Analysing Politics-Politics 20050

Bubs101

Is anyone doing this course here? Am trying to start that essay but I'm having alot of trouble so anyone who could nudge me in the right direction would be much appreciated

The_Minister

I do that course, and there are no assignments on blackboard, nor announcments.
Have I missed a really important lecture?

Frank Grimes

Yeah I'm doing that course. Which essay is it? There was an essay due in last week or this week depending on what cycle of tutorials you're in (it's due in for Tutorial 2). There's another one due for tutorial 4, that's an article review type thing.

The_Minister wrote:

I do that course, and there are no assignments on blackboard, nor announcments.

The details of the assignments are in the course outline.

The_Minister

Turns out that I never registered for tutorials in that course:eek:
Thank you boards, or I could have only copped on a fortnight before exams.

Bubs101

Frank Grimes wrote: »

Yeah I'm doing that course. Which essay is it? There was an essay due in last week or this week depending on what cycle of tutorials you're in (it's due in for Tutorial 2). .

It's the tutorial 2 one. Mine's due Friday. Have both of the core books but haven't a dickens where to start

Frank Grimes

Bubs101 wrote: »

It's the tutorial 2 one. Mine's due Friday. Have both of the core books but haven't a dickens where to start

I did the one on good political research being relevant to society. I went through the readings for the first few lectures, that Shively one that's on BB (chapters 1-6) was somewhat useful I think. Other than that, I just gave some opinion and used examples.

That's about as much I can really remember right now, I handed mine in last week so whatever I learned during the course of writing it is currently being pushed out of my brain by the work I'm doing for a sociology essay Good luck!

Bubs101

Thanks. I'll be plowing through those 100 or so pages tommorow.

BTW, a little funny to see two Grimesies on the UCD board

Frank Grimes

Bubs101 wrote: »

Thanks. I'll be plowing through those 100 or so pages tommorow.

No need to read all of it, I don't think most of it is relevant from what I remember. Unless you're doing the other essay - in which case I've no idea.

Bubs101

Bubs101 wrote: »

Thanks. I'll be plowing through those 100 or so pages tommorow.

BTW, a little funny to see two Grimesies on the UCD board

Hey bubs! Look at my name at the end of my username, then think class party, karaoke singing and a certain cousin of mine you went to school with and you have the right person!

What I did for the essay (the first one) was state why it had to be relevent, and the methods a political scientist would use to make a hypothesis relevent (quantitative and qualitative). I read the article that Pye wrote as my core text. Its only 20 odd pages and not as waffly as the others.

Good luck!

simonrooneyzaga

Tutorial on tomorrow to difuse the confusion surrounding the long questions.. should sort out all the problems...

Also, for international relations - what are the topics in Tobias's section of the lectures. The *Well-respected academic* never puts up notes!

The_Minister

I've edited your post, do not insult staff members.

simonrooneyzaga

lol

The_Minister

The UCD authorities, as well as several academics, read these boards.
There was a certain poster who got in trouble over things he said on here.

If you insult staff members it makes trouble for boards, ergo, I ban you. It's like kharma, only in this case, kharma enjoys screwing with you.

simonrooneyzaga

The_Minister wrote: »

The UCD authorities, as well as several academics, read these boards.
There was a certain poster who got in trouble over things he said on here.

If you insult staff members it makes trouble for boards, ergo, I ban you. It's like kharma, only in this case, kharma enjoys screwing with you.

fair enough.. i just enjoyed your edit is all..

Tom65

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

Tutorial on tomorrow to difuse the confusion surrounding the long questions.. should sort out all the problems...

Also, for international relations - what are the topics in Tobias's section of the lectures. The *Well-respected academic* never puts up notes!

Tobias' topics are in the course outline, which is up on blackboard. I like Tobias, he's fairly strict about not putting lecture notes up, but he's a really good lecturer so you tend to learn going to his lectures. The reading for his part of the course is in the SU Copy shop. The layout is a lot like his notes.

As for Analysing Politics, I'm finding as I go through I'm understanding it more (unlike the lectures, which I blame on them being at 9am - they shouldn't put anything that complicated on at 9am...in fact, they shouldn't put anything on at 9), but the problem is in covering everything. The way he's structured the exam means you have to cover every single topic, which is very time consuming.

Frank Grimes

Tom65 wrote: »

As for Analysing Politics, I'm finding as I go through I'm understanding it more

Yeah, I'm the same. I got stuck into it over the weekend and the first 2 sections of the course are a lot clearer now than when I was going to the lectures. Had to put it on hold to get a project finished for tomorrow, I mightn't be so enthusiastic when I have to figure out the statistics bits though!

but the problem is in covering everything. The way he's structured the exam means you have to cover every single topic, which is very time consuming.

Were you at the last lecture? He gave a decent enough 'summary' of the course in that, I've just been using that as a basis for studying. There's way too much in it to cover completely anyway. I might drop into that tutorial thing tomorrow and see if he says anything more, will be handing the project in so I'll be out there around then anyway.

Tom65

Frank Grimes wrote: »

Yeah, I'm the same. I got stuck into it over the weekend and the first 2 sections of the course are a lot clearer now than when I was going to the lectures. Had to put it on hold to get a project finished for tomorrow, I mightn't be so enthusiastic when I have to figure out the statistics bits though!

Were you at the last lecture? He gave a decent enough 'summary' of the course in that, I've just been using that as a basis for studying. There's way too much in it to cover completely anyway. I might drop into that tutorial thing tomorrow and see if he says anything more, will be handing the project in so I'll be out there around then anyway.

Nah, I missed the last lecture. Do you know the gist of what he said?

