ARTS at UCD

imarugbyball

kev_s88 wrote: »

okay ive decided to do Arts next year and am just wondering if anyone has any experience in my hopeful subject choices


im looking to do Music, Psychology and German.any advice on these choices???

1) Music - Great and pretty easy but it isnt playing guitar or anything, if you like the composition part of the paper for the LC id go for it, if you arent doing it for the lc id do something else.

2) Psychology - (im doing pure psych) you only might get in for 1st year, and its the easiest of the arts subjects, our lectures are like being back in primary school on a diffuculty scale and MCQtests just take the piss. You will not progress to 2nd or 3rd year with this tho.

3) I heard languages are hard so i wouldnt bother, youll want to be doing as little as possible in college imho. Plus you dont get good at speaking them really, its literature and stuff so if you liek that part of the leaving cert again do it.

Pride Fighter

imarugbyball wrote: »

1) Music - Great and pretty easy but it isnt playing guitar or anything, if you like the composition part of the paper for the LC id go for it, if you arent doing it for the lc id do something else.

2) Psychology - (im doing pure psych) you only might get in for 1st year, and its the easiest of the arts subjects, our lectures are like being back in primary school on a diffuculty scale and MCQtests just take the piss. You will not progress to 2nd or 3rd year with this tho.

3) I heard languages are hard so i wouldnt bother, youll want to be doing as little as possible in college imho. Plus you dont get good at speaking them really, its literature and stuff so if you liek that part of the leaving cert again do it.

When you get turfed to a German Uni for third year you will become fluent though. Doing a language in UCD will make you fluent in it upon leaving the college.

sir snackbox

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

arts in its essence is very easy to blag... most modules have between 8-12 questions on the end of semester exams and you have to complete two... so you can cut out 75% of the course in some subjects! Throw in a couple of essays here and there and your flyin!

haha.... yeah sure!!!


hands up if you think simonrooneyzaga didnt do arts... or 'orts'...

*raises hand*

haha:p

Bubs101

In fairness you could easily do well in Arts if you only attended the first 6 weeks of lectures, excluding the joke week, and all the attendance graded tutorials. The essay is nearly always on something covered early on as is the tutorial excersise and these are common place in most Arts courses and then the test will no doubt have 2 questions (if it's essay based) on the first 6 weeks. It's a very blagabble course but nobody studies for it so it always seems impossible in those last 2 weeks

Cannibal Ox

Bubs101 wrote:

In fairness you could easily do well in Arts if you only attended the first 6 weeks of lectures, excluding the joke week, and all the attendance graded tutorials. The essay is nearly always on something covered early on as is the tutorial excersise and these are common place in most Arts courses and then the test will no doubt have 2 questions (if it's essay based) on the first 6 weeks. It's a very blagabble course but nobody studies for it so it always seems impossible in those last 2 weeks

I would have agreed with you last year, but this year almost all my courses have pretty consistent continuous assessment throughout the semesters. It makes you come in and work throughout most of the semester, or you fail before you've even gotten to the exam. I suppose you could still blag your way through it, but if you blag your way through arts, you'd probably try to blag your way through psychology, or commerce or law anyway.

McGinty

Does the English course in Arts include any creative writing? Is there any way to specialise in that specific area?

I got an A2 in the Leaving so I wouldn't be too worried about passing the subject, but I prefer writing creative pieces by far. Analysing literature was always a bit boring for me.

Yes it does since since 2007/2008 term, creative writing courses are offered in second and third year. In terms of analysing literature that can be a reasonably creative process in itself and if you are interested in writing itself, being exposed to a wide range of literature and learning various techniques, etc will help your writing.

Could anyone give me some information on Film Studies and Archaeology?

I'd like to do these two subjects as part of my omnibus, but I haven't been able to speak to anyone with personal experience of them.

I did film studies in first year and it was brilliant, unfornately at the time it was not a core course but an elective, however film studies has amalagmated with the english department so it may be different now. The two lecturers who did it in first year were brilliant, they really know their stuff, we covered a huge range of movies from the classical hollywood narrative, to art house (or non classical films) Italian films (I think they were called the neo realists), world cinema, irish cinema, etc. I would highly recommend it and it ties in well with english and art history. As for archeology sorry I don't know anything about it, but it is one of those subjects that people either love or hate.

