In pursuit of the Holy Grail (first class honours)

TimeToShine

Polar Ice wrote: »

Your moral compass must be confused too.

Yes, the number of first class honours degrees are limited. No, that don't mean you steal, hide, hurt, etc... in order to get ahead.

I meant moving books around in the library wasn't that bad relative to what is happening in other institutions...I never gave my stance from a moral point of view.

Polar Ice

Moving books is nearly worse. If a book is moved to a different shelf it could take months before it's spotted and returned. At least the redeeming factor (:rolleyes:) of pages being ripped out is the rest of the book is still accessible.

They're different types of malice. In a university the size of UCD, you can bet both happen. I just never thought I'd see see a comment as ignorant as the one a few days ago advising hiding books to give an advantage over other students.

Cody Pomeray

TimeToShine wrote: »

It doesn't even sound that bad. I read somewhere (may have been here) that some colleges only offer a limited number of firsts in law so some of the students actually rip cases out of books in the library to "eliminate the competition" so to speak.

Yes, in fact plenty of examiners operate a bell curve grading system, that isn't limited to the law school.

If you are aiming for a first, you are going to be competing against others aiming for that same grade. If everybody is really excellent, there may still only be a small proportion of firsts.

Jizzear

Is your ego really that precious that you cant handle some1 who is presumably smarter/better at law than you getting a better grade than you?

Anyways in my experience bell curves are mostly a myth. The % of 1sts per faculty isnt constant year on year and in some cases can markedly fluctuate. The only person your competing with is yourself.

As a side note american grad schools often ask your ranking in the class....thats the only scenario i can imagine people being that competitive....id go as far to say that if your not applying to ivy league/one of those slick California schools and ur pulling that crap then your a knobhead

Sprog 4

I've spent a lot of time discussing marking techniques with lecturers as I had to mark a lot of scripts when I was a PhD student. Unlike in school, it's simply not enough to know the curriculum material and regurgitate it on to paper in an exam. You need to show an understanding beyond that in order to get a 1.1. This is achieved by reading research articles and being able to back exam answers up with real world research. Often lecturers will use examples of pieces of research or otherwise in their lectures, it is wise to listen to these as they have been cherry picked by the lecturer as being a prime example of something that supports the material they are teaching. Your lecturer will always be willing to point you towards extra reading material. Speaking from a science perspective here but I would imagine it would translate to any area that has peer reviewed journals.

Cody Pomeray

actually I just remembered OP, I remember in 1st or 2nd year law getting a handout explaining the criteriafor 1sts, 2.1s, 2.2s, etc. It might be worth checking to see if you ever got that; I'm not sure if it was written by the school of law or was just generic guidance though.

Also, I eat puppies everyone. I'm gonna eat all your puppies.

scrummonkey

well folks, just an update...... got my first !!!! to all those who gave such valuable insights regrading my "crusade" I am very thankful. Too those who may be striving for same , I would advise that ,

1. Supplementary reading to your particular course outline is of paramount importance. I ensured I read/understood the nuances and counter viewpoints to the established line of thinking and thus could offer a hopefully original or deep appreciation of the work. Articles, journals, papers etc are crucial. This is time consuming of course but try and read at least three/four articles etc per each different topic in the particular module.
2. Be surgically precise on your mode of answering the exam question. Waffle and padding does you no favours, it merely shows lack of awareness and ability to identify what the examiner requires. Less can be more, by doing this I wrote far less in exams than previously, which allowed for valuable time to reflect and write with decisive direction.
3. View previous exam scripts. The examiner notes on your paper are insightful and you will both see where you may be falling short and also appreciate whether you writing style, grammar, ease of reading etc during exams, needs to be improved.
4. Study prep. Ensure your lecture notes are arranged suitably , accompanied by your supplementary notes, etc, and devise a time scale per each module. Break your study periods into "bite sized" portions and keep a study diary, noting dates, time studied, subjects etc. . This allows you to actually see your progress as you study. This is psychologically important as studying the entire semester modules before exams can seem very daunting from scratch. Study should begin immediately!
5. Assignments must be started at the earliest opportunity. Do not procrastinate !!! This is vital so that they do not become a millstone and source of worry when you should be focusing on the upcoming exams. Proof read repeatedly and leave your finished rough draft for a week or so before you return to it with a fresh perspective. You will spot inconsistencies , errors etc, immediately. Wait untill the day before the assignment submission date before actually submit it even if you have completed it weeks ago, as new developments, insights etc may arise in the intervening period. However, do not obsess with it. Do it and put it aside.

I hope this may be of some assistance, it worked for me anyway. I am in no way an academic or particularly brilliant student but was prepared to work hard in a structured fashion. Now, I await the FE1s.........

Trancechick

Scrummonkey what a fantastic achievement. Congratulations!!!

I'm starting year 4 of my degree in September and hoping for a first class honours. One of my first year lecturers has this piece of valuable information in his material on degree classification and in particular achieving a first, students "should ideally aim to achieve this in each of their years of study, as it can be quite difficult to achieve a high result following one or more years of low results! It is not that the previous years results contribute to the final award result (although this is discussed from time to time), it is just something that is hard to do. Like running a race: If you only ever run/train at 100m, then on the day of the 1000m you are unlikely to do well. Common sense really". So far so good for me, I plan on pushing myself even harder this coming year in my pursuit of that top podium position .

Wishing you every luck with whatever you chose to do now you have the undergrad in the bag.