Yeah, I think I'm okay for the course until all the statistics stuff. I thought I chose Arts so I could avoid maths for the remainder of my life? I asked my tutor about it and his advice was to just ignore the question on regression, that's it'd be too difficult to be worth doing. I'm inclined to agree with him.

simonrooneyzaga

today was very helpful for analysing politics - finally know what we're supposed to do! No real definitions on the exam, you just have to apply the knowledge of them to given situations.

What was he doing booking a small classroom though? Thats one that should have actually been in the lecture hall! Packed out the doors!

The_Minister

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
I completely forgot about this!:mad:
I badly needed to go to this, and I fuppin' forgot.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARrrrrrrrrghhhhhh!

Damn, Damn, Damn.

/deep breath

What did he say exactly?

Bubs101

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

What was he doing booking a small classroom though? Thats one that should have actually been in the lecture hall! Packed out the doors!

The lectures normally have 20 people max, but you wouldn't know that .

Does anyone know where there is a link that explains regression tables well. Looks like it's definitely coming up.

RE The Minister; He gave out two handouts which are worth getting your hands on. If you email him he'd probably give them to you

Frank Grimes

Tom65 wrote: »

Nah, I missed the last lecture. Do you know the gist of what he said?

Forgot to reply to this earlier. The concise version is basically this:
First section: know the role of a theory, what is a hypothesis, conceptualisation, operationalisation, validity, reliability and causality.
Second section: Case selection, triangulation, case selection bias, most similar/most different systems. What are the advantages/disadvantages of methods like content/discourse analysis etc.
Third section: sampling and the methods of sampling, survey design - possible critique something that's given, then stuff on regression tables, cross tables etc.

That's pretty much all I've got in my notes, I think I got everything down. He never said these are exam questions or anything like that, so don't blame me if none of that comes up!

simonrooneyzaga wrote:

What was he doing booking a small classroom though? Thats one that should have actually been in the lecture hall! Packed out the doors!

Considering the amount that turned up to lectures he probably thought there was only 20 people doing the module
Did he go over what he said in the last lecture again? Wasn't able to make it in the end.

Frank Grimes

Bubs101 wrote: »

RE The Minister; He gave out two handouts which are worth getting your hands on. If you email him he'd probably give them to you

Is it that sample exam thing he has up on blackboard?

simonrooneyzaga

Frank Grimes wrote: »

Is it that sample exam thing he has up on blackboard?

as of today there was a new thing with key concepts and general comments about the exam on blackboard - this was one of the handouts he gave out today... The other is 'Discussion questions' - kinda half questions similar to what will be on the exam - worth hounding him to put it up on blackboard.

The feeling i get with the exam is that practice will make perfect - Perfecting the way of answering them is important, as it isn't the same as any other essay based politics exams we have done. - the only problem is, there really isnt that many questions to answer! It is a very practical exam, and i think this is what was confusing so many people. (myself included)

Frank Grimes

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

as of today there was a new thing with key concepts and general comments about the exam on blackboard - this was one of the handouts he gave out today... The other is 'Discussion questions' - kinda half questions similar to what will be on the exam - worth hounding him to put it up on blackboard.

Just noticed that a few minutes ago on blackboard, will drop him a mail about the other one - thanks.

neilled

I'll admit to being one of the ones who missed lectures for this course, but going back over the notes tonight I've found that literally all they are is just words, they mean absolutely nothing to me. Maths, statistics, interpreting data just have me completely lost. From day one I haven't had a clue as to what the lecturer was on about and I didn't get what the previous chap was on about last year either.

I've gotten my act together a bit better this year, reckon i done ok in international relations, have got at least two B grades in history so far with hope for a third (not that they count being repeats and all) and should be ok for governance next week. Things still aren't perfect though, so I'll be leaving the laptop at home for next year if i get back in, waste way too much time in the evening gaming and downloading. Being made redundant in september and living in three different houses this semester hasn't helped either though.

I can't find the info on the politics site but my understanding is that this module is a core part of the course and quite frankly I'm worried they're going to throw my sorry ass out of UCD if i don't pass this, which being frank I'm not. Its debatable as to whether its worth the effort going to the RDS to put my name on the paper.

I guess failing to understand things from day one led to me becoming disillusioned with the course, missing lectures and tutorials - should have went to Jos and asked for help earlier but its far too late for that now.

Any suggestions as to what to do? Or what my next steps should be?

Anyway time to stop feeling sorry and have one last throw of the dice before tomorrow.

Cannibal Ox

neilled wrote:

quite frankly I'm worried they're going to throw my sorry ass out of UCD if i don't pass this, which being frank I'm not. Its debatable as to whether its worth the effort going to the RDS to put my name on the paper.

I did this last year, and I was in a pretty simillar position. What I did was write out a list of all the words and stuck in the definitions for each of them, and then got my head around them. Then I just focused on doing questions, and I think I just about scrapped it in the end. You've got my sympathy anyway, its a b*tch of a module if your not into political science.

simonrooneyzaga

exam in 2 and a half hours....

does anybody have a gun?

im resigned to failing at this stage!!

simonrooneyzaga

****... i thought this exam was at 1500, not 1200. Im such a bloody idiot!

thank god it wasnt one of my better subjects!

neilled

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

exam in 2 and a half hours....

does anybody have a gun?

im resigned to failing at this stage!!

I didn't go to it. I'm cracking on with other work at the moment which is going a bit better.

simonrooneyzaga

yeh well i just missed it because im a complete idiot! Ill see you in the repeat exam in December :-)!

Frank Grimes

It actually turned out ok in the end, wasn't the total disaster I'd feared it would be.