year. When will we get information about it?

Check out the website link I posted above. The Scholars' committee usually holds an information session at some point, from vague memory I think it's around November time? It's usually advertised in the SU mail and on posters around the place.

Otherwise, your best bet is to contact the lecturers of the courses which you will be sitting exams in and ask for their advice; check out past papers as well. Maybe get in touch with previous scholars from your course to ask for advice? They can be useful sources of tips. Which course are you in?

Hollzy

Thanks! I'm in Science.

Lawliet

Hollzy wrote: »

Thanks! I'm in Science.

Last year chemistry students got a talk about schols during one of the lectures. Most of the lecturers earmarked schols topics and recommend additional reading as they went along, and some organised schols tutorials as well. Don't worry you'll be sick of hearing about it soon enough

Hollzy

I don't do Chemistry. I presume they'll mention it in Biology as well?

Lawliet

Hollzy wrote: »

I don't do Chemistry. I presume they'll mention it in Biology as well?

Yeah I meant the talk was for chemistry student, but that lectures from all subjects talked about schols

hatethisfeeling

Im thinking of trying to get schols, the exams for my course are in january and i'd only be starting to study now, am I doomed? One of my lecturers said I should have started in the summer, Im so at a loss as to whether to give it a go or not, because second year material is already hard enough, and we'd have exams at christmas also..is it too late? I did ok in my first year exams, I knew most of the material well but I have no idea what standard you'd need to know it to for schols.....I cant make up my mind!help?

gutenberg

hatethisfeeling wrote: »

Im thinking of trying to get schols, the exams for my course are in january and i'd only be starting to study now, am I doomed? One of my lecturers said I should have started in the summer, Im so at a loss as to whether to give it a go or not, because second year material is already hard enough, and we'd have exams at christmas also..is it too late? I did ok in my first year exams, I knew most of the material well but I have no idea what standard you'd need to know it to for schols.....I cant make up my mind!help?

Back a few years ago, when the schol exams were in March, a friend of mine was similarly undecided about whether to go for it. He only made up his mind towards the end of January, giving him about 6-7 weeks to study. He not only got it, he did amazingly well to boot.

You won't know unless you try. Personally I don't think it's too late at all, especially if you're willing to work hard, but also work smart. Since you have exams at Christmas, will some of that material be on the schol exams? If it is then you'll have caught two birds with one stone, so to speak. First year material is usually covered in the exam, so you will need to review that and possibly go into more depth with certain topics. When you say you did ok, how do you mean (if you don't mind my asking?). For schols you need to achieve a First, i.e. 70+, that's it. You don't need to be scoring in the 80s or 90s, and it doesn't matter whether you scraped over the 70 mark or passed it with 25 marks to spare, you'll still get schols.

Having said that, my impression is that schol exams are not necessarily harder (at least not in my subject, which is a humanities one), but that the standard expected is higher. That is, for humanities subjects for example, you'll need to read widely and be very critical and incisive, possibly showing some originality in your arguments. Perhaps someone from a more scientific course could comment on the difficulty of schol papers vs end-of-year exams, but for humanities-type subjects the questions tend to be broadly similar, perhaps with more of a wide-ranging nature than the end-of-year exams, but certainly not crazy difficult.

Which course are you on?

hatethisfeeling

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gutenberg

hatethisfeeling wrote: »

human nutrition and dietetics its run between D.I.T and trinity. I got over 70 in all my exams last year but I dunno if D.I.T mark easier?

You won't know unless you try. Get as much information as possible, have a look at the past exam papers, and make up your mind then. But you definitely aren't too late.

NeuroCat

hatethisfeeling wrote: »

Im thinking of trying to get schols, the exams for my course are in january and i'd only be starting to study now, am I doomed? One of my lecturers said I should have started in the summer, Im so at a loss as to whether to give it a go or not, because second year material is already hard enough, and we'd have exams at christmas also..is it too late? I did ok in my first year exams, I knew most of the material well but I have no idea what standard you'd need to know it to for schols.....I cant make up my mind!help?

It's worth attempting schols anyways because you'll find the Summer exams so much easier if you've done a bucket-load of study before Christmas!

I didn't start studying for schols in the summer, I only really got properly into it around November tbh (and I got it!). It's very doable if you start now, if you're willing to sacrifice your Christmas break to study then you should definitely give it a shot!

gutenberg

What do people think of the eleven recommendations regarding the changing of Schol? I agree with double marking and with anonymity, definitely, although I don't think it should be restricted to just second years...

Any opinions?