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Computer Science
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No the reason so many people failed (or would have failed had it not been graded on a curve) was because we had not been exposed to any maths prior to that class. The most mathematical stuff I had learned before Foundations was in Henry's problem solving class in first year. To make a leap from that to the kind of maths that Joe was teaching is ridiculous.Joe was a great lecturer and Foundations was by far the best module of my degree so far. His teaching style wasn't the "Here's the lecture slides, learn them off and you will be grand" approach that most have in the department, he instead laid out the basic concepts in the class and then directed you to the relevant chapters of the course book to learn the more detailed parts needed for the assignments. Not only does this force you learn the material if you want to stand a chance in passing the module but it also eliminates spoon feeding and lets you take responsibility for your own education.
The reason that so many people failed is that up until then they were allowed to get by with not knowing how to program. I can confirm from seeing it first hand that this is an issue. Joe's class was definitely difficult but not impossible assuming you put in the work. There were plenty of extra labs added for people to ask questions and Joe was in every lab himself to help people. Instead of putting in the effort needed the class complained at every step of the way to the department.
Both Foundations of Computing and Compiler Construction take the teaching approach were students must do research themselves and work to find the answers to assignments. They have forced the year to work hard in order to get a decent grade instead of braindumping a lot of theory that they then forget after the final exam.
If more of the modules in the degree employed this approach, there would definitely be less wasters coming away with Computer Science degrees and the view of Ireland's Computer Science graduates wouldn't be so negative.
If you're gonna teach that kind of stuff then the course should have a higher maths requirement. I got a D- in (albeit higher) maths in the Leaving Cert! I'm sh*te at maths!
Or I think it would make more sense if there was a pure maths module in each stage of the course, so that students move progressively onto the Foundations material. This is easy for me to say because I don't have to do it again
Sorry, future students! 0 -
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Foundations wasn't really maths it just used maths. I don't think you can blame maths as the reason so many were on course to fail it.No the reason so many people failed (or would have failed had it not been graded on a curve) was because we had not been exposed to any maths prior to that class. The most mathematical stuff I had learned before Foundations was in Henry's problem solving class in first year. To make a leap from that to the kind of maths that Joe was teaching is ridiculous.
If you're gonna teach that kind of stuff then the course should have a higher maths requirement. I got a D- in (albeit higher) maths in the Leaving Cert! I'm sh*te at maths!
Or I think it would make more sense if there was a pure maths module in each stage of the course, so that students move progressively onto the Foundations material. This is easy for me to say because I don't have to do it again Sorry, future students!
In the BSc people had maths modules in 1st and 2nd year and that didn't seem to help a lot of them.
I do agree that there should be a maths requirement for computer science but the problem would be (from UCD's point of view) that if you set it too high you're eliminating a lot of the low points people that are doing it i.e. the money.
The BA has been scrapped now and rightly so as it was crazy to try and combine two so completely diverse areas into one degree.0 -
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Yeah six it is. Sadly have to repeat group theory next yearAPS and PC aren't really considered Maths modules, if you were doing the BSc you would have done 6 maths modules now that I think about, including Matrices and Vector's, Linear Models in the Sciences, Differential Calculus and a few others.
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No the reason so many people failed (or would have failed had it not been graded on a curve) was because we had not been exposed to any maths prior to that class. The most mathematical stuff I had learned before Foundations was in Henry's problem solving class in first year. To make a leap from that to the kind of maths that Joe was teaching is ridiculous.
If you're gonna teach that kind of stuff then the course should have a higher maths requirement. I got a D- in (albeit higher) maths in the Leaving Cert! I'm sh*te at maths!
Or I think it would make more sense if there was a pure maths module in each stage of the course, so that students move progressively onto the Foundations material. This is easy for me to say because I don't have to do it again Sorry, future students!
The kind of stuff Joe was teaching? You mean set theory that you did in 5th class and inductive proofs that have been taught in all of Henry's modules and Formal Foundations? I am doing a BA in Computer Science, I didn't do any of the maths modules that the BSc guys do and I did ordinary maths for my Leaving Cert. Joe's course was difficult and a bit of a shock at first but he said in the first lecture you will have to bone up on these topics to pass the course. There were plenty of extra tutorials, online resources to read and the course book to help you.
If the degree wasn't so badly organised to the extent that people who do nothing can find themselves in third year without the skills needed, then there wouldn't be that many people failing. Computer Science is a difficult subject to get a degree in. It shouldn't be possible to coast through it, fail X subjects a year, repeat until you pass it and then come away with a Level 8 degree with nothing to contribute to the industry.
I appreciate that people have different standards of maths what with the awful way it is taught at schools but to blame specific lecturers especially those that are actually trying to get the best work out of you possible is not right.0 -
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