To the Op, I would agree with most people here, do it if you like it, I personally think the attitude of blagging your way through college is a waste of time and space, why bother going in the first place? My experience of arts has been one where you have to work hard, for instance (I do pure english) I had to write three 4000 essays and two 2500 in the space of a month, now I had done some prep work but mainly they were all written in that time period.

Key-Connors

thanks for the info on film studies mcginty.
is english tough or is it just long because im thinking of doing it but dont want to struggle through it ending up wit a terrible grade.so what im asking is english in arts within the grasp of someone who got a c2 in the lc?

McGinty

is english tough or is it just long because im thinking of doing it but dont want to struggle through it ending up wit a terrible grade.so what im asking is english in arts within the grasp of someone who got a c2 in the lc?

I don't know about it being in the grasp of someone who got a c2 in the lc, as I didn't do the leaving cert, I went in as a mature student, I did do an access course for a year before returning to college but for someone who was considered uneducated in a formal sense I am doing pretty damn good in english. What I would ask is do you love reading? can you read quickly? when you read a novel do you just passively read it or do you get an idea that the author is trying to say something on a deeper level through the story. Do you have a love of various types of literature? I ask, because this is relevant, not your leaving cert grades. Oh are you reasonably good at essays? You do not need to be brilliant in first year, I know I wasn't and to be honest what you learn in the lc is not relevant for third level study in English, a fellow student told me that, she said she was so stressed out about the leaving cert when it didn't really matter for college.

In english you will get a number of books to read, so if you take it as a major subject you have to do between two and three english modules per semester, on average we read a book a week per module, so that is two or three texts per week. You will be required to do secondary reading so if you decide to do english get yourself an idiot's guide to literary theory (just something very basic because lecturers and secondary sources will fire out these literary theories and you will be going 'what on earth is this?'). Literary theory is how a student of literature reads a text, so for instance a feminist reading of a text, or biographical, historical, gender, marxist and so on. In 1st year you will do children's literature so will include books like Harry Potter/Alice in Wonderland, literary genre that will discuss more modern novels/short stories/poetry and literary theory, some irish literature and middle english and whilst it seems an obscure language, over the course of three years doing it in english you will get your head around it, and may even grow to love it (I developed a huge love for it, alternatively you may grow sick of it too) and be able to read it as fast as normal english (well almost). You will be reading various texts over the ages from middle english right up to 20th century lit so be prepared to move through the centuries, if you love english and apply for mode 1 in 2nd year (they do offer pure english places in 1st year depending on points but if that doesn't work they offer a few places in 2nd year) in the mode 1 english you will learn old english, and loads of lovely obscure and fantastic english subjects and often quite specialised. Most of the lecturers are fantastic and passionate about their subject and as departments go the english department is pretty damn good. On the essay writing side there is a lot of written work but you get a lot of help, tips and ideas through the tutorials so don't let it worry you and beleive me you will get really good as time passes by. If you do have a love of english then go for it, mix it with other subjects in first year to see how it goes, you can always change your mind in 2nd year. Also your grades in first year don't go towards your degree but personally I wanted to do well for me not the grade system. I hope that helps but feel free to ask more questions.

fillefatale

McGinty wrote: »

I did film studies in first year and it was brilliant, unfornately at the time it was not a core course but an elective, however film studies has amalagmated with the english department so it may be different now. The two lecturers who did it in first year were brilliant, they really know their stuff, we covered a huge range of movies from the classical hollywood narrative, to art house (or non classical films) Italian films (I think they were called the neo realists), world cinema, irish cinema, etc. I would highly recommend it and it ties in well with english and art history. As for archeology sorry I don't know anything about it, but it is one of those subjects that people either love or hate.

I don't think you can do art history and film studies together, I wanted to, but all the film studies modules clashed with art history.

Rosita

Key-Connors wrote: »

thanks for the info on film studies mcginty.
is english tough or is it just long because im thinking of doing it but dont want to struggle through it ending up wit a terrible grade.so what im asking is english in arts within the grasp of someone who got a c2 in the lc?

As someone who studied English I'll give you the boring but honest answer to this (and it probably holds for every other subject too).

Your performance in an English degree depends on how hard you are prepared to work. If you put it in consistently you will have few problems. A good natural ability to express yourself well in writing is certainly an advantage but knowledge of the texts you study is the ultimate measure of how you will do.

I'm not sure how much of a guide the Leaving Cert is to be honest as it is such a different and much less analytical exam where cramming and feats of memory are rewarded. Degree English requires (ideally) broad reading and an open mind to literature. Some people blossom academically during their degree if they are working consistently.